EPA Announces New Clean Water Standards for Surface Mining Permits

By Johnny Kilroy on April 1, 2010 From Restoration campaign

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is releasing “comprehensive” permitting guidance for surface coal mining projects in Appalachia, in accordance with the Clean Water Act.

Using the best available science and following the law, the comprehensive guidance sets clear benchmarks for preventing significant and irreversible damage to Appalachian watersheds at risk from mining activity.


(Mountaintop removal site at Kayford Mountain, W. Va.  Photo:  SharedFerret via Flickr)

 

This is a major step toward the end of mountaintop removal mining, the rambunctious strip mining method that blasts off mountaintops and dumps the unwanted material into valleys and streams, grievously polluting them.  By establishing “benchmarks” for clean water, EPA will (if it holds to them) seriously restrict fill material dumping, making it virtually impossible for mining operations to conduct “business as usual.”  Luke Popovich, of the National Mining Association, told the Washington Post,

It could mean the end of an era.

.

In today’s guidance, EPA cites a scientific report, A Field-Based Aquatic Life Benchmark for Conductivity in Central Appalachian Streams, which sets a “benchmark for unacceptable levels of conductivity that threaten stream life in surface waters.”  Using this science, EPA caps salinity at 500 microSiemens per centimeter (5x normal levels), which it says should protect 95% of Appalachian aquatic life. 

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has been under the gun with mountaintop removal issue since she took office over 14 months ago.  Environmentalists want EPA to review permits more thoroughly (which it has) and to enforce the letter of the law (i.e. CWA), whereas the coal industry sees the careful scrutiny of permits as undue hindrance of the economy, while certain pundits think it’s cute to paint them as green gestapo out to get you with economically fatal standards. 


(EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.  Photo:  EPA.)


Jackson said today,

The people of Appalachia shouldn’t have to choose between a clean, healthy environment in which to raise their families and the jobs they need to support them.

This comes just a week after EPA stirred controversy by moving to block the largest surface mine in the history of West Virginia, the Spruce No. 1 mine project in Logan County.  EPA stated,

Attempts at dialogue with the company failed to ensure a significant decrease of environmental and water quality impacts from the project.

 

In addition to the clean water standards, EPA is also working to step up its own transparency with a website tracking permits under the Enhanced Coordination Procedure (ECP).

This was EPA Announces New Clean Water Standards for Surface Mining Permits, an entry in our Restoration Campaign from April 1, 2010. It was filed under Mining

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Have a tip for TENTHMIL.com? Let us know!

Name:

Email:

Are you human?

Related Restoration Entries

See more recent entries in Restoration

Active Discussions in Restoration

  1. Lee Ann Thompson commented on The Rivers Agreement
  2. Peter Maier commented on Rivers: America's Toxic Veins
  3. Lee Ann Thompson commented on INTERVIEW FROM A TREETOP: Treesitter Eric Blevins Talks to TENTHMIL from Coal River Mountain
  4. Jungle Chemist commented on Treesitters Come Down Off Coal River Mountain
  5. Lee Ann Thompson commented on War of the Waters 2: The California Front