On July 7, 2026, the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board unanimously ruled in favor of Mountain Watershed Association (MWA), finding that state regulators were wrong to reject MWA’s request to study whether about 11,000 acres near Fourmile Run in Westmoreland County should be off-limits to surface coal mining.
The ruling means the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) must accept MWA’s petition and begin the deeper technical review required under Pennsylvania’s “unsuitable for mining” program. The same area is now under two separate tracks of review. DEP will simultaneously review MWA’s the Unsuitable for Mining petition, in addition to its review of the mining and NPDES permits through the traditional permitting process.
MWA filed the petition on January 24, 2024, to protect land and water in the Youghiogheny River watershed from future mining impacts. DEP dismissed the petition as “frivolous,” claiming it raised concerns about underground mining, not surface mining.
The Board found that MWA’s petition “is not frivolous” and that DEP’s decision to reject it “was not consistent with the regulations.” The judges found that although DEP claimed the Petition lacked “serious merit,” they could not define what the term means. And the Board faulted DEP for applying standards like “sufficiently persuasive,” despite that such a standard does not appear in the regulations governing petition review.
Rustic Ridge #2 Mine
Within the petition area, LCT Energy has proposed the Rustic Ridge #2 mine. The mine would include a 2,322.6-acre underground mine and a 64.6-acre surface facility with wastewater treatment systems permitted to discharge up to 2 million gallons of treated mine water per day.
DEP and LCT argued that the Petition could not be accepted because of the pending mine permit application, but the Board rejected that argument, making clear that DEP can — and should — conduct the unsuitable-for-mining study while it also reviews the pending mine permit.
The Board also rejected DEP’s claim that the petition failed to identify surface mining impacts. The judges pointed to surface activities tied to the proposed mining, including mine entrances, blasting, ponds, and pipes that discharge water.
Reviving the UFM Program
During litigation, documents uncovered that DEP staff had not “taken any action on anything related to UFM in years,” despite the fact that the Department was “sitting on about 9 UFM petitions” dating back to the early 2000s with no action taken.
“MWA hopes the decision will breathe new life in the UFM program,” said MWA attorney Melissa Marshall. “The program was created with the intent of protecting areas exactly like the Youghiogheny River Watershed, that suffer from contamination of both past and current coal mining operations.”
Next Steps for the UFM
Regarding UFM review, the Department will begin an almost year-long process of conducting an in-depth technical study – gathering original data on the petition area’s water, wildlife, and past mining problems. Unlike a mine permitting process, the technical review looks beyond a mine’s immediate footprint to consider broader impacts, including fish and wildlife, long-term water-supply productivity, and whether mining would damage economic resources in the petition area.
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Mountain Watershed Association is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to protecting, preserving, and restoring the Youghiogheny River watershed and its broader communities. Find out more at www.mtwatershed.com. Donate to the legal fund at tinyurl.com/MWA-give