Railroad Commission Hearings Examiner recommends Dos Republicas Coal Partnership coal mine application be approved
By: Jose G. Landa©
Railroad Commission of Texas Hearings Examiner Marcy J. Spraggins filed on Thursday, November 15, 2012, her Proposal for Decision and Recommended Final Order on Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s application to renew, revise, and expand Permit 42-A, Eagle Pass Mine, recommending to the three Railroad Commissioners that the application be approved subject to the Railroad Commission’s acceptance of the required bond of Dos Republicas Coal Partnership despite ‘vehement opposition’ by the citizens of Eagle Pass and Maverick County, Texas.
Hearings Examiner Spraggins stated that ‘the objections and evidence presented by the Protestants can be summed up as in some cases non-jurisdictional, non-specific, or hypothetical conjecture, but none is supported by a preponderance of the evidence admitted into the record.’
Spraggins’ Proposal for Decision is not a final ruling yet by the Railroad Commission of Texas as it is only a recommendation which has to be either approved or disapproved at one of its regular meetings after all the parties have had time to file their exceptions and/or objections to Spraggins’ Proposal for Decision and any responses to any of the parties’ exceptions/objections.
The deadline for any party to file its exceptions/objections to Spraggins’ proposal for decision is Friday, November 30, 2012. Responses to exceptions must be filed by Monday, December 10. 2012. Case summaries by any of the parties are due to be filed on November 30th.
Spraggins’ proposal for decision also recommends that the subsidiary of North American Coal Corporation specifically incorporated in the state of Nevada for this project, Camino Real Fuels, LLC, be approved as the operator of the Eagle Pass Mine owned by Dos Republicas Coal Partnership.
Dos Republicas Coal Partnership is a Texas general partnership between Eagle Pass Coal Corporation and Maverick County Coal Corporation, both Texas corporations owned by a Mexican corporation by the name of Minera del Norte, S.A. de C.V.(MINOSA) which in turn is a subsidiary of Mexican giant steel and energy companies, Altos Hornos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. and Grupo Acerero del Norte, S.A. de C.V. (Grupo GAN/AHMSA) of Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico.
Dos Republicas Coal Corporation plans to operate an open surface coal mine on the banks of Elm Creek which is a direct water tributary of the Rio Grande River. Dos Republicas Coal Partnership plans to discharge coal mining waste into Elm Creek who in turn discharges into the Rio Grande River only one or two miles upstream of the cities of Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico municipal water treatment plants who provide the sole source of potable water to over 210,000 residents combined. The coal mining waste would travel downstream on the Rio Grande River on the Texas-Mexico border possibly affecting another three million border residents potable water.
Dos Republicas Coal Partnership plans to sell the Eagle Pass Mine coal to a Mexican company who has a contract to provide coal to the Mexican government-owned company, Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), to burn in its two coal-generated electricity plants called Jose Lopez Portillo (Carbon I) and Carbon II located in Nava, Coahuila, Mexico, near the U.S.-Mexico border and reportedly are among the largest polluters of arsenic, mercury, and chromium to the United States, including Texas.
Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Mexican parent company already operates a twin-sister open surface coal mine within the city limits of Piedras Negras, Coahuila about a mile or less from the banks of the Rio Grande since 2010 as well as other coal mines throughout the State of Coahuila. Opponents contend the Mexican company has a poor environmental record. During the Railroad Commission hearing, opponents were precluded from presenting any Mexican information. Dos Republicas Coal Partnership contracted North American Coal Corporation to operate its Eagle Pass Mine, who in turn specifically incorporated a new subsidiary Camino Real Fuels, LLC, to operate the mine.
Opponents to Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s application to construct and operate an open surface coal mine only three miles north of the City of Eagle Pass in a densely Maverick County area filled with subdivisions, two public elementary schools, farms, and ranches include the City of Eagle Pass, County of Maverick, Maverick County Hospital District, Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, Mr. and Mrs. James O’Donnell, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Herring, Mr. Mike P. Hernandez, Mr. and Mrs. Humberto Gamez, Mr. and Mrs. E.K. Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Ellis, Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Gonzalez, Mr. and Mrs. Gabriel de la Cerda, Mr. Ernesto Ibarra, Mr. and Mrs. George Baxter, Mr. Anson Howard and Mr. Ryland Howard. The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas originally opposed the coal mine but unexpectedly withdrew its opposition on May 4, 2012.
Attempts to obtain comments from Eagle Pass Mayor Ramsey English Cantu and Maverick County Judge David Saucedo on Hearing Examiner’s Spraggins proposal for decision were unsuccessful as they were of town on business.
