Tell the House: Our Streams Are Not Waste Dumps!

Mountaintop removal mining, in which coal companies blast the tops off of mountains and push millions of tons of waste into valleys, is polluting and obliterating streams all across Appalachia. To make things worse, the Bush administration has been trying to eliminate some of the most important environmental safeguards meant to protect waters from being buried by mountaintop removal waste.

For example, in 2002 the Bush administration proposed a new rule, which for the first time allows coal companies to just dump their wastes into pristine streams and rivers. This proposal, if finalized, would repeal a law adopted during the 1980s that creates a 100 foot buffer zone around permanent and seasonal streams protecting them from damage caused by coal mining. This is flatly inconsistent with the very purpose of the Clean Water Act, and is a blatant attempt to legalize the destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.

This and other water protections are being repealed because the coal industry wants no environmental interference with their unlimited destruction of streams, mountains, forests, and communities. Unfortunately, it seems that the coal industry’s wish is the Bush administration’s command.

We need your help: Support the Clean Water Protection Act!

The Clean Water Protection Act, would block this destructive rule change and expressly forbid the use of waste to fill the nation’s waters. This important legislation is needed to ensure our streams and waterways aren’t buried under millions of tons of mining and other industrial wastes.

Ask your representative to support the Clean Water Protection Act today!

Tell me more

Subject:

Dear Representative

(Edit Letter Below)

For over a decade, the Appalachian Mountains have been disappearing. Coal companies have resorted to an extreme form of mining called mountaintop removal mining that literally blows the tops off of these mountain ranges to get at coal seams deep below.

Destroyed mountaintops, called "fill," are then simply dumped into nearby valleys, permanently burying streams, rivers and headwaters. These waters are important to these unique natural areas.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that mountaintop removal mining has already destroyed over 1,200 miles of streams. The agency estimates that by the end of this century, more than 2,200 square miles of Appalachian forests and mountains will be gone forever.

This region is home to some of America's greatest historical sites, and the culture of Appalachian citizens is an important part in the fabric of our history and identity. Coal companies are getting away with more than what laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act were ever intended to allow.

Mountaintop removal mining is an issue that affects all Americans and I implore you to work to guarantee that the Appalachian states are no longer destroyed by this mining. We must all work towards an energy policy that is not solely dependent upon fossil fuels, but one that includes renewable technologies and less destructive impacts.

Please act now to guarantee the protection of this great land.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

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