Press Room
Clean Water Protection Act Introduced
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
Press Release from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
Effort Renewed in Congress to Protect Eastern Kentucky Waterways
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 4, 2009
CONTACTS:
Teri Blanton, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, 606-859-1648, teri@kftc.org
Stephanie Pistello, Alliance for Appalachia, 917-664-5511 Stephanie@appvoices.org
Jennifer Krimm (Rep. Ben Chandler), 202-225-4706
Stuart Perelmuter (Rep. John Yarmuth), 202-225-5401
Two downstream lawmakers are leading a broad bipartisan effort in Congress to protect the waters of Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville and Rep. Ben Chandler of Central Kentucky, along with 117 of their colleagues, are cosponsors of the Clean Water Protection Act, reintroduced Wednesday in Congress.
The bill will protect communities and water quality by outlawing the dumping of toxic mining waste into streams.
“The damage being caused by mountaintop removal is irreparable, and each day that we fail to act our water is poisoned, our land is destroyed, and our communities are harmed,” Rep. Yarmuth said. “We must enact the Clean Water Protection Act and put an end to the destruction that is devastating the natural resources for families and communities in Kentucky and throughout the region.”
“The Clean Water Protection Act is much-needed legislation to safeguard Kentucky’s fragile streams and creeks while maintaining a strong and viable coal industry,” said U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler. “In these hard economic times, Kentucky enjoys some of the lowest energy costs in the nation. However, we don’t have to sacrifice our environment, our watershed and our communities to do so.”
The CWPA was introduced to address a 2002 Bush administration executive rule change that altered the long-standing definition of “fill material” in the Clean Water Act. The new definition permits mining waste to be used to fill streams, allowing coal companies to dump millions of tons of rubble, or “excess spoil” into nearby valleys after they blast apart Kentucky’s mountaintops.
The resultant “valley fills” have buried thousands of acres of forests and hundreds of miles of streams, including the headwaters of the Kentucky, Upper Cumberland, Big Sandy and Licking rivers.
As a result, sedimentation is the number one pollutant in eastern Kentucky streams.
“This bipartisan legislation is a simple way to protect water quality and the quality of life for those affected by mountaintop mining,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, the bill’s author and chief sponsor. “It is unacceptable to allow the excess spoil from this type of mining to be dumped in mountain streams where it can pollute waterways, and in some cases potentially endanger the lives of area residents.”
“The federal government should not continue to give massive mining companies a free pass to dump their waste into nearby streams, and should instead protect residents who have been negatively impacted by this activity for too long.”
The Clean Water Protection Act has taken on an increased urgency following a widely critiqued U.S. Fourth Circuit Court decision last month involving a West Virginia case. The court ruled that coal companies can dump their wastes without acting to minimize stream destruction or conducting adequate environmental reviews.
Several eastern Kentucky residents were in Washington in January with Kentuckians For The Commonwealth to sign up members of Congress as cosponsors of the Clean Water Protection Act. They plan to go back later this month, along with allies from other central Appalachian states, western coal mining states and several Native American tribes to strengthen that support.
