This story was updated at 6:25 p.m. EDT.
EPA says a state-approved air permit for Colorado’s largest coal mine doesn’t fully comply with the Clean Air Act and regulators there must fix deficiencies tied to curbing smog-forming air pollutants.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan in an order signed on May 24 and made public Thursday partially granted — and partially denied — a petition that environmental groups filed in January that challenged a permit Colorado regulators approved late last year for Arch Resources’ West Elk mine, an underground coal mine near Somerset in Gunnison County, Colorado.
While rebuffing some arguments, Regan agreed with the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians that the permit doesn’t go far enough in specifying how the company must curb volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, from the mine.
