According to The Associated Press, the Maryland Department of Environment has issued a permit for a new underground coal mine that would tunnel beneath the Casselman River in Garrett County. Jay Apperson, spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Environment, said that the permit has been issued to Maryland Energy Resources LLC, a company controlled by the Joseph Peles Coal Co. of Indiana. He said that Joseph Peles Coal must post a bond of $25,000 for each drinking water well it approaches. That’s in addition to a $205,000 general performance bond. The mine would extract an estimated 360,000 tons of coal annually for 20 years from deposits beneath about 3,000 acres south of Grantsville. It would be Maryland’s largest working deep mine.
