-Caveat Lector- Court Reverses Ban on Dumping Coal Waste
Thu Jan 30, 5:29 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court overturned a lower-court ruling that blocked coal companies from sweeping rubble from mountaintop removal mining into streams, possibly allowing more permits to bury Appalachian streams beneath huge valley fill-waste piles. A three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) overturned U.S. District Judge Charles Haden II's ruling, which was issued last May. Judge Haden's ruling said that the federal Clean Water Act blocked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from authorizing such valley fills. Haden's ruling came less than a week after the Bush administration announced changed to federal rules that would remove restrictions on filling valleys and streams. Many coal companies in West Virginia and Kentucky dynamite the tops off mountains to get to valuable low-sulphur coal seams burned for electricity. Waste rubble is swept off cliffs into valleys, a process, which at times, buries streams. Officials from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a social-justice organization that sued to block a mining application in the Haden case said the Appeals Court decision would pave the way for more of Appalachia's streams and rivers to be buried by coal waste. "Strip mining is destroying our mountains and streams and taking away a future for our children," said Patty Wallace a KFTC member, and gubernatorial appointee on the Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission. The case was sent back to the lower court for review. Last year, U.S. Reps. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, and Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, introduced legislation to amend the Clean Water Act, passed in 1972, to clarify that fill cannot be comprised of waste. A spokesman for Rep. Pallone's said on Thursday that his office would reintroduce similar legislation next week. "The decision undermines the Clean Water Act and makes legislative action critical to restore the congressional intent of the (1972) act," Pallone said in a statement on Thursday. -------------------------------------- Steve Wingate ANOMALOUS IMAGES AND UFO FILES http://www.anomalous-images.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
