From: becky@activistlist.org
\[[[mailto:becky@activistlist.org]{.underline}](mailto:becky@activistlist.org)\]

Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 10:50 AM

To: Dennis Rice

Subject: attn: Dennis G. Rice, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement

Dennis G. Rice

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement US Dept. of
Interior

1951 Constitution Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20240

RE: Excess Spoil, Coal Mine Waste, and Buffers for Waters of the United
States: Docket Number RIN 1029--AC04

Dear Dennis G. Rice, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement,

I am opposed to any attempt to weaken or eliminate the stream buffer
zone rule that has protected streams from coal mining activities for
nearly 25 years. Please pull the porposed rule change and enforce the
law as is.

The buffer zone rule is an important protection for coal mining regions
that prohibits coal-mining activities from disrupting areas within 100
feet of streams unless those activities in no way impact water quality
or quantity. The changes to this rule proposed by the Bush
administration would eliminate these important protections for streams
and allow Mountaintop Removal coal mining companies to further bury,
destroy and degrade waters in the Appalachian region with their waste.

The Bush administration should withdraw this attempt to weaken stream
protections and, instead, leave the existing stream buffer zone rule in
place.

According to the administration's own studies on mountaintop removal
coal mining, the immediate and long-term environmental impacts of this
form of coal mining are severe and irreversible. Lapses in the
enforcement of the buffer zone rule have allowed almost 2000 miles of
streams to be buried or degraded by mining waste.

The Bush administration released a draft Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) on August 24 to go along with the proposed rule change. That study
was supposed to examine the environmental effects of alternatives to
repealing the buffer zone rule, which prohibits valley fills and sludge
ponds from burying and destroying streams. Yet, incredibly, the EIS did
not even study the option of enforcing the buffer zone rule as currently
written. This fact alone proves the administration never considered
enforcing the law, but only wants to repeal it, regardless of the facts
about the harm that will result.

The proposed rule changes would repeal stream safeguards that have been
in effect for over two decades. The result, using the administration's
own figures, will be that more than 1000 miles of streams will be
destroyed every decade into the future, sapping the lifeblood of an
entire region.

The administration should not go forward with any rulemaking that would
weaken existing laws like the buffer zone rule that protect our vital
natural resources from Mountaintop Removal coal mining. Instead, it
should rely on sound science and enforce the rules as they are currently
written, as this is the best way to safeguard streams from the
destructive effects of Mountaintop Removal mining.

Becky Ceartas

455 Fairoaks Circle

Chapel Hill, NC 27516

Include my comments in the official record for this project, but do NOT
send me further documents or put me on any mailing lists.