Mountaintop removal coal operators cannot bury streams under millions of tons of waste rock and earth, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Chief U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II said that valley fill waste piles are not allowed in streams that flow year-round or part of the year. Fills are legal only in smaller streams that flow when it rains or when snow melts, the judge said. In a landmark ruling, Haden concluded that valley fills in perennial and intermittent streams violate federal and state mining rules and the federal Clean Water Act. Perennial streams flow all year.
Intermittent streams flow at least six months of the year.
If there are fish, they cannot migrate. No effect on related environmental values is more adverse than obliteration. Because there is no stream, there is no water quality. Haden ordered the state Division of Environmental Protection not to issue any more permits that allow valley fills in perennial and intermittent streams. No existing fills or permitted fills can be advanced.