"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal judge has sided with Alpha Natural Resources in the company's effort to keep testimony about West Virginia University studies linking mountaintop removal to birth defects and cancer among coalfield residents out of a legal challenge to one of Alpha's new mining permits."

"U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers refused to allow the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition to allegations about potential human health damage to the group's lawsuit challenging a Clean Water Act permit for the Reylas Surface Mine, proposed by Alpha subsidiary Highland Mining.

The coalition and other groups are asking to add a claim about potential human health impacts to a suit that challenges a Clean Water Act permit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued for the 235-acre mine proposed for Logan County."

Ken Ward Jr. reports for the Charleston Gazette January 25, 2012.
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