Supporting Transparent Regulatory and Environmental Actions in Mining Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the STREAM Act, which is a dangerous and unnecessary bill that would delay the finalization of the Department of Interior's Stream Protection Rule. This critical rule will improve methods for monitoring and preventing damage to surface and groundwater from mountaintop removal coal mining.

Surface mining in the steep slopes of Appalachia has disrupted the biological integrity of an area about the size of Delaware, buried approximately 2,000 miles of streams with mining waste, and contaminated downstream areas with toxic elements. Because of this dangerous practice, people have been drinking the byproducts of coal waste from mountaintop removal for more than two decades. Rather than clean and clear water running out of their faucets, the people of Appalachia are left with orange or black liquid instead.

The health problems caused by exposure to these chemicals and heavy metals include cancers, organ failure, and learning disabilities. Not only that, but there are multiple cases of children suffering from asthma, headaches, nausea, and other symptoms likely due to toxic contamination from coal dust. This is environmental injustice.

The people of Appalachia should have the right to send their children to a school not threatened by billions of gallons of coal slurry; the right to preserve the streams and valleys that have been part of their way of life; and the right to protect their own land, no matter how much coal might be underneath.

I have consistently introduced legislation, the Clean Water Protection Act, which would put a stop to mountaintop removal mining, and I plan to reintroduce the bill in the beginning of this year. I urge my colleagues to oppose the legislation before us today that will only perpetuate the dangerous practice of mountaintop removal mining.

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