AP: 18 coal permits lapsed at Ohio EPA

COLUMBUS (AP) — Eighteen coal facilities in Ohio are operating with expired pollution-discharge permits under an agency where allegations of coal-industry influence arose during a personnel flap last year, an Associated Press review has found.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency records show 13 of the 18 have expired since Republican Gov. John Kasich took office in 2011, or about a quarter of the 49 issued to coal facilities.

The agreements spell out what pollutants each mining operation, coal preparation plant, storm water facility or coal waste storage area can release under state and federal clean-water laws. The AP obtained data on the permits through a public records request.

Several holders of expired permits gave generously to Kasich’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, state campaign finance records show.

That included at least $35,000 from employees of Murray Energy Corp. and its subsidiaries and its political action committee, and about $22,000 from executives of Oxford Mining Co. Murray and Oxford companies hold four of the expired permits.

Rosebud Mining, another holder of an expired permit, has corporate ties to Freedom Industries, the company at the center of a January chemical spill in West Virginia.