Remember last December when Bush forced through an 11th hour rule change to the Stream Buffer Zone (SBZ)? Basically, this made it even easier to dump waste from mountaintop removal mines into streams.
Well, today Sec. Salazar announced that they would attempt to vacate the rule change on the grounds that it wasn’t legal. Which is good.
Salazar also mentioned that the original 1983 SBZ rule would continue to be enforced as it has been in the past – meaning it will not be enforced at all. Which is bad. Remember that over 2,000 miles of streams were destroyed under the current enforcement of the stream buffer zone rule.
Granted, the Bush rule change would have been worse – but Salazar’s vacating of the rule change doesn’t make anything better. A complete lack of oversight from state and federal agencies has allowed outlaw mining companies to blast central Appalachia to pieces. Unless the adminstration comes out in favor of strict enforcement of the law, this destruction will continue.
Thus, according to Salazar’s statements today citizens are looking at more of the same destruction — which includes over 100 pending mountaintop removal permits that would destroy hundreds of miles of mountain streams and the nearby communities that depend on them. This announcement has left citizen groups with hundreds of questions about what the decision means for existing mines, pending permits and recent EPA actions.
Hopefully the Obama administration will make a swift and transparent decision to end mountaintop removal and valley fills — and then enforce the law– because we can’t afford to lose one more mountain.
Salazar and others in the Obama Administration know they have a perfectly effective altrernative to raping mountain tops. Namely, cultivating industrial hemp. Unfortunately they do not have the character of real leadership needed to repeal the DEA regs that only allow cultivation of industrial hemp under DEA license and permits. Each acre of industrial hemps produces 500 gallons of clean fuel. Moreover, what the Obama Administration is also foregoing, for the votes and money of the coal industry, is the opportunities to make our streams sources of hydro kinetic energy.
As usual those who have no voice lose everything to those who do. How much pooer can an Administration make this region of the country with its crass political choices? Is the the change we can expect when the fossil fuel industry waves its dollars and bullyclub?