Tell the Bush administration not to let mining companies destroy valleys and streams

Special alert: Tell the Bush administration not to let mining
companies destroy valleys and streams with mining waste
Comments are due November 23rd, so take action now at
http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_111407

======================================================

The Office of Surface Mining is proposing changes to its stream
buffer zone rule, first adopted in 1983, that would make it
easier for mining companies to bury natural streams and valleys
under piles and ponds of mining waste. The changes would relax
environmental standards for the same mountaintop removal mining
operations that, even under the stricter existing buffer rule,
have flattened over a half-million acres and buried hundreds of
miles of streams. The headwater streams threatened by the rule
changes provide valuable habitat and feed larger waters that
provide drinking water, fishing and other recreational
opportunities.

In 2004, when the Office of Surface Mining first proposed
relaxing the buffer rule, NRDC urged the agency to abandon its
proposal and to focus instead on better enforcement of the
existing rule. The agency responded by conducting an
environmental review of its proposal, which was released in
August. The review confirms that the proposed changes would
result in the destruction of hundreds more miles of streams and
valleys in Appalachia, a region already hard-hit by mining
practices. But despite these conclusions, the agency is pressing
ahead with its proposal.

The Office of Surface Mining is accepting public comments on its
proposed rule change through Friday, November 23rd.

== What to do ==
Send a message, before the November 23rd comment deadline,
urging the Office of Surface Mining not to allow mining
companies to profit by destroying America's streams.

== Contact information ==
You can send an official comment to the Office of Surface Mining
directly from NRDC's Action Center at
http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/nrdcaction_111407

Or use the contact information and sample letter below to send
your own message.

Attn: RIN 1029-AC04
Brent Wahlquist, Director, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation
and Enforcement
1951 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room 252 SIB
Washington, DC 20240
Fax: 202-219-0253

== Sample letter ==

Subject: Don't change the current stream buffer zone rule

Dear Director Wahlquist,

I urge the Office of Surface Mining to abandon its proposal to
relax the decades-old stream buffer zone rule to make it easier
for mining companies to fill natural streams with mining waste.
Your proposal would destroy the headwater streams that support
important drinking, fishing and recreational uses; is at odds
with the Clean Water Act and other laws; and endorses decades of
destructive mining practices.

Your agency's environmental impact analysis on the proposed rule
changes estimates that over 700 miles of streams in central
Appalachia have already been buried by valley fills, and that
over 1,200 miles of streams in the region were directly harmed
by mining activities, including waste disposal, between 1992 and
2002 alone. The analysis also estimates that mining projects
approved between 2001 and 2005 will directly affect over 500
miles of streams. The rule changes would accelerate these trends
by relaxing the conditions under which mining companies,
particularly those engaged in mountaintop removal mining, may
obtain approval to permanently bury streams and fill valleys
with rock, soil, mining sludge and other wastes.

Instead of turning its back on the existing buffer zone rule,
which was adopted in 1983 to protect natural streams from the
most direct impacts of mining, the Office of Surface Mining
should commit itself and the state mining agencies it oversees
to strictly enforcing that rule. Mountaintop removal mining has
already flattened a half-million acres and buried hundreds of
miles of streams. Mining companies should not be given a new
opportunity to profit at the expense of America's fragile
headwater streams.

I urge you to abandon your proposed changes to the stream buffer
zone rule and to instead focus the Office of Surface Mining's
efforts on better enforcement of the existing rule.

Sincerely,

[Your name and address]