clean water act

by Amanda Starbuck

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today a major new guidance document that provides the coal industry and coal-state regulators with “clarity” regarding the permitting of mountaintop removal coal mining. This comes just days after the EPA blocked the Clean Water Act permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, the largest mountaintop removal permit in West Virginia history.

It's official: The first shot has been fired in the legislative battle to end the devastating practice of mountaintop removal mining in central Appalachia.

With the quickly growing and extraordinary nationwide support of over 115 co-sponsors, including 17 members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the United States House of Representatives, US Rep. John Yarmuth from Kentucky's embattled state of coal joined US Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Republican US Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) in reintroducing the Clean Water Protection Act today.