A portion of the Hobet mine, known as Hobet 45, in Lincoln County is one of 23 West Virginia surface mine permit applications the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in September it was holding for “enhanced review.”

The applications were held back primarily over water quality concerns.

The Hobet 45 permit has become the first of the 23 permits to advance to enhanced review because Patriot took a proactive approach, according to Mark Taylor, a section chief at the U.S Army Corps of Engineers’ Huntington District.

“The company submitted new plans to reduce the impacts associated with that mine plan,” Taylor said. “We felt those new plans were ready to move forward, so that’s when we started the clock.”

Patriot’s proposed change to its mining plan reduces stream impacts by about half, Taylor said. It would reduce coal production by less than half through a strategic reduction in the locations and amounts of coal mined. It’s not necessarily a blueprint for adjusting the other permits awaiting enhanced review, he said. “Each one is so different that you really can’t generalize,” he said. “This one had special circumstances — the type of mining that they were doing and the locations of the streams, it just had a natural break there that you could do this with.”

During the 60-day review, the Corps will attempt to achieve final agreement between the EPA and the company on permit conditions, Taylor said.

Six more of the 23 surface mine permit applications are at the front of the pack for enhanced review, although Taylor was unable to say when they might advance.

And he believes two applications have been withdrawn, although the names of the two mines were not immediately available to him.