EPA Issues Comprehensive Guidance to Protect 

Appalachian Communities From Harmful Environmental 

Impacts of Mountain Top Mining 

Release date: 04/01/2010 

Contact Information: EPA Press Office, press@epa.gov 

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a 

set of actions to further clarify and strengthen environmental permitting requirements for 

Appalachian mountaintop removal and other surface coal mining projects, in 

coordination with federal and state regulatory agencies. Using the best available 

science and following the law, the comprehensive guidance sets clear benchmarks for 

preventing significant and irreversible damage to Appalachian watersheds at risk from 

mining activity. 

Mountaintop removal is a form of surface coal mining in which explosives are used to 

access coal seams, generating large volumes of waste that bury adjacent streams. The 

resulting waste that then fills valleys and streams can significantly compromise water 

quality, often causing permanent damage to ecosystems and rendering streams unfit for 

swimming, fishing and drinking. It is estimated that almost 2,000 miles of Appalachian 

headwater streams have been buried by mountaintop coal mining.

"The people of Appalachia shouldn't have to choose between a clean, healthy 

environment in which to raise their families and the jobs they need to support them. 

That’s why EPA is providing even greater clarity on the direction the agency is taking to 

confront pollution from mountain top removal,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. 

“We will continue to work with all stakeholders to find a way forward that follows the 

science and the law. Getting this right is important to Americans who rely on affordable 

coal to power homes and businesses, as well as coal communities that count on jobs 

and a livable environment, both during mining and after coal companies move to other 

sites.”

EPA’s Actions: 

• Improved Guidance and Clarity: EPA is communicating comprehensive 

guidance to its regional offices with permitting responsibility in Appalachian 

states. The guidance clarifies existing requirements of the Section 402 and 404 

Clean Water Act permitting programs that apply to pollution from surface coal 

mining operations in streams and wetlands. The guidance details EPA’s 

responsibilities and how the agency uses its Clean Water Act (CWA) authorities 

to ensure that future mining will not cause significant environmental, water quality 

and human health impacts. EPA also expects this information will provide 

improved consistency and predictability in the CWA permitting process and help 

to strengthen coordination with other federal and state regulatory agencies and 
mining companies. 

• Strong Science: EPA is making publicly available two scientific reports 

prepared by its Office of Research and Development (ORD). One summarizes 

the aquatic impacts of mountaintop mining and valley fills. The second report 

establishes a scientific benchmark for unacceptable levels of conductivity (a 

measure of water pollution from mining practices) that threaten stream life in 

surface waters. These reports are being published for public comment and 

submitted for peer review to the EPA Science Advisory Board.

• Increased transparency: EPA is creating a permit tracking Web site so that 

the public can determine the status of mining permits subject to the EPA-U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers Enhanced Coordination Procedure (ECP). 

A growing body of scientific literature, including previous and new studies performed by 

EPA, show significant damage to local streams that are polluted with the mining runoff 

from mountaintop removal. To protect water quality, EPA has identified a range of 

conductivity (a measure of the level of salt in the water) of 300 to 500 microSiemens per 

centimeter. The maximum benchmark conductivity of 500 microSiemens per centimeter 

is a measure of salinity that is roughly five times above normal levels. The conductivity 

levels identified in the clarifying guidance are intended to protect 95 percent of aquatic 

life and fresh water streams in central Appalachia.

EPA will solicit public comments on the new guidance. The guidance will be effective 

immediately on an interim basis. EPA will decide whether to modify the guidance after 

consideration of public comments and the results of the SAB technical review of the 

EPA scientific reports.

The EPA guidance identifies improvements in mining practices and operations that will 

reduce adverse impacts on water quality. EPA will continue to work with coal companies 

that are interested in modifying their projects to reduce their environmental footprint and 

prevent harm to water quality and human health. Earlier this year, EPA approved the 

Hobet 45 permit in West Virginia. Working with the mining company, EPA was able to 

reduce stream impacts by almost 50 percent and minimize mine runoff into surface 

waters. Those changes helped permanently protect local waters, maximize coal 

recovery and reduce costs for the operators. 

In contrast, EPA recently proposed to significantly restrict or prohibit mountaintop 

mining at the Spruce No. 1 surface mine in Logan County, W. Va. Attempts at dialogue 

with the company failed to ensure a significant decrease of environmental and water 

quality impacts from the project. The Spruce No. 1 mine, as proposed, would bury more 

than seven miles of headwater streams, directly impact 2,278 acres of forestland, and 

degrade water quality in streams adjacent to the mine. The project was permitted in 

2007 and subsequently delayed by litigation. 

EPA’s guidance offers recommendations to its regions on the application of the National 

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to surface coal mining projects permitted by the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps is separately announcing plans for rulemaking to 
expand the scope of NEPA review. EPA is supportive of this effort and will work closely 

with the Corps. 

All the documents: http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/guidance/mining.html

Fact Sheet on EPA Guidance and Scientific Reports

Additional Comprehensive Guidance 

EPA is issuing comprehensive guidance clarifying the standards that its regional offices 

should apply in permitting reviews of Appalachian surface coal mining projects under 

the Clean Water Act (CWA). This guidance directs EPA field staff to coordinate with 

their federal and state regulatory partners to strengthen the environmental review of 

new Appalachian surface coal mining projects and to improve protection of the 

communities’ local water and environment. More specifically, the guidance:

• Incorporates the latest scientific information in clarifying how CWA permits 

should assure compliance with existing water quality standards to protect the use 

of streams by communities and to ensure healthy aquatic life.

• Clarifies how CWA requirements apply to the disposal of mining overburden in 

streams to reduce the size and number of valley fills, to limit water quality 

contamination of streams near mining operations, and to prevent significant 

environmental degradation of streams and wetlands.

• Improves opportunities for the voices of adversely affected Appalachian 

communities to be heard in the process of reviewing proposed new mining 

operations.

EPA Releases Two Draft Scientific Reports for Public Comment 

• Field-Based Aquatic Life Benchmark for Conductivity

This draft report adapts EPA’s traditional approach for developing water quality criteria 

to field data in central Appalachia in order to develop a conductivity benchmark 

protective of stream life in Appalachian surface waters. Conductivity is a measure of the 

level of salinity (salt) in the water. There are mining materials that are dumped or runoff 

into water that can raise the salinity level that turns fresh water into salty water. When 

this happens, living organisms have difficulty surviving because they cannot tolerate the 

high salinity level. 

The draft report makes the following conclusions:

• The salinity of water has been shown to negatively affect aquatic 

organisms (stream life). 

• By plotting the conductivity levels at which organisms are no longer 

observed in streams, we can determine a level of conductivity that results 

in their loss. EPA identified a benchmark of 300 microSiemens per cm 

(units of conductivity) that protects 95 percent of aquatic organisms living 

in streams in central Appalachia.

• EPA derived this benchmark using more than 2,000 field samples 
collected in West Virginia. These results were validated using data from 

Kentucky. 

• Although the method is applicable to any region, the value 300 is only 

applicable to Central Appalachian streams containing the types of salts 

found in those streams.

• Additional analyses demonstrate that the observed effects on the aquatic 

community are due types of salts that are consistent with minerals leached 

from mountaintop mining operations and not to other variables that were 

evaluated. 

• Mountaintop Mining / Valley Fill Impacts Report

EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) conducted a literature review of 

peer-reviewed studies focusing on aquatic environmental and water quality impacts of 

mountaintop mining and valley fills. The draft report among other conclusions, found: 

• Burial of headwater streams by valley fills causes permanent loss 

of ecosystems. 

• Concentrations of salts as measured by conductivity are, on 

average, 10 times higher downstream of mountaintop mines and 

valley fills than in un-mined watersheds.

• The increased levels of salts disrupt the life cycle of freshwater 

aquatic organisms and some cannot live in these waters. 

• Water with high salt concentrations downstream of mountaintop 

mines and valley fills is toxic to stream organisms. To date, there is 

no evidence that streams that undergo a restoration process have 

returned to their normal ecological functions after the mining is 

completed.