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Tell Congress to Support Environmental Safeguards for Mountain Streams & Other Waters
For the past three years, the Bush administration has repealed or proposed repealing a number of longstanding environmental laws designed to protect streams from extractive industries, especially mountaintop removal coal mining. First, in May 2002, the administration repealed a 25-year-old Clean Water Act regulation that prohibited industries from burying streams, wetlands, and other waters with their wastes. Then, in January 2004, the administration proposed repealing the “Stream Buffer Zone” rule, and allowing coal companies to mine and dump waste right in streams.
It is time for Congress to step in and protect the nation’s waters from these devastating policies that are reversing decades of efforts to preserve streams and wetlands. Representatives Chris Shays (R-CT) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) have introduced the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 738) to restore important clean water safeguards against destroying streams and other waters with industrial wastes. Please contact your representative today and ask him or her to co-sponsor this important and urgently needed legislation.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Please co-sponsor H.R. 738
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I am writing to ask you to co-sponsor H.R. 738, the Clean Water Protection Act. This bill, introduced by Representatives Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), is needed to restore long-standing and important clean water protections for streams, rivers, wetlands, and waters all across the country.
In May 2002, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers repealed a 25-year-old ban on burying federally protected waters under piles of industrial wastes. The administration repealed this rule mainly at the request of coal mining companies that have already buried over 1200 miles of Appalachian streams with rubble and waste from mountaintop removal mining operations. Now, the administration is targeting a Reagan-era rule for repeal; known as the "Stream Buffer Zone" rule, this 1983 regulation prohibits coal-mining activities from disturbing areas within 100 feet of streams unless there will be no harm to water quality. If the buffer zone is repealed, coal companies will be allowed to dump massive amounts of waste directly into streams, destroying them completely. These rules affect not just coal mining in Appalachia, but threaten to pollute and destroy waters nationwide.
Congress must step in immediately to protect our waters and restore long-standing, bi-partisan safeguards that have been in place for decades -- until now. Please co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act today.
Thank you for protecting our nation's waters.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
June 16, 2004
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Since taking office, the Bush administration has repealed or has proposed repealing a number of longstanding environmental laws designed to protect streams from extractive industries, especially mountaintop removal coal mining. These reversals of existing laws will have a devastating effect on the waterways and natural resources of Appalachia.
In addition, these rule changes are written so broadly that they will allow other industries across the country to dump more of their wastes into water. Water supplies, fish and wildlife habitat, and recreational waters around the nation will become more polluted unless Congress steps in to block the administration’s actions.
Representatives Chris Shays (R-CT) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) have introduced the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 738) to restore important clean water safeguards against destroying streams and other waters with industrial wastes. This bill is short, simple, and direct: it tells the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers that they cannot permit industries to fill and bury waters with their wastes. The bill restores a 25-year-old prohibition against dumping wastes into waters.
In May 2002, the Bush administration finalized a rule that for the first time allows the Army Corps (Corps) to issue permits authorizing polluters to dispose of mining waste, construction waste, and other types of solid waste directly in our nation’s waterways. This rulemaking reversed a Clean Water Act regulation that had been on the books for over two decades.
The rule centers on the definition of what constitutes “fill material” under the Clean Water Act. Section 404 of the Act authorizes the Corps to issue permits for the discharge of “dredged or fill material” into waterways. Since 1977, the Corps’ regulatory definition of “fill material” expressly prohibited the use of waste as “fill.” Therefore, until now, the Corps was legally barred from issuing Clean Water Act permits to industries that wanted to discharge pollutants composed of waste as “fill” into waters of the United States. The Bush administration action deleted this important waste exclusion from the Corps' definition.
The rule change is an attempt to legalize the destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, where the tops of mountains are literally blown apart and the millions of tons of waste generated are dumped into nearby streams. In Appalachia, this form of mining has already buried and destroyed more than 1,200 miles of streams.
Unfortunately, the devastating environmental effects of this rule change will be felt nationwide as well because the Bush rule allows all industries, not just the coal companies, to dump their wastes into streams, too.
The Clean Water Act “fill” rule is not the only streams protection under attack from the Bush administration. On January 7, 2004, the administration proposed weakening yet another long-standing environmental safeguard on mountaintop removal coal mining in order to benefit the coal industry at the expense of coalfield communities and the environment. The proposal would rewrite the 20-year-old “buffer zone” rule adopted by President Reagan in 1983. That 1983 rule prevents federal and state agencies from issuing permits for coal mining activities that would disturb areas within 100 feet of streams, unless the permitting agency affirmatively confirms that the activities will not adversely affect water quality. In contrast, the proposed new rule would allow coal companies to dump their wastes directly into streams.
Remarkably, the Bush administration is attempting to portray this very significant change in federal law as a “clarification” in a public relations attempt to downplay its importance. However, the proposed rewrite of the ”buffer zone” rule is a dramatic departure from the existing rule’s language and is inconsistent with interpretations of the rule advanced by previous administrations before federal courts.
The Clean Water Protection Act would undo the adverse environmental effects of both of these rule changes--changes that threaten the health of waters in the coalfields and nationwide.
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