An administrative review hearing which had been scheduled today (February 27, 2020) on the proposed Bulldog Coal Mine in Vermilion County has been postponed. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources hearing has been pushed back to April 2nd in Springfield.
IDNR approved a permit for the proposed mine in southwest Vermilion County in April of last year. But Terre Haute based Sunrise Coal Company still had one more hurdle to clear. Anyone who may have been adversely affected by the decision was allowed to request an administrative review. It is that process which is now pending after Prairie Rivers Network and some other environmentalists requested an administrative review of the decision approving the permit.
Sunrise Coal has said the mine would create upwards of 300 jobs with an average salary of $76-thousand dollars, plus health care and fringe benefits. A study conducted by Northern Illinois University also said there would be indirect employment from the mine in areas including food service, wholesale trade, architectural, engineering, health care, and others.
When it was announced last April that the Illinois Department of Natural Resources had approved the permit for the mine there were also some stipulations. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency was going to require Sunrise Coal to install ten additional groundwater monitoring wells within the proposed permit area. IDNR also said last year that the Department reserves the right to add monitoring parameters or locations should the need arise. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency found the effects from the proposed operations should be negligible on surface water in the permit area. The IEPA also found the quality of streams within the proposed shadow area should not experience any change in water quality as a result of the room and pillar underground mining operations.
