Greetings,

Already more than 2,000 miles of streams in Appalachia have been buried by mountaintop removal mining, yet as one of its last assaults on environmental protections, the Bush Administration is poised to finalize a rule that would allow thousands more streams and valleys to be buried by waste.

Instead of standing by and allowing the stream buffer zone to be taken away, Kentucky Governor Steven Beshear, along with Representatives Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth, and Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen stepped in and have sent letters to the EPA objecting to this rule change.

Please call and thank Governor Beshear and Governor Bredesen for voicing their concerns about this rule, which would allow coal companies to dump their massive piles of waste directly into streams.

For years, federal agencies have looked the other way as the coal industry has been allowed to blast away the tops of mountains to reach thin seams of coal. Already, mountaintop removal mining has flattened more than 500,000 acres and permanently buried 2,000 miles of streams, destroying sources that feed drinking water. These actions were taken in defiance of the existing Stream Buffer Zone Rule. Now, the Federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) wants to legalize this destruction.  But the U.S.EPA must give its approval for the change in rules to become law.