This week, Congress voted to make it easier for coal mining companies to dump their waste in your streams and rivers.
To be clear, this will not bode well for your fishing.
The repeal of the Stream Buffer Zone Rule by both House and Senate will make it easier for mining companies to remove mountain tops and dump them into surrounding creeks, streams and rivers.
Mountaintop removal has impacted more than 2,000 miles of Appalachia streams. This action also impacts areas downstream which have seen increased sediment pollution, altering stream hydrology and a rise in the severity of floods.
As written, the rule would have ensured that mine operators and state and federal regulators make use of the most current science and technology. Also important, it ensured that land disturbed by mining operations be restored to a functioning condition that it was capable of supporting prior to mining.
Over the past 10 years, Trout Unlimited and our partners have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars restoring more than 60 miles of streams damaged by historic coal mining. There are thousands more that are waiting clean up.
The fact is, doing things right from the start is far more effective and far less costly than cleaning up a mess later. Which is why the repeal of the Stream Buffer Zone Rule isn’t exactly a “good start” with sportsmen. But there are ways for Congress and the President to acknowledge the interests of hunters and anglers.
That starts with vetoing the bill eliminating the Stream Buffer Zone Rule and upholding the Clean Water Rule. Contact the White House and ask President Trump to do right by sportsmen and women and veto this bad bill and protect our nation’s precious water resources.
— Read Trout Unlimited’s letters to the House and the Senate.
— Contact your representative and urge them to uphold the Clean Water Rule.