Cameron County residents packed the courthouse again, about one year after a similar meeting to protest a second strip mining permit application in Shippen Township.

Allegany Enterprises was granted a strip-mining permit to reclaim abandoned strip mines atop Huston Hill last year. Now he wants to expand operations and pull coal out of a neighboring hill. Cameron county residents are not happy about the environmental impact of strip mining on their “pristine” landscape, nor the increased truck traffic as dump trucks of coal make their way on area roads.

100 people were present at the meeting, including a 6th grade girl, with a petition with 100 signatures of fellow students and teachers, who says the coal mining project would relocate forest animals, and pollute the air and water.