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March 30--We Need You March 30 in Charleston
DC-Area Folks We Need You at a Noon Press Conference with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
URGENT! MARCH 30 IN CHARLESTON
If you want to see an end to mountaintop removal, then please come to Charleston on Tuesday, March 30 for the public hearing on a proposed buffer zone rule change. Join us at 5:30 p.m. outside the front entrance to the Charleston Civic Center (200 Civic Center Drive). The hearing itself is from 6-9 p.m. We'll hand out talking points to help you make your own comments about the rule change. We'll also hand out Friends of the Mountains stickers you can sport inside the hearing.
The buffer zone rule protects streams from mountaintop removal coal mining. The stream buffer zone rule prevents coal mining activities from disturbing land within 100 feet of an intermittent or perennial streams, unless industry can demonstrate that it would NOT harm water quality or quantity. The 1983 rule is a critical part of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), and it is supposed to protects stream from the devastating impacts of mountaintop removal. Please speak up to stop the Bush administration from gutting this rule!
Let us know if we can count on you to come to this hearing! If you need a ride, call the office at 304-522-0246. There are also hearings in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Also see Buffer Zone Talking Points.
IN DC--HELP STOP MTR: COME TO MARCH 30 NOON PRESS CONFERENCE WITH KENNEDY AND 2 P.M. HEARING
If you are in the DC area, here's your chance to make a difference locally! (Please forward to everyone you know in DC area.) Please join coalfield residents from WV, KY, TN, and PA at a press conference organized by several national environmental groups. After the press conference come to the public hearing on the buffer zone rule change.
Press Conference: park across from Interior - 12:00 pm C Street between 18th and 19th NW, Washington DC Speakers to include: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Congressman Frank Pallone National Environmental Leaders Coalfield Residents other Members of Congress invited
Hearing: U.S. Dept. of Interior - 2:00-4:00 pm 1951 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington DC C Street entrance - Photo ID required
This Public Hearing represents the first time the Bush administration has invited people in the Washington DC area to speak out on one of its many destructive, anti-environmental rulemakings. This is an important opportunity to raise the profile of this issue to the national level, to highlight the Bush administration's willingness to bow to corporate interests at the expense of the environment, and to take action against one of the administration's most destructive actions.
Streams at Risk
A 1983 rule prohibits coal-mining activities from disturbing areas within 100 feet of an intermittent or perennial stream. The Bush administration is proposing a new rule that would allow coal companies to dump massive amounts of waste directly into streams, destroying them forever. Already, over 1,200 miles of streams in Appalachia have been buried by mountaintop removal mining waste causing flooding and destruction in the surrounding communities. Rather than enforce the law against this kind of destruction, the Bush administration is, instead, taking away stream protections.
Contact Sarah Wilhoite, Policy Associate for Earthjustice, at (202) 667-4500 or swilhoite@earthjustice.org for more information or to RSVP (not required).
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