FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 17, 2007

Weakening of Stream Buffer Rule Could Have Irreversible Impacts on Area Streams
Public Hearing Offers Opportunity for Citizens to Voice Concerns

Melcroft, PA – On August 24, 2007, the Bush Administration, through the federal Office of Surface Mining, proposed to significantly weaken the “buffer zone rule.”  This stream protection, written into the Clean Water Act, prohibits coal-mining activities from occurring within 100 feet of streams unless those activities will have no impact on water quality or quantity.  Weakening of the stream buffer rule, which has been in place for over two decades, will allow coal companies to dump massive amounts of waste directly into streams, destroying them completely. 

“The Administration’s proposed rule essentially removes the idea of a ‘buffer’ from the buffer zone rule,” stated Krissy Kasserman, Youghiogheny Riverkeeper with the Mountain Watershed Association.  “The weakened rule proposed by the Office of Surface Mining will irreversibly impact communities and water supplies in the coalfields.”

According to local groups working to remediate area streams from abandoned mine drainage, the lack of a buffer zone rule will have grave implications for streams throughout the coal-mining areas of the entire nation.  Much attention has been focused on the potential impacts in areas where mountaintop removal mining is practiced, but the impacts will also be felt in the many other areas of the country where coal mining is prevalent.

“The Mountain Watershed Association has spent the last ten years cleaning up abandoned mine drainage in the Indian Creek Watershed.  We have spent millions of dollars on treatment systems and have finally made great strides toward improved water quality,” said Beverly Braverman, the Association’s Executive Director.  “If this proposed rule is adopted, we will have an entirely different issue to contend with, and that is the legalized burying of our streams to appease special interest groups.”

A public hearing on the proposed changes to the stream buffer rule will be held on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at the Ramada Inn in Washington, PA at 6:00 PM.  Community members are encouraged to attend and offer testimony about the potential impacts the weakened stream buffer rule will have on communities and water supplies in the coalfields.

“The Office of Surface Mining, under the Bush Administration, has proposed to change the stream buffer rule to conform to the desires of coal operators, rather than requiring the coal industry to conform to the existing law,” stated Rebekah Weigel of the Center for Coalfield Justice.  “Thursday’s hearing is an opportunity for the community to tell the Office of Surface Mining that we need this stream protection in order to protect our water supplies and improve our quality of life in the coalfields.”

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