OVEC Action Alert - Feb. 26, 2002

Two URGENT action items:

Overweight Coal Trucks 

Valley Fills - Don't let President Bush legalize valley fills at mountaintop removal operations! 

Overweight Coal Trucks:  Coal truck legislation, including HB4014—the bill that would make for stricter enforcement of current weight laws for coal trucks—will be on the House Judiciary Committee agenda for Feb 26 afternoon meeting, after the floor session, sometime between 1pm and 3pm. The rumor is that they are going to move the industry bill (HB4529), and that Delegate Caputo is going to offer an amendment to take out the weight increase. However, there is also a rumor that the industry may offer an amendment to increase the weight limit. Their bill was amended by the sub-committee, from 132,000 pounds to allow a temporary increase of 120,000 pounds to be phased out/down to existing weight limits by 2006. The committee room is small, but it would be great if some folks could attend the meeting.

Apparently, these legislators -- Dale Manuel at 340-3248, Sharon Spencer at 340-3287, Barbara E. Fleischauer at 340-3169, John Pino at 340-3114, and Joe Smith at 340-3396 –need to hear from you. Ask them to please support enforcement of the current coal truck weights limits.

VOTE for enforcing current weight limits in an on-line poll at www.dailymail.com. Scroll down to QUICK VOTE. At the moment, those who want the weights limits increased are ahead.

From our friends at West Virginia Rivers Coalition and Clean Water Network

Urgent -- Valley Fills -- Don't let President Bush legalize valley fills at mountaintop removal operations!  Call or write today and ask your friends to do the same.

Tell the President to Keep Mining Waste Out of West Virginia's Waters!

The Bush administration wants to legalize large valley fills from mountaintop removal coal mining operations. You may remember that the Clinton administration tried to do the same thing a couple of years ago. Thanks to action from folks like you, we were able to keep that bad decision at bay. But now, the Bush administration is looking legalize the dumping of mining waste in West Virginia's streams.

The rule change would modify the Army Corps of Engineers' definition of "fill" material, allowing the Army Corps of Engineers to permit filling of West Virginia's streams with mining waste from mountaintop removal operations. Because the Corps' took public comment on a similar proposal two years ago, the Bush administration is planning to finalize the rule without any public notice that this rule change is under consideration or any additional opportunity for comment.

In West Virginia alone, there have been 1,000 miles of streams buried by valley fills. Because the administration is going forward with the new rule without opening a new comment period, we need to get a lot of messages to the President as quickly as possible!

When the Clinton administration proposed changing the definition of fill material to eliminate the waste exclusion, they did so to overturn federal Judge Charles Haden's decision that limits large valley fills from mountaintop removal operations. During the public comment period in the Spring of 2000, over 17,000 public comments were registered protesting the rule changes. In the face of this overwhelming opposition, the Clinton administration decided not to finalize the proposal. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is poised to reverse that decision.

Action:

Send a letter to President Bush opposing the rule change! Use the sample letter below. You can send your letter by e-mail to the President at president@whitehouse.gov or you can send an e-mail directly via Clean Water Network's Legislative Action Center by clicking here.

Or even better, send your letter via snail mail to the address on the sample letter. Better yet, since snail mail is suspect these days, fax your letter to 1-202-456-2461.

If you have time, also call the White House comment line at 202-456-1414 and tell them: "I am opposed to the administration's change to the definition of 'fill material' that would legalize large valley fills from mountaintop removal coal mines."

Tell your friends!!

Sample Letter:

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500

RE: Proposed Rule: FR Doc. 00-9940

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing in opposition to your administration's plans to go forward with the proposal to revise the definition of "fill material" under the Clean Water Act in order to authorize the dumping of waste into West Virginia's rivers and streams.

This rule change appears to be motivated by an effort to legalize large valley fills from mountaintop removal coal mining, where coal companies blow the tops off mountains and the waste is dumped into nearby valleys, destroying hundreds of miles of streams and killing all stream life.

If this were not bad enough, it is equally alarming that this proposed rule change would also allow the Army Corps of Engineers to allow mining companies and other businesses to bury waters across the United States with all kinds of wastes, including other coal mining waste, hardrock mining waste and other industrial wastes.

I urge your administration to abandon this misguided effort to accelerate the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. The offer to substitute a vague category of "unsuitable fill material" for the waste exclusion contained in the proposed rule is unacceptable. While adding a category of "unsuitable fill material" to supplement the exclusion of waste (and to distinguish from "suitable fill" like liners, dirt, and gravel used to construct solid waste landfills, and wood chips used to support heavy machinery or build temporary roads) may be a good idea, the version proposed is too weak and vague to be helpful and would not be an adequate substitute for the broad waste exclusion that has been a part of the Clean Water Act rules for two decades.

Finally, it is simply incredible that your administration could propose such a significant and environmentally destructive change to the rules to allow waste dumps in waters and then suggest that an environmental impact statement is not required to evaluate the effect this change to the existing rules would have on the nation's waterways. If this rule change does not merit an EIS, what would?

While unifying the EPA's and Army Corps' definitions of "fill material" makes sense, and the elimination of the primary purpose test will resolve some ambiguity in the current regulatory scheme, this proposed rule goes far beyond those legitimate goals and would result in an unconscionable weakening of the Clean Water Act by allowing the Corps to permit waters to be turned into waste dumps - the very thing the Act was adopted 30 years ago to prevent.

I urge you to amend the proposed rule and instead pursue a more limited and acceptable approach to changing the definition of "fill material" that does not allow the proliferation of large, illegal valley fills from mountaintop removal operations that destroy West Virginia's streams.

Sincerely,