Subject: [Homestead] Mining waste in streams - new rule
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:50:29 -0700 (PDT)
This has a good chance of directly affecting someone on this list. Not that
the companies haven't really been getting away with doing this for years,
anyway. Just my opinion, but I think damage done by mining companies will be
Robert Byrd's true lasting legacy. ...bobford
"The proposed rule would rewrite a regulation enacted in 1983 that bars
mining companies from dumping huge waste piles, known as “valley fills,”
within 100 feet of any intermittent or perennial stream if the disposal
affects water quality or quantity.
The revisions would require mining companies to minimize the debris they dump
as much as possible, but would also let them skirt the 100-foot protective
buffer requirement if compliance is determined to be impossible.
“The new rule will allow coal companies to dump massive waste piles directly
into streams, permanently burying them,” warned Joan Mulhern of Earthjustice,
an environmental group that has fought the practice."