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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — For years, Kennecott Utah Copper Corp. has been violating clean-air regulations at an open pit west of Salt Lake City by digging for more ore than allowed under a federal agreement and kicking up dust, clean-air groups planned to argue Tuesday in federal court.
If they prevail, Utah Moms for Clean Air and another group representing doctors will seek sanctions and an order limiting production at the Bingham Canyon mine.
By coincidence, Kennecott has scaled back operations owing to an April landslide that damaged the ore pit. Kennecott is working to ramp up production. It's also digging into a new part of its property to expand copper output, which prompted a lawsuit from groups including Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and Denver-based WildEarth Guardians.
The groups say Kennecott is violating the U.S. Clean Air Act even though Utah's pollution regulators allowed the company to significantly ramp up mining production starting in 2006.
Kennecott operates heavy trucks, and power and smelter plants, and is the No. 1 industrial air polluter along Utah's heavily populated 120-mile Wasatch Front. It operates with the consent of state regulators who enforce the federal law and say the lawsuit is without merit.
According to the company, it has been holding dust and emissions steady with new controls and equipment despite expanding production.
Related:
Environmentalists sue Kennecott over dirty air
A coalition of environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit against Kennecott Utah Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, over what they call "the company's failure to protect clean air in Salt Lake County and beyond."Utah's chief air regulator, however, has acknowledged Kennecott is technically violating a 1994 plan adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that limited the company to hauling 150 million tons of ore a year out of the Bingham Canyon Mine.
Utah has twice allowed the company to exceed that limit, most recently to 260 million tons, as the company moves to expand a mine in the mountains west of Salt Lake City. In each case, Utah sought the EPA's consent, but the EPA didn't take any action.
State officials say the lawsuit could force EPA's hand.
U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby set a hearing on arguments for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in Salt Lake City.
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