U.S. CONGRESSMAN BILL JOHNSON Proudly Representing Eastern and Southeastern Ohio

Congressman Bill Johnson today introduced a budget amendment that would prohibit the U.S. Department of the Interior from moving forward on a proposal that threatens upwards of 20,000 jobs.

Since January 2009, the Interior Department has looked at changing the Stream Buffer Zone rule that allows coal mines to operate within 100 feet of streams so long as the mines obtain appropriate regulatory permissions. Among the agencies overseeing these operations are the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement; the Army Corps of Engineers; and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Interior Department’s internal analysis of changing the current rule states that between 7,000 and 29,000 jobs could be in danger.

“The counties in eastern and southeastern Ohio I represent have an average unemployment rate of 10.9 percent,” Congressman Johnson said. “The proposed change is a sweeping regulatory action that threatens jobs connected to the coal industry throughout the country. I will not sit quite while unelected bureaucrats make arbitrary decisions that impact thousands of jobs that too many of our friends and neighbors depend on for the livelihood.”

BACKGROUND:

For about the last 30 years, there has been a stream buffer zone rule in effect providing direction to coal mines about where and how they are allowed to mine in or near streams and other waterways. Essentially, when mining within 100 feet of a stream or waterway, operators were to be cautious; they were required to receive approval of the regulatory authority. In the last 1990s, environmental groups began a series of lawsuits to prohibit mining operations in or near streams.

A judge in West Virginia ruled in favor of the environmental groups, shutting down all coal mining in that state for a week while the coal/mining industry appealed. The decision was overturned. However, the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) believed that there was too much regulatory uncertainty, which led to the unfortunate ruling. In 2004, the office began a formal process to clarify the rule, which included some 40,000 public comments, public hearings, environmental impact studies involving five agencies and 5,000 pages of testimony. In December 2008, the Office of Surface Mining clarified the rule so that mines had to have the approval of the regulatory authorities before proceeding with operations within 100 feet of streams/waterways.

On Friday, June 18, 2010, notice was printed in the Federal Register that OSM “had already decided to change the rule following the change of Administrations on January 20, 2009.” OSM is proposing to change the rule, which would prohibit mining operations within 100 feet of a stream/waterway. An internal analysis from the Department of the Interior indicated that it believed that 7,000 direct mining jobs in Appalachia could be lost while a total of 20,000-plus direct and indirect jobs could be threatened.