Laws Blocking Mountaintop Mining? Change The Laws!!

[hatrack]

"A few years ago, the residents of Appalachia's hollows started fighting in court to rein in the practice of mountaintop mining, which they argued was ravaging the region's forests, streams and wildlife, and leveling its rugged mountain peaks. They say it has been an exercise in frustration -- and one in which an administration friendly to mining interests has changed the rules along the way.

In one case, residents argued that the mining companies were violating the Clean Water Act by dumping the "overburden" -- leftover rock and soil -- into streams. Then, in 2002, the Bush administration rewrote a Clean Water Act regulation so that it explicitly allowed the companies' practice.

In another case, pending in state court, West Virginians argued that the companies had violated the Surface Mining Act, which banned mining within 100 feet of a stream. This month, the administration proposed to "clarify" that rule to make it legal for companies to mine along streams, and to heap leftover rock and soil into them, as long as they dumped the smallest amount possible.

EDIT

As part of a settlement in a case filed by residents of Appalachia, the administration spent $5 million studying mountaintop mining and released a draft environmental impact statement in May. The document chronicled heavy environmental costs but proposed only one solution: to better coordinate the permitting process for mountaintop mining."

EDIT

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=28552

(Originally from LA Times)