Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chair, this amendment is very simple. It strikes section 425 of H.R. 5538. Section 425 would prohibit the EPA from updating the definition of the terms ``fill material'' or ``discharge of fill material'' under the Clean Water Act. These definitions underlie section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which governs dredge and fill permitting, one of the act's most important components. Put more simply, section 425 would continue giving real legal cover to mountaintop mining companies to dump mining waste into valley streams. As such, section 425 is an attack on the Clean Water Act. Now, mountaintop mining for coal produces a lot of unusable excess material, known as overburden. The cheapest and easiest way for industry to dispose of overburden is to bulldoze it into valleys and waterways surrounding these decapitated mountains. This had been illegal because the Clean Water Act categorized overburden as waste, which cannot be disposed of in that manner. However, in a 2002 giveaway to the mountaintop mining industry, the George W. Bush administration reclassified overburden as fill. This cleared the path for it to be dumped in mountain valleys once teeming with life. As if mining overburden were not enough, the definition of fill was expanded to also include material such as wood chips, construction debris, and plastic. As a result, every year, 120 miles of headwater streams are buried in mining debris.…”