[PCA] NEWS: EPA to gut mountaintop mining rule protecting streams

[Olivia Kwong]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081203/sc_mcclatchy/3114181

EPA to gut mountaintop mining rule protecting streams
By Renee Schoof and Bill Estep, McClatchy Newspapers
Tue Dec 2, 7:52 pm ET

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved a 
last-minute rule change by the Bush administration that will allow coal 
companies to bury streams under the rocks leftover from mining.

The 1983 rule prohibited dumping the fill from mountaintop removal mining 
within 100 feet of streams. In practice, the government hadn't been 
enforcing the rule. Government figures show that 535 miles of streams were 
buried or diverted from 2001 to 2005, more than half of them in the 
mountains of Appalachia. Along with the loss of the streams has been an 
increase of erosion and flooding.

See the link above for the full artice text.