Bush Wants To Change Buffer Zone Rule: Nationwide Push for Comments
The Bush administration’s latest attempt to legalize illegal mountaintop removal practices has stirred up cries of outrage across the nation.
It’s strange to say, but we almost have to thank the administration for its latest dastardly move. Bush is helping to build our base--more people than ever now know about mountaintop removal! Groups small and large are working together to get in comments on the rule change. Newspapers coast-to-coast are running mad-as-hell letters to the editor and scathing editorials. Bloggers are asking people to take action. More and more people realize we have to force Congress to ban mountaintop removal.
If you want an easy way to keep up with the news and opinion, please be sure to check our updated-daily news-link page often. Just for fun, below are some of the stories generated by the proposed rule change.
What is up? The Bush administration’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM) wants to quit requiring coal operators to prove that their mountaintop removal operations will not damage streams, fish and wildlife. They want to gut the stream buffer zone rule, which says land within 100 feet of a stream cannot be disturbed by mining unless a company can prove it will not affect the water’s quality and quantity.
This rule was at the heart of major West Virginia litigation challenging mountaintop removal in the late 1990s. If the changes the Bush administration proposes are finalized, then the illegal becomes legal. State and federal “regulatory” agencies have basically overlooked the rule and allowed valley fills in perennial and intermittent streams. Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and other lawyers for citizen groups continue to interpret the rule as banning those fills, and federal judges have agreed with us.
The proposed rule change would say the buffer zone rule does not apply to burying streams with the rubble from former mountaintops. That is, the rule doesn’t apply to valley fills and even coal sludge dams and impoundments.
Take Action! ~Speak Out!
Important—in all communication please note the docket number: RIN 1029-AC04.
By 4:30 p.m. EST September 24: Please call, write or-email the Office of Surface Mining.
Tell them:
--Pull the proposed buffer zone rule change and enforce the law now on the books.
--If you won't pull the proposed rule change and enforce the law on the books, then you must grant a 90-day extension to the comment period AND give us a public hearing in the southern West Virginia coalfields.
Call or e-mail:
Dennis G. Rice
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
Telephone: 202-208-2829; e-mail:
[email protected]For written comments, write to:
OSMRE
Administrative Record
Room 252 SIB
1951 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20240
If you want to make more detailed comments now, the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, Earthjustice and Public Justice have prepared excellent talking points to help you. Click here to view the talking points.
Note that the deadline to ask for a public hearing is 4:30 p.m. EST September 24. Right now, the deadline for written comments is October 23, though we are asking for a 90-day extension. Remember, please identify comments with: IN 1029-AC04.
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September 20: Call-in Day to Congress
On September 20, please call your Congressperson.
Ask her or him to please contact the Office of Surface Mining to say:
--Pull the proposed buffer zone rule change and enforce the law now on the books.
--If OSM won't pull the proposed rule change and enforce the law on the books, then it must grant a 90-day extension to the comment period AND grant a public hearing in the southern West Virginia coalfields.