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PROTECTING A VIBRANT WATERSHED FROM HARMFUL SURFACE
MINING
Machipongo Land & Coal Co. v. Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania (Pa. S. Ct.)
In 1989, the Brisbin Recreation Board and the Locust Grove
Sportsmen Club petitioned the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Resources to protect a stretch of the Goss Run Watershed in Clearfield
County from destructive mining practices. Surface coal mining in the
Watershed would not only pollute Goss Run, but also increase its
acidity and temperature, thereby destroying wild trout populations in
the stream and harming a downstream stocked trout fishery at Brisbin
Dam. Mining also would threaten drinking water supplies for the
Brisbin Dam public park. In 1992, Pennsylvania prohibited mining on
390 acres of the Watershed.
In 2000, a Pennsylvania court ruled that the mining ban constituted
a taking even though it applied to only 2-6 percent of the affected
landowners' property. Rather than looking at the effect of the mining
ban on the landowners' entire parcels as required by longstanding
precedent, the court considered only the ban's effect on the tiny
affected portion of the property. This affected-portion standard could
wreak havoc on routine land-use controls such as setback requirements,
height restrictions, historic preservation ordinances, and a host of
others, effective requiring a finding of a compensable taking in every
case.
On appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, CRC assembled a
coalition of municipal associations to file an amicus brief in support
of the Commonwealth. We demonstrate in the brief that under
longstanding rulings of the U.S. and Pennsylvania supreme courts, the
mining restriction worked no taking because it has only a miniscule
effect on the landowners' property.
Machipongo
Land and Coal Co., Inc. v. Department of Envtl. Resources
(Pennsylvania Supreme Court)
Clients: Pennsylvania State Assoc. of Township
Supervisors, City of Philadelphia, State Assoc. of
Boroughs,
Pennsylvania State Assoc. of Township Commissioners, County
Commissioners Assoc. of
Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania League of cities and Municipalities
Issues: Parcel as a whole.
CRC's
Amicus Brief PDF)
To read the Court's
opinion in PDF format, click
here.
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