Administration Moves to Allow Dumping of Mining Waste Into Streams

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The Bush administration unveiled a proposal Jan. 7 that would gut a prohibition against the dumping of mining waste within 100 feet of streams, easing the way for new mountaintop mining, which generates large amounts of dirt and rock waste.

Sold as a “clarification,” this proposal would create new waivers for the so-called “buffer zone” rule, which was adopted during the Reagan administration. Specifically, companies could receive permits to conduct surface mining activities near streams provided that they, “to the extent possible,” “prevent additional contributions of suspended solids” and “minimize disturbances and adverse impacts on fish, wildlife, and other related environmental values of the stream.”

Put another way, this means that mining companies could be permitted to dump directly into streams and cause environmental damage, so long as they have made a satisfactory effort, as judged by government permitting officials, to minimize that damage “to the extent possible.”

The current standard allows for a waiver of the buffer-zone rule only if mining activities “will not cause or contribute to the violation” of water quality standards, “and will not adversely affect the water quantity and quality or other environmental resources of the stream.” Unlike the administration’s “clarification,” this is clear, simple, and objective.

“Only the Bush administration, which calls more air pollution ‘Clear Skies’ and clear cutting trees ‘Healthy Forests,’ would call this decision to allow coal companies to destroy more streams a ‘clarification,’” said Joan Mulhern, senior legislative counsel for Earthjustice. “It is a lie and it is an insult to the people of Appalachia and anyone who cares about the fate of America’s environment.”

Previously, the administration adopted another rule in May 2002 to clear the way for mountaintop mining. This action changed the definition of allowable “fill material,” eliminating the “waste exclusion” that barred dumping for the sole purpose of disposing waste. The Army Corps of Engineers now has authority to approve such dumping when issuing operating permits under the Clean Water Act.