The controversial Spruce No. 1 coal mine in West Virginia was originally given a permit authorizing it to dump strip mining waste into 11 kilometres of creeks and onto 800 hectares of land. In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected the permit on the basis of the “irreversible damage” that would be inflicted to the streams, groundwater, and land, including: “the elimination of all fish, killing of birdlife, reduction of habitat value, and risk of human illness.”