Bush Administration repeals key parts of the Stream Buffer Act

The White House and the Environmental Protection Agency has repealed key parts of the Stream Buffer Act.  This 25-year-old act limited burial of streams by mountaintop removal mining and generally prohibits mining activities within 100 feet of perennial and intermittent streams. The Bush Administration has been working for nearly five years, since January 2004, to essentially eliminate this rule.

The change, which is being proposed by Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining (OSM), had to receive written approval from EPA before it could be finalized. That last hurdle was cleared today. Opponents of the repeal of the stream buffer rule argued that EPA could not legally approve the rule change because doing so conflicts with EPA's duties under the Clean Water Act.

"The EPA's own scientists have concluded that dumping mining waste into streams devastates downstream water quality," said Ed Hopkins, director of Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Program. "By signing off on a rule to eliminate a critical safeguard for streams, the EPA has abdicated its responsibility and left the local communities that depend on these waters at risk."

The folks at iLoveMountains.org have more coverage. Be sure to send a message to President-elect Obama telling him to end mountaintop removal coal mining.