H.R. 2824

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to c, which would roll back a Reagan-era rule to protect Appalachian streams and communities from mining waste contamination.

In 1983, in order to protect ground and surface water, the Reagan Administration implemented a rule that said mountaintop mining operations could not dump their waste too close to streams. Today's bill would require states to replace those existing protections with a 2008 rewrite of the rule that would weaken standards and fail to safeguard water resources from the impacts of mining waste. States would not be permitted to enact stronger standards to shield their drinking water from contamination. I offered an amendment with my colleagues Representatives Cartwright and Lowenthal to ensure States have the right to take additional action if they find it necessary, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

This legislation is particularly egregious because just last month, the DC Circuit Court vacated the 2008 rule because the Bush Administration failed to consider the impact of waste dumping on threatened and endangered species. Not only would this bill write that illegally-drafted rule into statute, it would set a five-year moratorium on any new rules to protect streams from coal mining waste.

The Interior Department is currently in the process of developing new rules to reflect advances in mining practices and mitigate environmental and health impacts from mining operations. Rather than forcing implementation of a rule so flawed that it's been tossed out by the courts, we should allow this process to go forward to safeguard Appalachian communities. I urge a no vote on the bill.

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