Eugene Mullins standing at the base of a valley  fill (or what the coal industry calls an elevated  stream) at Puncheon Branch in Knott County,  Kentucky

        The proposed new rule actually encourages companies to mine in or bury streams.  It does this by exempting stream crossings, sedimentation ponds (which are build in streams), permanent valley fills (that bury streams), and coal waste disposal facilities (sludge ponds) from compliance with the stream buffer zone rule. If a company is only mining near a stream then, as the proposal reads,  it would still be subject to the buffer zone rule. In other words, coal companies are given incentives to mine using the most destructive method possible.

        The Bush administration, as well as state officials, have basically ignored the stream buffer zone rule for years.  According to the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) released with the rule change, coal companies in Central Appalachia created 1,603 valley fills between October 2001 and June 2005.  In this three-year, eight-month period the coal industry buried 367 miles of our nation’s headwater streams.  Instead of doing away with this important law, federal and state officials should fully enforce the stream buffer zone rule and protect our nation’s waterways!

Headwaters streams — important ecologically, economically and socially

Here's a sampling of scientific research on the important role of headwater streams to the health of local communities and the nation as a whole:

• The loss of the hydrologic retention capacity provided by headwater streams (i.e. the ability to hold and store water) results in increased frequency and intensity of flooding downstream as well as lower base flows (e.g. Dunne and Leopold 1978).
• Increased frequency and intensity of flooding results in increased channel erosion downstream (e.g. Trimble 1997).
• Reduced retention of sediments in headwater channels leads to excess sediment transport downstream; sediment accumulation in larger streams and rivers can affect fish spawning success and stream productivity (e.g. Waters 1995).
• The predominance of organic debris dams in headwater streams (e.g. Bilby and Likens 1980) provides sediment retention, important habitat structure, and sites for critical metabolic activity (e.g. Steinhart et al. 2000). These important functions are eliminated when headwaters are channelized, piped, or filled.
• Filling of stream valleys by mountaintop removal valley-fill coal mining has resulted in a greater proportion of fine particles in stream sediments and an altered flow and temperature regime downstream (Wiley et al. 2001). Substrate particle size, water temperature, and flow regime are physical parameters with significant impact on the biota of a stream (Allan 1995).
• The basic chemical composition of unpolluted streams draining a landscape is largely established in headwater streams (Gibbs 1970, Likens 1999, Johnson et al.2000).
• Small streams in the network are the sites of the most active uptake and retention of nutrients (Alexander et al. 2000, Peterson et al. 2001); hence elimination of small streams from the network results in increased downstream transport of nutrients … with eutrophication and groundwater contamination being likely consequences of loss of the nutrient retention capacity afforded by headwater streams.
• Headwater streams are sites for physical and biological processing of organic matter from the watershed such as falling leaves (e.g. Wallace et al. 1997) and a source of energy for downstream reaches (Kaplan et al. 1980). The dissolved organic matter and fine particles exported from headwaters are important food resources for ecosystems downstream (Vannote et al. 1980). Hence the elimination of small streams … can result in reduced inputs of food resources for downstream ecosystems.
• Small, spring-fed headwater streams can serve as thermal refuges for fishes, providing a refuge from freezing for stream fishes during winter (e.g. Power et al. 1999) and cool refuges for young-of-the-year during summer (e.g. Curry et al. 1997).
• Headwater streams provide unique habitats for numerous species. Their degradation and elimination from the landscape increases extinction vulnerability for aquatic invertebrate (e.g. Morse et al. 1993), amphibian, and fish species (e.g. Etnier 1997).

Burying headwater streams means increased flooding, lost recreation and tourism, and greater costs for the treatment of water.  Stop this unnecessary practice!