Friday, February 6, 2009

MTR and Water Legislation

There are likely few-to-no truly honest folks who can look at the impact of Mountain Top Removal (MTR) and not be upset.  Called "strip mining on steroids", MTR has destroyed over 2,500 peaks in southern Appalachia to generate less than 5% of the country's energy needs.  Besides destroying mountain vistas and leaving undesirable and unusable land in its wake, it has left over 1,200 miles of head water streams buried under toxic rubble.
A 2002 Army Corps of Engineers rule allows waste generated by this practice to be classified as "fill", even though it has been found to contain extremely high levels of arsenic and mercury.  

Environmental activists and conservationists, finding the fighting in court, and at the local and state levels difficult,  have turned their attention to a piece of Federal Legislation. Rather than specifically addressing the issue, these groups have gotten behind broader legislation in the Clean Water Protection Act- HR 2169, formerly HB 2421. see correction  

As much as I can sympathize and stand with those who would see MTR stopped,  I cannot get behind this dangerous piece of legislation.
It is the opinion of several property rights advocacy groups that this act, if ratified, will centralize control of every drop of water and every piece of land in the United States.  It does this by reclassifying all water in and on US Soil as "navigable", thereby giving it the same federal protection that is afforded shipping lanes.  That water would then be FEDERAL PROPERTY.
Sure, it would stop the wanton destruction of mountain streams, but would also facilitate the biggest land grab in history!  Well owners would find their water metered, and even municipal water customers could face rations.see correction  

Sure, Mountain Top Removal is really bad and should be stopped.  But we should always be sure that before we call for "somebody" to do "something", we understand the full implications of our cries. 

Click here to learn more about HR2421 and what you can do to stop it.



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2 comments:

JW said...

Hi Rob,

You are confusing two seperate pieces of legislation.

1) The Clean Water Protection Act (formerly HR 2169) was introduced last Congress by Congressmen Pallone (D-NJ) and Shays (R-CT) and would restore the definition of "fill material" to the definition that was used from 1977-2002. In 2002, the Bush Administration and Army Corps of Engineers changed the definition of fill material to include the toxic waste from mountaintop removal mining, so that it could be dumped directly into adjacent river valleys. Passage of the CWPA would make "valleyfills" associated with mountaintop removal mining illegal.


2) The Oberstar "Clean Water Restoration Act" (formerly HR 2421) deals with the definition of "waters of the United States."

February 8, 2009 at 7:41 PM
Rob Miller said...

Thanks for the post, faithfull!

I'm sure you know how hard it can be to track all this legislation as it moves from session to session!

I'll check our references.
I'm happy to have the feedback, and happy to make any corrections!

February 10, 2009 at 3:15 PM

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