Media Advisory

Aug. 22, 2005

Contact: Cindy Rank at 304-924-5802, Liz Garland at 304-637-7201, Janice Nease at 304-854-2182, Bill Price at 304-389-8822 (cell) or 304-854-1813, Vivian Stockman at 304-522-0246 or 304-360-1979 (cell)

What: Press Conference

When: 5:30 p.m. Wednesday Aug. 24, before the 6 p.m. OSM scoping meeting on environmental impact study of proposed stream buffer zone rule change

Where: Washington St. entrance of the Embassy Suites, Charleston WV

Who: Friends of the Mountain

Why: Citizens affected by mountaintop removal / valley fill coal mining denounce OSM meeting process and proposed stream buffer zone rule change

The stream buffer zone rule is clear, and it is clearly being broken. If the stream buffer zone rule of mining law were enforced, coal companies would not be able to construct as many valley fills as they do. The rule says no land within 100 feet of an intermittent or perennial stream shall be disturbed by surface mining operations.

Under the Bush administration, the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) wants to change the two-decade-old stream buffer zone rule of federal surface mining law so that coal companies practicing mountaintop removal mining can legally bury streams under millions of tons of former mountaintops. In March of 2004, hundreds of people attended public hearings across the coalfields and in DC to tell OSM to enforce, not weaken the buffer zone rule.

By agreeing to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement on its proposed rule change OSM is acknowledging that changing the Stream Buffer Zone rule could have a significant impact on the environment. The OSM is conducting this scoping meeting to collect input on what it should study for the EIS. OSM has held or will also hold these meetings in Knoxville, TN (Monday), Hazard, KY (Tuesday) and Pittsburgh, PA (Thursday).

Grassroots groups across the coalfields are disgusted by the process that OSM will be using at their initial EIS scoping meetings. OSM says it will not record transcripts of the meetings, nor will it allow the participants to hear what everyone has to say as the audience will be broken up into small groups.

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