Keep Millions of Tons of Mountaintop Mining Waste Out of Our Waterways

Dear [Representative name],

I am writing to ask you to become an original co-sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act. This bill is critical for protecting the nation's waters from being polluted and buried by waste created during mountaintop removal coal mining. Mountaintop removal mining involves clear-cutting native hardwood forests, blowing up entire mountaintops and dumping millions of tons of debris into nearby streams in order to get at coal seams that lie deep beneath the surface. Already, more than 1,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining operations.

For 25 years, the Clean Water Act (CWA) allowed for the granting of permits to place "fill material" into waters of the United States, provided that the primary purpose of the "filling" was not for waste disposal. As such, the CWA prohibited mountaintop removal operations from using the nation's waterways as waste disposal sites.

That changed in 2002, when the Army Corps of Engineers, under the direction of the Bush administration and without congressional approval, altered its longstanding definition of "fill material" to include mining waste. This change accelerated the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining and the destruction of more than 1,000 miles of Appalachian streams.

To stop this devastation of the nation's waterways, Representatives Frank Pallone and Christopher Shays have introduced the Clean Water Protection Act - a simple piece of legislation that restores the original intent of the Clean Water Act to clarify that fill material cannot be comprised of mining waste.

Passing this legislation would protect all of the nation's rivers, streams and lakes from being used as garbage dumps for mining waste. It would also help end the destruction of the Appalachian Mountains, home to our nation's most diverse forests and streams, the headwaters of the drinking water supply of many eastern cities and a unique and valuable American culture that has endured for generations.

[Your comment here]

Please join Representatives Frank Pallone and Christopher Shays in becoming an original co-sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act. Thank you for your attention to this important issue.