FW: [NFPA] Appalachia calling... end mountaintop removal mining

Good thing to weigh in on.  Hope you will.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of christina wulf
Sent: March 25, 2004 3:42 PM
To: No Cut News
Subject: [NFPA] Appalachia calling... end mountaintop removal mining


Appalachia needs your help, big time!

Those sick folks in the Bush/Cheney/BigCoal administration to want 
accelerate mountaintop removal mining (MTR), in which "coal companies 
actually blow up entire mountaintops and dump millions of tons of waste 
into nearby streams, burying them forever."
The alert below has all the gory details.

It's SIMPLE to send comments, either go to Heartwood's web-alert page, 
or use the sample letter included in this alert.  PLEASE HELP US FLOOD 
OSM WITH VOICES FROM ACROSS AMERICA!

The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) is holding 5 Public Hearings next 
Tuesday, March 30th in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee 
& D.C.  Location details are at the end of this message ~ please let 
your friends & family in the region know about these hearings!!!


You can send comments automatically from the Heartwood Alerts page:
http://www.heartwood.org/alerts.php

or send by mail or email:
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Administrative
Record, Room 101 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20240 or
[email protected]


PLEASE ASK FRIENDS & FAMILY TO SEND COMMENTS TOO!

***

Oppose Bush's plan to destroy Appalachian mountains and streams!!!
* Protect our Mountains & Streams from mountaintop removal coal mining *

COMMENT DEADLINE - APRIL 7th, 2004

On January 7, 2004, the Bush administration proposed repealing another
long standing environmental protection law in order to let the coal 
industry accelerate mountaintop removal mining. In this form of mining, 
coal companies actually blow up entire mountaintops and dump millions of

tons of waste into nearby streams, burying them forever.

The Bush administration has already relaxed Clean Water Act safeguards 
that protected mountain streams. Now, the administration is targeting 
the 1983 Buffer Zone Rule, which prohibits coal-mining activities from 
disturbing areas within 100 feet of streams.

If the new Bush rule goes forward, coal companies will be allowed to 
dump massive amounts of waste directly into streams, destroying them 
completely.

More than 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams already have been buried by
mountaintop removal waste, causing flooding and destruction in the 
surrounding communities. And more than 100,000 acres of our mountains, 
and the forests that covered them, have been leveled. If the coal 
industry gets its way, 1.4 million acres of mountains and forests will 
be lost forever.


For more information: http://webpages.charter.net/crmw/

and (incredible pictures here)
http://www.citizenscoalcouncil.org/campaigns/stream.htm


SAMPLE LETTER
If you have time, please modify this letter to reflect
your personal concerns. Thanks!


Dear Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement,

I am opposed to any attempt to weaken or eliminate the stream buffer 
zone rule that has protected streams from coal mining activities for 20 
years.  As proposed by the Bush administration, changes to this rule 
would eliminate important protections for streams and allow mountaintop 
removal coal mining to further destroy and degrade waters in the 
Appalachian region with their waste.  The Bush administration should 
withdraw this attempt to weaken stream protections and, instead, leave 
the existing stream buffer zone rule in place.

According to the administration's own recently released studies on 
mountaintop removal coal mining, the immediate and long-term 
environmental impacts of this form of coal mining are severe and 
irreversible.  Lapses in the enforcement of the buffer zone rule, which 
prohibits coal-mining activities from disrupting areas within 100 feet 
of streams unless those activities in no way impact water quality or 
quantity, have resulted in more than 1,200 miles of streams being buried

and degraded by mining waste.

The proposed rule changes would weaken stream protections that have been

in effect for over two decades.  The Bush administration should not go 
forward with any rulemaking that would weaken these protections. 
Instead, it should at the very least demand enforcement of existing 
rules that protect streams from the destructive effects of mountaintop 
removal mining.

I am opposed to the practice of mountaintop removal mining, valley fill 
& destruction of streams.  These practices are unacceptable.


Send Comments by mail:
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Administrative
Record, Room 101 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20240 or
Send Comments by email: [email protected] or Send from Heartwood's
webpage: http://www.heartwood.org/alerts.php

Comment Deadline: April 7th

*************************************************************

Give em hell at a hearing near you:
* Attend a Public Hearing next Tuesday, March 30:

GREENTREE, PA (Pittsburgh), 6-9 p.m. Best Western Parkway Center, 8th 
Floor in the Horizon Room, 875 Greentree Road.

HAZARD, KY 6-9 p.m., Hazard Community College, Hazard Campus, Jolly 
Center, Room 208, One Community College Drive.

HARRIMAN, TN . 6-9 p.m., Roane State Community College, O'Brien 
Building, Room 101, 276 Patton Lane.

CHARLESTON, WV. 6pm-9pm, Charleston Civic Center, Room 206, 200 Civic 
Center Drive.  (OVEC is meeting up outside the Civic Center at 5:30pm)

WASHINGTON, DC 2-4 p.m., Office of Surface Mining, South Interior 
Auditorium, 1951 Constitution Avenue NW. Please use the rear entrance to

the building and have photo ID with you.

* Preceeded by a Press Conference: park across from Interior - 12:00 pm
C Street between 18th and 19th NW, Washington DC

Speakers to include:
     Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
     Congressman Frank Pallone
     National Environmental Leaders
     Coalfield Residents
     other Members of Congress invited

*Remember - Written Comments - Deadline April 7
Send an email to: [email protected]
Or write: OSM, Aministrative Room 101, 1951 Consititution Avenue, NW, 
Washington, DC 20240
Or send comments automatically from the Heartwood Alerts page:
http://www.heartwood.org/alerts.php

PLEASE ASK FRIENDS & FAMILY TO SEND COMMENTS TOO!



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