Bush administration's mountaintop mining rule criticized at hearing
By Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press
Friday, June 07, 2002

WASHINGTON — Critics told a Senate panel Thursday the Bush administration is undercutting environmental laws with a rule encouraging mountaintop coal mining, a practice in which ridges are blasted away and rocks and dirt dumped in valleys and streams.

The rule is "one of the most significant and destructive changes to Clean Water Act protection in decades," said Joan Mulhern, a lawyer for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers ensure compliance with the 1972 Clean Water Act by controlling dumping permits.

The new rule, issued in May, would eliminate an Army Corps ban on putting mine and other waste in waterways. Instead, the Army Corps would adopt the EPA's standard, which does not include such a ban. "This is, in fact, of critical importance to the health of America's rivers and America's streams," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who presided over the hearing before an Environment and Public Works subcommittee.

Lieberman said he would introduce legislation to clarify that dumping waste in waterways is not allowed. A similar measure has been introduced in the House.

Mountaintop mining is efficient and has been prevalent in West Virginia and Kentucky for more than a decade. Environmentalists have challenged it, citing the Army Corps ban on waste.

Federal District Judge Charles Haden II in West Virginia has already said the administration overstepped its authority, and he ordered the Army Corps to stop issuing mountaintop mining permits. The Bush administration is seeking a stay of that decision as it decides whether to appeal.

"We have recommended to the Department of Justice to appeal the case — that we're on solid legal ground," said Benjamin Grumbles, deputy assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Water. Grumbles said the administration was simply maintaining the status quo, since the Army Corps already relies on the EPA definition of fill material. "We're not changing the rule," he said. "Their long-standing practice has been the same as our definition."

But Lieberman said the Army Corps was acting illegally. "For years, in my opinion, it has been shameful that our own government was not following the law," Lieberman said.

The mining industry sought the change. It argued that putting rocks and dirt from mining in waterways is no different from filling streams to create land for construction purposes, which Army Corps rules allow.

Michael Callaghan, cabinet secretary for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, stressed that the region depends on mining. "One conclusion about mountaintop mining and valley fills that is certain ... is that the use of these practices has enabled the mining industry to flourish and put thousands of West Virginians to work," Callaghan said.

It's not worth it, said Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys and a native of Irvine, Ky. "The historic resources that sustained Daniel Boone, the original Cherokees, and generations of mountain people are being converted on a mammoth scale into flat, lifeless plateaus," Richardson testified.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, boycotted the hearing, saying he was tired of celebrity testimony such as Richardson's.

The new rule could have implications beyond Appalachia, possibly allowing the dumping of waste from Western mines or even construction sites into waterways, said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J. Pallone sponsored the House bill that, like Lieberman's measure, would clarify that dumping waste in waterways is not allowed.

Copyright 2002 — Associated Press
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