US EPA Approves Mountaintop Mining Stream Buffer Zone Rule
While the EPA said the Interior Department-proposed rule will include environmental improvements, groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council criticized the decision and said it will weaken standards for the industry.
The EPA said the rule was intended to reduce the impacts of surface coal mining and provide clear standards for mining near water.
But Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the NRDC said, "The EPA's concurrence and approval of this defective rule governing coal mining is ecologically and economically indefensible," threatening the health of thousands of people and hundreds of communities in Appalachia.
The NRDC said the changes to the Stream Buffer Zone rule "will bury hundreds of miles of streams with rock, soil, mining sludge and other wastes, contaminating drinking water supplies throughout Appalachia, one of the poorest regions in the country."
The EPA said it had worked closely with the Interior's Office of Surface Mining to enhance the environmental provisions in the final rule, including requiring that no mining may occur near streams that would violate federal and state water quality standards.
-By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-9285; ian.talley@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 02, 2008 17:10 ET (22:10 GMT)
Publié le 02 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones
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