Sunday, May 27th, 2012

Judge Shoots Down White House Effort to Curb Mountaintop Mining

By Mike Lillis
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 5:04 pm

A federal judge today blocked the Obama administration’s efforts overturn a Bush administration rule allowing coal companies to dump their mining waste in mountain streams.

The ruling is a victory for Appalachian mountaintop removal operations, where the peaks of mountains are literally lopped off with dynamite and the rock and soil pushed into adjacent valleys, many of which contain small streams that represent the headwaters of larger bodies of water below.

A 1983 law prevents mining — or disposing of mine debris — within 100 feet of streams if the activity is shown to harm water quality. But in December, the Bush White House finalized an industry-friendly rule that effectively scrapped the so-called “stream buffer zone rule.”

Calling the move “legally defective,” the Obama White House in April asked a federal judge to overturn the Bush rule change. But today, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., declined to do so, arguing that a change in regulation requires public input.

The Interior Department says it’s working on a statement about its next step.

Meanwhile, the Sierra Club has already issued one of its own, calling on the White House to take even bolder steps to curb mountaintop removal.

With the administration currently considering more than 80 permit applications for new mountaintop removal coal mining, it will take policy changes at the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Interior and Environmental Protection Agency, along with tough enforcement, to end the destruction completely and protect Appalachian communities.

There’s good reason for the environmentalists’ concerns. Despite vows to protect Appalachia’s waterways, the Environmental Protection Agency recently approved yet another mountaintop removal operation in southwest West Virginia — a project that will fill eight valleys with mining waste. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave its final approval for CONSOL Energy Inc.’s Peg Fork Surface Mine on Friday. The move comes just a few months after the EPA approved 42 pending surface-mine permits in the Appalachian states.

Despite promises to install more transparency into its permit approval process, the EPA did not announce its decision to OK the Peg Fork mine.

Comments

6 Comments

White House | All Days Long
Pingback posted August 12, 2009 @ 6:36 pm

[...] The Washington Independent » Judge Shoots Down White House Effort … By Mike Lillis Calling the move “legally defective,” the Obama White House in April asked a federal judge to overturn the Bush rule change. But today, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., declined to do so, arguing that a change in regulation … The Washington Independent – http://washingtonindependent.com/ [...]

Judge OK’s Dumping Mine Waste - Thinking Outside - News That’s Fit For The Great Outdoors
Pingback posted August 12, 2009 @ 10:52 pm

[...] move as anyone could make, but putting an end to mountaintop removal coal mining is proving to be harder than anyone who loves mountains would want it to be. A federal judge today blocked the Obama administration’s efforts overturn a Bush administration [...]

Justin McLachlan
Comment posted August 12, 2009 @ 9:55 pm

Why can't the administration just go through the process of changing the regulation?

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Comment posted August 19, 2009 @ 11:40 am

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Comment posted August 19, 2009 @ 11:43 am