Environmental groups sue over EPA mining rule
Dec 22 - Associated Press online
Environmentalists sued the Bush administration on Monday, trying to stop the
Environmental Protection Agency from changing a rule they say keeps mining
waste from entering mountain streams.
"The notion that coal mining companies can dump their wastes in streams
without degrading them is a fantasy that the Bush administration is now
trying to write into law," said Judith Petersen of Kentucky Waterways
Alliance, one of the groups that sued in U.S. District Court in Washington.
At issue is mountaintop mining, in which forests are clear cut and holes are
drilled to blast apart rock. Massive machines then scoop coal from the
exposed seams. The rock and dirt left behind is dumped into adjacent
valleys, changing the natural shape of the earth, lowering the height of the
mountain and covering streams.
Current policy says land within 100 feet of a stream cannot be disturbed by
mining unless a company can prove it will not affect the water's quality and
quantity. The new regulation would allow mining that would alter a stream's
flow as long as any damage to the environment is repaired later.
Opponents want a federal judge to overturn or delay the new regulation.
"This is among the eleventh hour land mines planted by the Bush
administration that an EPA headed by Lisa Jackson stands to inherit,"
Earthjustice lawyer Jennifer Chavez said, referring to President-elect
Barack Obama's pick to head the agency. "We are doing what we can to make it
easier for the incoming administration to undo the damage wrought by the
last one and restore our nation's commitment to protecting the waters and
summits of the Appalachians."
Mining industry groups, though, argue the rule change has been in the works
for years, and would change very little over how mountaintop removal mining
is done.
"There's been an enormous amount of overreaction to this," West Virginia
Coal Association President Bill Raney said Monday. "They're trying to make
it something that it truly is not."
EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said the agency "approved the new rule
because it strengthens the environmental review required for mining
activities and reduces potential adverse effects to water quality and fish
and wildlife resources."
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On the Net:
EPA "stream buffer zone" regulation:
http://www.epa.gov/EPA-IMPACT/2008/December/Day-12/i29150.htm
Environmental groups lawsuit:
http://www.earthjustice.org/library/legal-docs/sbz-rule-final-complaint-1219.pdf
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