(AP)
AP
BECKLEY —
Mine operators heaped criticism Tuesday on the federal government’s plan to extensively rewrite the rules designed to protect streams from surface coal mines.
Officials with the West Virginia Coal Association and mine operator International Coal Group contend the plan by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement is really an attempt to eliminate surface mining in Appalachia.
The agency came to Beckley on Tuesday to take public comment on what it should include in an environmental impact statement it plans to write for surface coal mining nationally. The document would be used as the basis for new stream buffer rules. The aim is to reverse last-minute Bush-era rules criticized as too friendly to coal companies.
The issue has centered on West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee. The Obama administration has set out to curb the efficient but much maligned practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.
Mountaintop jobs use explosives and heavy equipment to expose multiple coal seams, but generate large amounts of excess material that typically is placed atop streams in what are known as valley fills. The administration has set out to eliminate fills that it says damage water quality.
“OSM is trying to step in and do a one-size-fits-all program,” ICG senior vice president Gene Kitts said. “Why are you doing this for any other reason besides politics?”
Coal Association President Bill Raney called the OSM plan to standardize protections is a violation of states’ rights. Federal law currently leaves much of the regulation of surface coal mining to states.
“OSM’s trying to put themselves in the water-quality arena. That is an area that belongs to the EPA, that belongs to the states,” Raney said during a telephone interview. Raney was not among the handful of people who showed up at the Beckley event during the afternoon, which he called “another continuing effort of the federal government to diminish coal mining in Appalachia.”
The sparse crowd included just a few surface mining opponents, who contributed written comments to OSM.
OSM isn’t targeting the region, engineer and Pittsburgh branch chief Lois Uranowski said.
“Anywhere where there is a stream near a mine, this rule will impact,” she said. For instance, mine operators in Texas or Wyoming could see major changes if the agency sets national standards for how surface mines are reclaimed.
“One area we’re looking at is putting the topography back,” Uranowski said. “In the process of applying for a permit, they will have to develop terrain models, hopefully.”
