One of the most environmentally damaging practices in the U.S. is about
to get worse, if the Bush administration is successful in changing an
Interior Department rule concerning mountaintop removal for coal
extraction.
The agency announced yesterday it is prepared to issue a final
rule that will make it easier for mining companies to dump their waste
near rivers and streams, according to a Washington Post report.
The revised rule will go into effect after a 30-day review by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It marks yet another deplorable
change to environmental regulations by the Bush administration.
Under current rules, mining companies are prohibited from
dumping massive "valley fills" within 100 feet of any intermittent or
permanent stream, if it would harm the stream’s water quality or reduce
its flow.
This rule has been routinely ignored by mining companies,
because it would be impossible to practice mountaintop removal
otherwise. By their very nature, all valleys are intermittent stream
beds, and completely filling these valleys causes irreparable damage to
streams.
The government estimates that about 1,600 miles of Appalachian
streams have been erased by this practice since it began in the mid
1980s.
The new rule states mining companies must avoid the 100-foot
stream buffer zone "or show why avoidance is not possible"–which it
never is.
In addition it states that if they do dump waste in the buffer zone,
they must try to minimize or avoid harming streams "to the extent
practicable"–which it isn’t.
The Interior Departement said in a statement that the change in
regulation would have a "slightly positive" effect on the environment
"because it requires coal mining operations to minimize certain
impacts," but Joan Mulhern, senior legislative counsel for the
environmental law firm Earthjustice, called the environmental impact
statement "totally inadequate."
"It didn’t even include the alternative of actually enforcing the rule
on the books," she said. "The implications of this ruling are
devastating, they’re widespread and they’re irreversible."
EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson must now certify that the new rule
is in compliance with the Clean Water and Clean Air acts. If he were to
determine that the environmental impact statement is inadequate, he
could block the law. But based on his record of obeisance to the
administration, that is unlikely.
As a result, environmental groups are likely to challenge the rule change in court.
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