This news story originally provided by WCHS TV

August 25, 2005

Environmentalists tell OSM to leave buffer-zone rule alone

CHARLESTON, W.Va.

Environmentalists are questioning a federal proposal that could change a mining rule limiting coal companies from disturbing land within 100 feet of streams.

Friends of the Mountains held a news conference this afternoon in Charleston. The event was held before the US Office of Surface Mining met to discuss the effects of possible revisions to buffer zones around streams in strip mining areas.

The agency says current policy is impossible to comply with.

The current rule says mining cannot disturb land within 100 feet of a stream unless a company can prove it will not affect water quality and quantity. The proposed change would require coal operators to minimize only to the extent possible any damage to streams, fish and wildlife by using the best technology available.

Bo Webb, a volunteer organizer for the group Coal River Valley, says the O-S-M should enforce the current rule, not weaken it.

Maria Gunnoe, who lives on Island Creek Mountain in Boone County, calls the proposed changes "absurd." She says the land altered by southern West Virginia mining operations contains hunting grounds and family cemeteries.