Environmental organizations on Thursday said they welcomed a Forest Service decision to cancel a permit that allowed coal-hauling through the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia.
Facing a lawsuit filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity and allied groups, the Forest Service terminated the permit in September.
According to court records, on Sept. 17, the Forest Service informed the environmental groups that the agency had terminated the permit at issue in this case based on “South Fork’s noncompliance with the [permit’s] terms and conditions.” This rendered the case moot and it was ended on Tuesday.
The environmentalists’ lawsuit asserted that the Forest Service had failed to protect threatened and endangered species including a fish called the candy darter.
