On Friday October 17th, the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) proposed a final draft of the rewrite of the Stream Buffer Zone Rule. This proposed rule change would exempt valley fills and sediment ponds from or sludge ponds from having to comply with the 100-foot buffer zone around streams. The new rule also changes the language from preventing mining with 100-feet of a stream to requiring that coal companies, to the extent possible, limit the damage done to a stream from mining. The new rule actually encourages the filling of streams.

It seems that right now the last and best hope for subverting this rule is for folks to write to the EPA and ask them to not agree with this rule change.

• Read OSM's rule change here.
• Take action to help stop this rule change. Be sure to also write to the presidential candidates. They have each said they oppose mountaintop removal mining. Now we need to ask them to commit to repealing this awful rule change.
  
• Read Jeff  Bigger's article on the Huffington Post
• Read the New York Time editorial about this rule change
• Read the Courier Journal article about the rule change
  

Since 1983, the Stream Buffer Zone Rule has existed to protect both streams that run at least 1 month in a year, intermittent streams, and streams that run all year long, perennial streams.

By relaxing the regulations of the Stream Buffer Zone rule the OSM is hoping to “streamline” the permitting process to make it easier for coal companies to get permits to mine, blow up mountains, and push them over burring the streams beneath valley fills of coal mining waste.

Some of the findings of the Final Environmental Impact Study done for the stream buffer zone rule were that between October 2001 and June 2005 coal mining created 1,603 valley fills in central Appalachia. This buried approximately 367 miles of headwater streams in just 3 years and 8 months.

Another effect of this rule change is states like Kentucky will no longer be forced to grant waivers to coal companies to allow them to bury streams. In the last three years nearly 50% of the coal mining permits received stream buffer zone waivers allowing coal companies to bury streams beneath valley fills.

In 2005 alone, the state issued 137 new or renewed coal mining permits. These permits allowed coal companies to bury 149 named streams. And this was only for the 137 new or renewed coal mining permits and does not include the 319 amendments to already existing permits issued in 2005 because it is impossible to tell if the stream buffer zone waivers in the amendments were issued for the amendment or if they were issued to the original mining permit.