Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chairman, this amendment simply strips the language that would block the implementation of the Stream Protection Rule.

We should not willfully delay or stop this rule. I am very familiar with mountaintop removal mining. When I was Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in the 1990s, mountaintop removal mining became the most prevalent coal mining technique in central Appalachia. I made more than 100 trips to Virginia's coalfields, and I know firsthand the negative impact mountaintop removal has had on the environment and on the health of these communities.

If we know of reasonable ways to mitigate negative effects, we should be doing everything in our power to implement them. That is why the Stream Protection Rule is so important.

During mountaintop removal, tens of thousands of cubic feet of mountaintops are blown off with explosives and pushed over the sides, filling mountain valleys with enormous waste piles.

These valley fills, as they are called, bury headwater streams and everything else that once populated the valley. Already, mountaintop removal mining has flattened more than 500,000 acres of forested land and permanently buried over 2,000 miles of streams, destroying sources that feed our water.

Emerging science has documented a dramatic decline in the diversity, the abundance, and the biomass of fish in streams with pollution that results from mining. It is the coal industry that asked the government to clearly define the expectations for environmental protection, and that is what this rule does. By introducing verified scientific methods and testing, the government provides regulatory certainty and achieves the environmental protection that is required by law.

Without this rule, stream destruction continues to occur and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement will remain vulnerable to more legal challenges. Local citizens will be forced to resort to the courts instead of having their government act to protect their welfare.

The stream protection rule is sufficiently flexible to accommodate the different regions where coal is mined. It is very different in Wyoming than it is in southwest Virginia. The rule is designed to prevent water pollution due to coal mining using current scientific understanding. It is designed to protect our families while protecting jobs. In fact, the Office of Surface Mining's analysis shows this rule will have minimal impact on coal companies and minimal job loss. The estimate is 10 lost jobs--10.

We have seen how necessary this rule is in Virginia. Water monitoring found that Kelly Branch Mine in Wise County dumped the toxic pollutant selenium into streams at levels way above State water quality standards and without a permit to allow such pollution. As a result of a citizen suit, Southern Coal Corporation has since agreed to perform environmental cleanup projects and pay penalties and attorney fees for these pollution violations.

But, Mr. Chairman, we shouldn't need lawsuits. This violation shouldn't happen in the first place. Now is the time to give the people of Appalachia and others around the country protections for their waterways that were promised to them by Congress.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment.

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chairman, may I ask how much time I have remaining.

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), the ranking member.

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chairman, with great respect to the subcommittee chairman, I was at the hearing all morning at Natural Resources a few months ago when we had the Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement on this exact issue. He deeply resisted the idea, what he called, I think it was, the fix or the myth that we weren't working closely with the States.

I completely agree with the subcommittee chairman that the Office of Surface Mining should work very closely with the States to develop this rule and, in fact, insisted that they had from the beginning of the Obama administration, picking up on what the Bush administration had done, right through today. I agree that this is appropriate, but I resist the wisdom of the truth that the States have been shut out of the process.

One more small point, but a really important point. A 2009 report on the NIH Web site estimated that coal mining cost Appalachia five times more in premature deaths--$42 billion--than it provided the region in all jobs, taxes, and other economic benefits from coal mining--just $8 billion.

We are not trying to get rid of coal. There is no war on coal. We just want to make sure that the people who are doing the work who live there are protected.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

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