Suit challenges Bush mining rule changes (mountaintop removal coal mining)

December 22, 2008

Suit challenges Bush mining rule changes

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A coalition of environmental and citizen groups took the Bush administration to court Monday to challenge the elimination of key water pollution protections that could have been used to restrict mountaintop removal coal mining.

Coal River Mountain Watch, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and five other groups sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson over changes to the federal stream "buffer zone" rule.

Attorneys with the group Earthjustice and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment filed the legal challenge in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

"We are doing what we can to make it easier for the incoming administration to undo the damage done by the last one and restore the nation's commitment to protecting the waters and summits of Appalachia," said Jennifer Chavez, an Earthjustice lawyer who filed the environmental groups' complaint.

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