OVEC Action Alert - March 6, 2002

Act Now to Stop Valley Fill Redefinition

Don't let Bush OK more destruction of our mountains and valleys! Many state and national groups are joining together to ask all their supporters to take action against the Bush administration's proposed rule change that would legalize illegal valley fills and undermine the Clean Water Act. Last week we asked you to send a message directly to President Bush. Now, we want to bombard the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) with faxes on the proposed rule change.

If you already know the background information, click here to automatically send a fax to EPA head Christine Whitman and CEQ chair James Connaughton (you will have to take a moment to register first). The impact of the fax is greatly increased if you take a few minutes to personalize the message.

Alternately, you can cut and paste from the background information and sample letters below  and send your own fax to Whitman at 1-202-501-1450 and Cannaughton at 1-202-456-2710

Background: The Bush administration is very close to finalizing a new Clean Water Act rule that would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to permit companies to bury water bodies under piles of waste. Coal companies that want to continue to dump waste from mountaintop removal coal mining into Appalachian streams are lobbying for the rule change. Other mining interests - including hard rock mining companies - and others would also be allowed to dumps their wastes into waters under this new rule.

At issue is the Army Corps of Engineers' definition of 'fill' material. The Corps' current rules say that 'fills' - the activities the Corps is allowed to permit - cannot be made of waste. The new definition would say that 'any material that has the effect of replacing portions of waters with dry land or changing the bottom elevation of a water body' is permissible for use as 'fill'. This would allow the Corps to permit wastes to be used to fill waters of the US.

Two years ago, the Clinton administration proposed changing the definition of 'fill' under the Clean Water Act to allow the waste from mountain top removal coal mining (when they blow the tops off of mountains to get coal) to be dumped into streams. During the public comment period in the spring of 2000, grassroots activists (YOU!) sent in over 17,000 public comments protesting the rule changes. In the face of this overwhelming opposition, the Clinton administration decided not to finalize the proposal. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is poised to reverse that decision.

What does this mean? --A green light for more destruction of our mountains and valleys! --Any industry can throw their waste into a stream, wetland or river with a permit or approval from the Corps. --Millions of tons of coal waste, hard rock mining waste and other types of harmful wastes will be permitted to be dumped in our streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands.

WHAT CAN YOU DO: The Bush administration needs to hear loud and clear from thousands of citizens from around the country that allowing mining and other types of waste to be dumped in streams, lakes, rivers, and wetlands is contrary to the goals of the Clean Water Act and represents a major weakening of this important law. The President needs to protect our waters!

Sample Letter One:

Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Ariel Rios Bldg 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20460 Fax: 202-501-1450

James Cannaughton, Chair Council on Environmental Quality 722 Jackson Place, NW Washington, DC 20503RE: Proposed Rule: FR Doc. 00-9940 Fax: 202-456-2710

RE: Proposed Rule: FR Doc. 00-9940

Dear Ms. Whitman and Mr. Cannaughton,

I am deeply concerned that the Bush Administration is poised to change an important Clean Water Act regulation that would authorize the Army Corps of Engineers to permit industries to bury waters of the United States with waste materials.

I am also concerned that this rule will legalize the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, in which the tops of mountains are literally blown apart to reach seams of coal and the millions of tons of waste generated are dumped into nearby streams.

Please do not approve of any rule that would allow the disposal of millions of tons of industrial wastes into our waterways.

Sincerely,

Sample Letter Two:

Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Ariel Rios Bldg 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20460 Fax: 202-501-1450

James Cannaughton, Chair Council on Environmental Quality 722 Jackson Place, NW Washington, DC 20503RE: Proposed Rule: FR Doc. 00-9940 Fax: 202-456-2710

RE: Proposed Rule: FR Doc. 00-9940

Dear Ms. Whitman and Mr. Cannaughton,

I am writing in opposition to your administration's plans to go forward with the proposal to revise the definition of 'fill material' under the Clean Water Act in order to authorize the dumping of waste into our nation's streams, lakes, rivers and wetlands.

This rule change appears to be motivated by an effort to legalize the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, where coal companies blow the tops off of mountains and the waste generated is dumped into nearby valleys, destroying streams for miles and killing all stream life.

If this were not bad enough, it is equally alarming that this proposed rule change would also allow the Army Corps of Engineers to allow mining companies and other businesses to bury water bodies across the United States with all kinds of wastes, including other coal mining waste, hard rock mining waste and other industrial wastes.

I urge your administration to abandon this misguided effort to accelerate the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining by eliminating the current exclusion of waste from the existing and long-standing definition of 'fill material.' The offer to substitute a vague category of 'unsuitable fill material' for the waste exclusion contained in the proposed rule is unacceptable. While adding a category of 'unsuitable fill material' to supplement the exclusion of waste (and to distinguish from 'suitable fill' like liners, dirt, and gravel used to construct solid waste landfills, and wood chips used to support heavy machinery or build temporary roads) may be a good idea, the version proposed is too weak and vague to be helpful and would not be an adequate substitute for the broad waste exclusion that has been a part of the Clean Water Act rules for two decades.

Finally, it is simply incredible that your administration could propose such a significant and environmentally destructive change to the rules to allow waste dumps in waters and then suggest that an environmental impact statement is not required to evaluate the effect this change to the existing rules would have on the nation's waterways. If this rule change does not merit an EIS, what would?

While unifying the EPA's and Army Corps' definitions of 'fill material' makes sense, and the elimination of the primary purpose test will resolve some ambiguity in the current regulatory scheme, this proposed rule goes far beyond those legitimate goals and would result in an unconscionable weakening of the Clean Water Act by allowing the Corps to permit waters to be turned into waste dumps - the very thing the Act was adopted 30 years ago to prevent.

I urge you to amend the proposed rule and instead pursue a more limited and acceptable approach to changing the definition of *fill material* that does not allow solid fills made of wastes to destroy the nation's waters.

Sincerely,