Federal regulators schedule hearings about rule change for mountaintop removal

When the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement proposed changing a key rule related to mountaintop removal in August, most people affected had plenty to say. As a result, the OSM has scheduled four public hearings — all at 6 p.m., Oct. 24 — in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia for people to share their opinions about the proposal.

"In the rule change, OSM proposes to rewrite a 20-year-old rule to exempt valley fills from a prohibition on a mining activity within 100 feet of streams," writes Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette. Critics fear this change of the stream federal buffer zone would make mountaintop removal easier. Currently, coal operators can seek variances to mine within the 100-foot buffer as long as they demonstrate their work won't damage water quality. Still, Ward writes that in the past 20 years, "state and federal regulators have allowed hundreds of milles of Appalachian steams to be buried by these fills." (Read more)

In addition to the hearings, OSM has extended the public comment deadline to Nov. 23. The location of the hearings:

• Charleston House Holiday Inn, Charleston, W.Va.
• Hazard Community and Technical College, Hazard, Ky.
• Pellissippi State and Technical College, Knoxville, Tenn.
• Ramada Inn, Washington, Pa.