New rules will restore and protect water sources
A public hearing will be held in Green Tree next week on proposed federal rules aimed at protecting streams from the impacts of coal mining, a contentious issue particularly in Washington and Greene counties where longwall mining is employed.
The proposed rules, issued in July by the Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, would update regulations in effect since 1983.
The rulemaking “incorporates a combination of the latest science and technology and a common-sense approach to protecting people and the environment while coal mining continues,” Joe Pizarchik, OSMRE director, said in announcing the hearing dates.
“The rule will protect about 6,500 miles of streams nationwide over a period of 20 years, preventing mining-related pollution that threatens communities and the environment,” he said.
The proposed rules take advantage of advances in science and mining technology and would require coal companies to avoid mining practices that permanently damage streams and drinking water sources, OSMRE said.
They also will require mining companies to restore streams and to return mined areas to their previous form and uses to better protect habitat for fish and wildlife.
OSMRE scheduled six public hearings on the proposed rules, one of which will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, in the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel at 500 Mansfield Ave. in Green Tree.
Regulations regarding stream protection have been an issue particularly in Greene County in relation to longwall mining beneath streams feeding the former Duke Lake at Ryerson Station State Park.
The Center for Coalfield Justice environmental group applauded OSMRE’s actions to update the regulations, said Veronica Coptis, who is the center’s deputy director.
“This is the first time the office of surface mining has proposed regulations on subsidence damage to streams from longwall mining,” Coptis said.
The rules address Pennsylvania’s failure to adequately protect streams from mining, she said, and would prohibit the issuance of mine permits that predict dewatering of not only perennial streams but also intermittent streams.
“We think the rules are very important (in regard to) longwall mining and will provide very good stream protection at the federal level,” she said.
The center will testify at the hearing and is providing free bus transportation to residents who wish to attend from Morgantown, W.Va., Waynesburg and Washington.
The National Mining Association also will testify on the proposed rules and is “very much opposed to them on multiple grounds,” NMA spokesman Luke Popovich said.
Popovich said the rules are irrelevant and are a duplication of existing regulations already enforced by state and the federal regulatory agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency.
OSMRE’s own annual reports on state regulatory programs indicate the vast majority of coal operators are in compliance with the existing water quality regulations, he said. The proposed rules also are “massive” and much more extensive than those proposed four or five years ago that would have primarily required operators to leave buffers zones around streams.
The new proposed rules would require the coal operator to address an entire watershed, Popovich said. They also would be more costly and result in the loss of many more coal mining jobs than those projected in the earlier round of rulemaking, he said.
The first public hearing by OSMRE on the proposed rules was held Monday in Denver. Other hearings are scheduled to be held in Charleston, W.Va., Lexington, Ky., Big Stone Gap, Va., and St. Louis.