EPA Clarifies: We Are Not Halting Mountaintop Mining

[druidity33]

from the Washington Independent:
http://washingtonindependent.com/35617/epa-clarifies-we-are-not-halting-mountaintop-mining?ref=fp6

The Environmental Protection Agency, which yesterday proclaimed the likelihood that several mountaintop mining projects in Kentucky and West Virginia would ruin local streams in defiance of the Clean Water Act, clarified last night that its plans to scrutinize those operations should not be confused with plans to halt them.

direct from the EPA:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/D526015B8E11B49C852575840002BEF7

The Environmental Protection Agency is not halting, holding or placing a moratorium on any of the mining permit applications. Plain and simple. EPA has issued comments on two pending permit applications to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expressing serious concerns about the need to reduce the potential harmful impacts on water quality.

ugh.

that sucks.
:(

[FLAprogressive]

1. Change We Can Believe In

[Buzz Clik]

4. As George Bush discovered, EPA regulations take a bit of time to reverse.

It will be reversed, but not in the first 60 days of the new administration.

[FLAprogressive]

5. We can only hope. Mountaintop removal has devastated Appalachia.

[ThomWV]

9. You want to know someting? That statement is simply not true.

I am not saying that to embarass or somehow be snarky, its just a simple fact that strip mining and more particularly 'mountain top removal' has not devastated Appalacia at all.

[druidity33]

6. I'm not so sure...

we'll have to see. More from the EPA website:

"We fully anticipate that the bulk of these pending permit applications will not raise environmental concerns. In cases where a permit does raise environmental concerns, we will work expeditiously with the Army Corps of Engineers to determine how these concerns can be addressed. EPA’s submission of comments to the Corps on draft permits is a well-established procedure under the Clean Water Act to assure that environmental considerations are addressed in the permitting process."


:shrug:

[Buzz Clik]

8. The current crop of offending bureaucrats must be removed before things start moving.

Let's check back in six months.

[Wapsie B]

2. Did they bring James Watt back as Secretary of the Interior?

[Buzz Clik]

3. EPA is a cabinet-level department and not under Interior.

[peacebird]

7. nits nits nits - James Watt was the bastard Reagan put in as head of EPA when I was there

He destroyed the moral at EPA and he gave industry wholesale passes for damn near everything. If it was good for industry then it was good enough for him - he didn't give a damn about the environment.