Interior seeks to rescind controversial mining rule
Bush administration’s mountaintop coal mining provision is ‘legally defective,’ Salazar says.
The Interior Department is asking the Justice Department to vacate a rule finalized late in the Bush administration that allowed coal companies to dump excess debris into streambeds if alternative disposal methods were too expensive.
The so-called stream buffer zone rule clarified a 1983 regulation the Reagan administration developed, which defined how coal operators could dispose of waste generated in the mining process known as mountaintop removal.
The controversial mining process is used throughout Appalachia. The only economical way to reach coal seams in this region is by using explosives to blast away surrounding rock and sediment, which creates an enormous amount of debris. Operators are required by law to return as much debris as possible to the mining site, but the excess fill typically is dumped in nearby valleys.
The 1983 rule, which has been the subject of many protracted court cases between environmentalists and coal companies, allowed coal operators to dump fill within 100 feet of perennial or intermittent streams if they could demonstrate that doing so would not hurt water quality or other environmental resources. The Bush administration's interpretation and subsequent clarification of the rule, which the mining industry supported, essentially made it easier for coal companies to dump waste within the 100-foot buffer zone, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Monday when he announced the department's decision.
Government regulators and environmentalists estimate that hundreds of miles of streams have been buried in the process, contaminating water and accelerating flooding and erosion.
"The so-called stream buffer zone rule simply doesn't pass muster with respect to adequately protecting water quality and stream habitat that communities rely on in coal country," Salazar said.
The department's action would have minimal effect on current mining operations, he added.
National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said the decision was "precipitous and will only add to the uncertainty that is delaying mining operations and jeopardizing jobs."
"We trust the secretary of the Interior does not plan on engaging in a de facto rule-making, thereby avoiding the transparency integral to a fair and legal regulation," Quinn said.
Interior's move follows a decision late last month by the Environmental Protection Agency to place a hold on mining permits throughout Appalachia. EPA's decision has put 77,000 mining jobs at risk, Quinn said.