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This news article originally provided by
The
Charleston Gazette
Hearing held ahead of 30th anniversary of surface mine act on Aug. 3
A 30-year-old federal strip mine law has not stopped coal
operators from blowing up mountains, displacing coalfield
communities, and burying hundreds of miles of streams, a
congressional committee heard Wednesday.
Federal and state regulators have failed to enforce the 1977 law,
and courts have eroded the ability of citizens to force compliance,
according to testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee.
Brian Wright, director of coal policy for the Hoosier
Environmental Council in Indiana, said that the law has fixed only
“some of the most egregious mining practices.”
“Coalfield residents must still contend with contamination and
loss of local groundwater, blasting damage to homes, unresponsive
regulatory agencies, large-scale open dumping of industrial wastes
into mines, and growing concern about subsidence from longwall
mining,” Wright told lawmakers.
Four hours of testimony
Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., agreed that the goal
of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act “remains elusive”
and blamed lax oversight by the federal Office of Surface Mining
Reclamation and Enforcement.
“My sense is that the agency is once again adrift, floating in a
sea of coalfield citizen unrest and industry desire to have
regulatory stability,” said Rahall, who served on the conference
committee that wrote the law.
Rahall scheduled Wednesday’s lengthy hearing in anticipation of
the Aug. 3 anniversary of President Carter’s signing of the law,
known as SMCRA.
For nearly four hours, 15 speakers testified. They represented
OSM, state regulatory agencies, citizen groups, the United Mine
Workers and the coal industry.
Rahall grilled OSM officials about what he said is a central
issue in the debate over mountaintop removal: whether strip mines in
Appalachia are being forced to either reclaim the land to its
approximate original contour, or provide for some sort of
post-mining development of the site.
No clear definition
Rahall complained that OSM has never clearly defined approximate
original contour, or AOC. Many mine operators take advantage of
this, he said. They classify their mines as meeting the AOC
standard, even though they change elevation by hundreds of feet or
modify the topography greatly. OSM’s lack of a clear definition
allows these mines to avoid the post-mining development requirements
for an AOC variance, Rahall said.
Glenda Owens, deputy OSM director, responded that her agency was
considering issuing national guidance to more clearly define AOC.
In an unusual move, Owens also appeared to agree with Rep. Jay
Inslee, D-Wash., that federal environmental laws should not — and do
not — allow coal operators to bury hundreds of miles of Appalachian
streams.
Greg Conrad, executive director of the Interstate Mining Compact
Commission, said mining states need more funding help from OSM to
properly regulate the coal industry.
OSM grants to states have “flat-lined” and become “stagnant” over
the last decade, Conrad said.
Testimony differs
But Stephanie Timmermeyer, secretary of the state Department of
Environmental Protection, painted a better picture of mining,
reclamation and enforcement in West Virginia.
Timmermeyer said strict standards protect water quality, ensure
quality reclamation and resulted in “many new commercial
developments” on previously mined land.
“Both mining and environmental protection are big business in our
state,” Timmermeyer told committee members.
Joe Lovett, director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy
and the Environment, said Timmermeyer was misleading committee
members about the situation in West Virginia.
Lovett agreed with Rahall about the state and federal
government’s failure to enforce the AOC reclamation standard.
“The act requires that the post-mining land generally resemble
the surface configuration of pre-mining land,” Lovett said. “Anybody
can look at these mines and know that is not the case.”
Ellen Pfister, a Montana rancher and longtime activist, told
committee members that Appalachia isn’t the only place where mining
damages the environment.
In the West, huge strip mines disrupt aquifers. Water pours into
mining pits and is polluted by waste rock and dirt, Pfister
explained. “We don’t have mountaintop removal in the West, but we
have aquifer removal,” she said.
Criticism of OSM
Walt Morris, a longtime environmental group lawyer based in
Virginia, said OSM — created to protect coalfield residents — now
refuses to provide routine public records or schedule citizen
inspections.
Morris also explained that rulings by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals have taken away citizens’ rights to challenge lax state
enforcement in federal court.
“Public participation under the Surface Mining Act has become so
hobbled that, as a practical matter, citizens can no longer play the
important supporting role that Congress envisioned,” Morris said.
Clear up ‘redundancy’
Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said
the appeals court decisions have protected his industry from
unreasonable local judges and frivolous citizen lawsuits.
Raney urged Rahall’s committee to clear up “overlapping
redundancy” between the strip mine law and the Clean Water Act that
provides “fertile ground for harassing lawsuits and judicially
inspired regulatory confusion.”
Also, Raney complained that the AOC rule forces companies to put
back hills that would be better left flat for possible future
development.
“The travesty is there is a lot of level ground that is being
stacked back up to 60 percent slopes,” Raney said.
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call
348-1702.
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