AFS Cinema
Administration Gobbledygook
RECEIVED Mon., March 8, 2004
Dear Editor,
Your recent column by Jim Hightower ["The Hightower Report," News, Feb. 27] contains several mischaracterizations of fact.
First, mountaintop mining, including "mountaintop removal," with the disposal of excess rock or "spoil" in the upper reaches of drainage channels, has been a common method of mining coal in southern Appalachia for at least three decades and has been expressly authorized and regulated by Federal law since 1977.
Second, our Jan. 7, 2004, proposal to strengthen our excess spoil rules, if adopted, would provide measurable and enforceable standards that coal mine operators would have to meet. We expect that the proposal changes would reduce the number and size of future valley fills.
Third, our Jan. 7, 2004, proposal to also clarify our stream buffer zone is, indeed, a clarification. For over 20 years, regulatory authorities have applied our stream buffer zone requirements and worked to limit the downstream impacts from valley fill placement. However, that rule has never been an "outright prohibition" against disturbing land within 100 feet of a stream, and has never been used as such. However, recent federal court rulings, later invalidated, have shown us that the rule is vulnerable to serious misinterpretation and might need clarification.
Finally, I would note that the Clean Water Act has not been revised. Instead, while it is not our rule, a regulatory definition of fill under the Clean Water Act, which was proposed in April 2000 during the previous administration, was finalized in 2002.
Because you have raised concerns about our Jan. 7, 2004, proposal in your editorial, we will include it in the administrative record for the proposed rule and more fully respond to those concerns in any final action on our proposed rule changes.
Your recent column by Jim Hightower ["The Hightower Report," News, Feb. 27] contains several mischaracterizations of fact.
First, mountaintop mining, including "mountaintop removal," with the disposal of excess rock or "spoil" in the upper reaches of drainage channels, has been a common method of mining coal in southern Appalachia for at least three decades and has been expressly authorized and regulated by Federal law since 1977.
Second, our Jan. 7, 2004, proposal to strengthen our excess spoil rules, if adopted, would provide measurable and enforceable standards that coal mine operators would have to meet. We expect that the proposal changes would reduce the number and size of future valley fills.
Third, our Jan. 7, 2004, proposal to also clarify our stream buffer zone is, indeed, a clarification. For over 20 years, regulatory authorities have applied our stream buffer zone requirements and worked to limit the downstream impacts from valley fill placement. However, that rule has never been an "outright prohibition" against disturbing land within 100 feet of a stream, and has never been used as such. However, recent federal court rulings, later invalidated, have shown us that the rule is vulnerable to serious misinterpretation and might need clarification.
Finally, I would note that the Clean Water Act has not been revised. Instead, while it is not our rule, a regulatory definition of fill under the Clean Water Act, which was proposed in April 2000 during the previous administration, was finalized in 2002.
Because you have raised concerns about our Jan. 7, 2004, proposal in your editorial, we will include it in the administrative record for the proposed rule and more fully respond to those concerns in any final action on our proposed rule changes.
Sincerely,
Brent Wahlquist
Regional Director
Office of Surface Mining
United States Department of the Interior
Brent Wahlquist
Regional Director
Office of Surface Mining
United States Department of the Interior
[Jim Hightower replies: If you decipher the gobbledygook, this Department of the Interior guy agrees with me, saying that, yes, mountaintop removal is grotesque, it's been going on for 25 years, and they're going to keep it up. My point is that it should be stopped. For background on this issue and to see pictures for yourself, check out Appalachian Voices, www.appvoices.org.]