For Lori Gillam, word that the Colowyo coal mine had dodged the threat of a shutdown ended months of nail-biting.

Gillam, who owns Stockmen’s Liquor in Craig, said she was thrilled after learning last week the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining beat a federal court deadline Friday that will keep the mine open.

“We’re all breathing a sigh of relief,” said Gillam.

She and other locals were able to exhale after the agency issued a “finding of no significant impact” on a 2007 expansion permit, then filed Friday a “notice of compliance” with the federal court just days before the Sept. 6 deadline.

U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson ordered the department in May to redo an environmental assessment on the permit in response to a lawsuit filed by WildEarth Guardians but gave federal officials just 120 days to do so.

His decision raised the specter of a mine closure and sent ripples of alarm through northwest Colorado. The Colowyo, owned by Tri-State Generation and Transmission, employs 220 workers and serves as an economic engine for the region.

“A lot of people worked very hard and cooperated extremely well to make this happen,” said Moffat County Commissioner John Kinkaid.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a statement he was grateful for the OSM’s “hard and rapid work” in completing the environmental assessment by the deadline.

“This effort was of enormous importance to northwestern Colorado, particularly Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, and protects jobs and families, as well as an important source of tax revenues, in the region,” Hickenlooper said.

The governor also commended Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and her agency “for listening to the community, understanding the stakes and responding aggressively to the situation.”

Tri-State CEO Mike McInnes, who helped mobilize the community at a packed meeting in June, said in a statement Friday that the company is “grateful to the staff at the Office of Surface Mining and the other cooperating agencies for their diligence and hard work to complete the environmental review within the short timeframe ordered by the judge.”

Rep. Scott Tipton, the Colorado Republican who represents the area, also thanked the department for completing the assessment within the tight timeframe.

“While we don’t see eye to eye with the Interior Department and Secretary Sally Jewell on many issues, their quick action to meet a short court-imposed deadline will ensure the Colowyo Mine remains operational and that 220 workers in Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties continue to receive a paycheck,” said Mr. Tipton.

The uproar over a possible mine closure prompted local liquor stores and bars to launch a boycott of breweries listed as supporters of WildEarth Guardians. The result was that about 450 businesses, including breweries, dropped their names from the environmental group’s list of backers.

Gillam said she will continue to participate in the boycott, saying that she received strong support from the community even after she removed some favorite local beers.

There were a few gripes. “I got a hate call from somebody—it wasn’t somebody local—and I had one customer grumble that, ‘I don’t come here for coal, I come here to buy beer,’” she said.

“But then I explained to him that without the coal mine, there wouldn’t be any beer, because I wouldn’t be able to stay open,” Gillam said.

Jeremy Nichols of the WildEarth Guardians told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that the agency’s finding was “out of step with science and where the nation needs to be headed.”

His group released last month a “plan to end coal mining” as part of its “keep it in the ground campaign.”

“Keeping our coal in the ground is the only way to ensure our country successfully transitions to clean energy and effectively confronts the climate crisis,” said Nichols in an Aug. 17 statement.

Kinkaid said he’s grateful to everyone who pitched in to keep the mine open, from the local business owners to the governor to Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner, but he also knows the battle isn’t over.

“Of course the war on coal continues,” he said.

— valrichardson17@gmail.com