Feds Push Rule To Protect Water Quality From Mining
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
The federal government has proposed a regulation aimed at protecting drinking water sources from mining pollution.
The proposal from the Department of the Interior would update existing rules set in 1983. The proposal would rein in “mining practices that damage drinking water sources, permanently pollute streams, increase the risk of flooding or threaten forests,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
The proposed update aims in part to protect wildlife. “Companies would have to monitor the condition of streams and make sure an area was capable of returning to its prior use after mining,” according to TheIndianapolis Star.
“Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in announcing the rule in July that it reflects the latest science and would better safeguard communities from the long-term effects of mining,” the report said.
Industry has pushed back against the proposal. Illinois Coal Association President Phillip Gonet argued that it "would add entirely new definitions, substantive and procedural requirements, and prohibitions affecting surface mines, underground mines, and ancillary facilities," The Southern Illinoisan reported last month.
The government has considered costs to the mining industry. Its analysis is as follows, per the Star:
The Interior Department estimates the proposal will have a “minor adverse impact” on the coal mining industry nationally and on the communities that depend on it. But, when combined with challenges the industry is facing from other trends such as the reduced demand for coal because of the retirement of coal-fired power plants, the cumulative effect would be “negative,” the agency said.
Interior Secretary Jewell said when the rule was announced that the government is committed to working with coalfield communities “as we support economic activity while minimizing the impact coal production has on the environment that our children and grandchildren will inherit.”
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