However the Corps denied the allegations, stating if construction had commenced by July 8, the project could proceed. The Corps said it was following the judge's orders and will continue to do so.

On July 8 this year, Judge Goodwin ruled the Corps could no longer approve future Nationwide Permit 21 authorizations in the southern district of West Virginia and suspended 11 previously issued permits on which construction had not commenced. On August 13 he expanded the regulations to include any previously issued permits where construction had not began as of July 8.

Rather than nationwide permits, Goodwin said coal companies must go through more rigorous individual permit reviews when they propose to bury streams with waste dirt and rock. The judge ordered the corps not to issue new Clean Water Act permits for valley fills without individual reviews.

NP21 was declared invalid not only for valley fill activity, but for virtually all mining activity impacting water – a decision that forces the industry into the costly and time-consuming individual permit process.

"The Army Corps has sunk to a new low, brazenly disregarding an order from a

federal district court to stop burying streams and start cooperating with the

Clean Water Act," Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney Daniel Rosenberg told Platts.

"The Corps has allowed (the coal industry) to obliterate hundreds of miles of Appalachian waterways, and apparently, a court order wasn't enough to stop them."

Since the ruling the Corps have issued suspension notices to 73 mining projects.