EPA Halts Mountaintop Removal Mining Projects

The Environmental Protection Agency has put hundreds of mountaintop removal mining projects on hold while they evaluate the impact on streams and wetlands, officials announced on Tuesday. Mountaintop removal mining is an extremely environmentally damaging process, which allows coal mining companies to dump waste from mountaintop mining into certain waterways.

From The Huffington Post:

The EPA said in a statement that it would be actively involved in the review of the long list of permits awaiting approval by the Corps, a signal that the agency under the Obama administration will exercise its oversight.

The EPA has the authority to review and veto any permit issued by the Corps under the Clean Water Act, but under the Bush administration it did that rarely.

“If the EPA didn’t step in and do something now, all those permits would go forward,” said Joe Lovett, executive director for the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. “There are permits that will bury 200 miles of streams pending before the Corps.”

The EPA action stunned the coal industry, which had been breathing easily since the mid-February ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Last month, an appeals panel in Richmond, Virginia overturned a lower court’s ruling that would have required the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct more extensive reviews, hence the coal industry’s surprise. A spokesman for the National Mining Association called the hold on the permits “troubling”.

Does this mean mountaintop removal is on its way out? We can only hope that it’s a signal of a new beginning, but it will undoubtedly take a while before the process is stopped completely, if that ever even happens. But, this is a very encouraging sign. The campaigns to draw attention to the issue seem to be working.

It’s just amazing that we’re not writing negative posts about how the EPA is screwing the environment and human health anymore!

Link [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

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