Red Lodge Clearinghouse

Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) want the Government Accountability Office to review the mining agency's work on a revised stream buffer zone rule governing a mining technique that involves dynamiting the mountains and filling valleys with the waste.

In their letter, the lawmakers say mountaintop removal "has far-reaching negative effects on local citizens and the environment."

Current rules, which have been in effect since 1983, require mine operators to establish a buffer around streams. "No land within 100 feet of an intermittent or perennial stream shall be disturbed by surface mining operations, including roads, unless specifically authorized," the rules say.

The proposed rule would extend the stream buffer zone to all waters, including lakes, ponds and wetlands. But it would also exempt certain activities, including "permanent excess spoil fills, and coal waste disposal facilities" and would allow mining that would change a waterway's flow provided the mining company repaired the damage later.

OSM announced the proposed changes in a draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS, last year and is now crafting final regulations (Greenwire, Oct. 12).

The senators maintain that the Bush administration directed the agency to limit the scope of alternatives in the DEIS, which could constitute a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.

"None of the alternatives considered in detail in the DEIS for the rulemaking modifies the buffer zone rule in a manner that would restrict valley fills based on size or type of stream nor does any alternative consider phasing out the use of valley fills," the senators said in the letter. "The end result is a proposal for the outright exemption of valley fills from the stream buffer zone rule."

The senators are asking GAO to review the rulemaking process to determine why alternative rules that would have limited the use of valley fills were not analyzed and to what extent other agencies were consulted.

Bingaman is the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, while Alexander sits on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

OSM failed to return calls seeking comment.

Click here to view the letter.

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