On the recordFebruary 18, 2011
The gentleman from West Virginia's amendment tries to prohibit EPA from carrying out section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act. It's one more effort to deregulate all aspects of mountaintop mining. Section 404(c) authorizes EPA under especially serious circumstances to pull back permits for dredging and filling with toxic material if they would have a substantially adverse effect upon the quality of water, wildlife, and fishery areas. EPA has only used this 404(c) authority 13 times in the 39 years of the Clean Water Act. But this amendment and its backers don't want EPA using that authority to prevent the coal industry from polluting the contiguous waters to their mountaintop mining. We know that mountaintop surface mining removes entire mountaintops so that they can get to the coal underneath, but then in the process invariably deposits toxic mining waste in the nearby streams. And then that gets into the public's water supply. It costs substantial sums of money to subsequently clean it, and toxically polluted can be not only devastating to the environment, but devastating to local economies. Only in the most egregious instances has EPA used this authority. They should have the right to pull permits when companies carelessly and seriously harm the environment. That's EPA's responsibility.
