EPA Halts Mountaintop Mining Permits

The Environmental Protection Agency is putting on hold hundreds of mountaintop coal-mining permits until it can evaluate the projects' impacts on streams and wetlands.

The decision was announced Tuesday by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson. It targets a controversial practice by coal mining companies that dump waste from mountaintop mining into streams and wetlands.

It could delay 150-250 permits being sought by companies wanting to begin blasting mountaintops to access coal.

Those permits are issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, an agency that has been criticized by environmental groups. The Corps has been sued for failing to thoroughly evaluate the environmental impact of mountaintop removal, during which forests are clear-cut and mountaintops are blasted apart to expose coal seams; the rock and dirt left behind is dumped into adjacent valleys, affecting the course and health of waterways.

Under the Clean Water Act, companies cannot discharge rock, dirt and other debris into streams unless they can show that it will not cause permanent damage to waterways or the fish and other wildlife that live in it.

Last December environmental groups sued to stop the EPA from changing a rule which they said kept mining waste from entering mountain streams, when the Bush administration announced it was revising federal prohibitions against mining activity within 100 feet of a stream.

Last month, a three-judge appeals panel in Richmond, Va., overturned a lower court's ruling that would have required the Corps to conduct more extensive reviews. The appeals court decision cleared the way for a backlog of permits that had been delayed until the lawsuit was resolved.

The EPA's action on Tuesday leaves those permit requests in limbo a little longer.

"If the EPA didn't step in and do something now, all those permits would go forward," said Joe Lovett, executive director for the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. "There are permits that will bury 200 miles of streams pending before the Corps."

Carol Raulston, a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, said further delays in the permits would cost the region high-paying jobs. "This is very troubling, not only for jobs in the region, but production of coal generally," said Raulston.

The EPA also denied two permits the Army Corps of Engineers was planning to issue that would allow companies to fill thousands of feet of streams with mining waste in West Virginia and Kentucky.

The agency said the projects could damage aquatic resources, and that "the direct and cumulative impacts from this and future mines will be persistent and permanent and can not be sufficiently or effectively compensated through the proposed mitigation."


For more info:

What Is Mountaintop Mining? - EPA

[kytwinmom]

I'm sure alot of coal companies cut corners and do business the wrong way. In my area, which most residents are employed by coal companies, the strip mining has opened land up to communities that was otherwise useless. Making wildlife and recreation areas. Trees have been replanted and streams rerouted that once caused flooding. I have seen mountains cut down and cut through by federal highways in the name of progress. I have a stake in this decision as do my neighbors and most children in the schools in the area. With this country already seeing layoffs and home loss, why are we creating more by stopping the industry that creates the majority of the jobs in the area. It is very easy to sit back and say go green when the changes needed to go green do not cause YOUR children to go hungry and have to live on the streets. I agree to conserving and saving the environment but at whose cost?

[inachu1]

How do we even go about finding out where a person(not a company) is allowed to pan for gold without violating anything? I hear about the new gold rush but where to check for these laws that are so prohibitive against people making a profit for fun or as a hobby?

[sjc_1]

Some say that it is either coal power or darkness. Please, there are many better ways to generate power, but if you go down the wrong path with coal only, then you have no other options.

Do not fall for the false choice that has been forced upon you. Insist that we find better ways to generate power and leave the coal in the ground, until we find better ways to mine and use it.

[rchigginsjr]

Clean streams and air are important but must be balanced against the costs. It is easy for you to say "let them learn to conserve" but when you are an 80 year old widow living on social security and you get an electric bill in NE Ohio for $250, it is nuts! And then you double the cost to make that electricity...how do the people in the NE USA afford that? We already have our thermostats on 55 degrees in the winter. What else can we do? We can't afford to heat our homes now...what happens when you double the cost? Make us all move south?

[talk_down_2_you]

There's plenty of coal in this country without ruining mountain streams to get it. There's billions of tons of coal in Alabama but does that stop southern company from importing most of what it uses from Venezuela? Remember when the same people told us how hydroelectric power would solve our problems as we dammed every major stream in this nation.

Because we burn coal so much in the Southeast it's one of the reasons the EPA reformulates gas here in the Summer to the tune of 5-20-cents a gallon to prevent an ozone smog out every Summer. So we pay for these mines even when we buy gas for or cars.

Of course if you watch Faux News you've probably already started working on your suicide plan. Those people have the screaming meemies.

[reddirter]

This is WONDERFUL news and a good first step.
Now talk about creating jobs for the coal miners. Feeding their babies AND saving their backyards will get more folks behind this.

[srafter]

That's fantastic, but doesn't mean the US, especially on the East coast, can do business as usual. We are sitting in front of computers powered by electricity created by burning coal. How many of us would freak w/out it? Make some changes. Hang your clothes on a line instead of sitting in front of the computer. We need to find a way to stretch the coal that we have. It has been predicted that at current consumption rates, we have about 200 years of it left. With conservaiton practices it could last about 1000.

[wvvoiceofreason]

"Under the Clean Water Act, companies cannot discharge rock, dirt and other debris into streams unless they can show that it will not cause permanent damage to waterways or the fish and other wildlife that live in it."

None of these permits should have ever been authorized. There is no way that burying a stream under tons of rock and debris (much of it laden with heavy metals) does not cause permanent damage. Mountaintop removal mining is a disaster for the environment, local residents and coal miners. No one profits/benefits except for the coal companies.

Thank you President Obama.

[bbpkr]

Right-On, dagrandma. I'm sick & tired of seeing the Ego-Castles ruining Beautiful Natural sites.

[cs4466]

Oh, and the tax proceeds would go to R&D for totally electric cars and solar, wind and hydro power initiatives.

Basically if you burn something up in order to generate a watt, then you're screwing the yourself, the planet and everyone on it.

It's that simple.