Many of you have never heard of mountaintop removal mining operations, but the United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that this type of mining will account for the clearing of 2,200 square miles of Appalachian forests by the year 2012. Mountaintop removal mining is a form of surface mining that involves using explosives to remove up to 1,000 vertical feet of overburden (the rock, soil and ecosystem that lie above the coal seam in a mountain) to gain access to underlying seams of coal.

Mountaintop removal mining, as a form of surface mining, is governed by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). The Office of Surface Mining, an agency within the Department of the Interior, administers the SMCRA, which regulates the environmental effects of all coal mining in the United States.

Currently, mining companies are not allowed to dispose of the removed overburden within 100 feet of an intermittent or perennial stream, unless the company can prove the mining activity won't hurt water quality or quantity. This 100-feet buffer zone is commonly referred to as the Stream Buffer Zone Rule.

Citing a need to clarify the Stream Buffer Zone Rule, EPA proposed a rule change in 2004. Due to environmental groups' protests, EPA conducted an Environmental Impact Assessment in 2005 and 2006 and issued the resulting Environmental Impact Statement this November. Under the proposed rule, the Stream Buffer Zone would not apply to "permanent excess spoil fills and coal waste disposal facilities." In other words, the Rule would exempt giant valley fills and sludge-filled lagoons, which are illegal under the current rule if the valleys and lagoons are within 100 feet of an intermittent or perennial stream.

Like every difficult environmental problem, EPA has encountered both opposition and support for the change to the Stream Buffer Zone Rule. Opponents worry that relaxing the Stream Buffer Zone Rule will result in extreme deterioration in water quality and quantity in and around the Appalachian Mountains. Opponents also worry that relaxing the Rule will encourage more mountaintop removal mining, which is environmentally destructive in and of itself.

On the other hand, supporters point to the fact that more than half of the electricity generated in the United States is produced by coal-fired power plants, and that electricity has to come from somewhere. Moreover, mountaintop removal mine is two and one half times as efficient as underground, or traditional, mining and much more cost-effective.

EPA is trying to pass the proposed changes to the Stream Buffer Zone Rule before the executive administration changes on January 20, 2008. Do you think EPA is doing the right thing? What alternatives to amending the Stream Buffer Zone Rule could entice both proponents and opponents to reach a compromise?