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Water:
Clean Water Protection Act

Our Position: support
Bill Number: HR 2169
Sponsor: Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Chris Shays (R-CT)
Legislative Session: 2007

Mountaintop removal is the nation's most destructive form of coal mining. Mining companies clearcut native forests and use explosives to blow off mountaintops to uncover thin seams of coal. To minimize waste disposal costs, they then dump millions of tons of the waste rock into the valleys below, permanently burying streams. Mountaintop-removal mining destroys ancient mountains, buries streams and lays waste to wildlife habitat. The blasting, coal dust, poisoned drinking water, and increased flooding ruin the quality of people's lives and dramatically reduce the value of their property.

The Clean Water Protection Act will restore the original intent of the Clean Water Act by preventing disposal of waste material, such as mining waste, in streams.

Action Needed

Ask your member of Congress to co-sponsor and support the Clean Water Protection Act.

Contact

Ed Hopkins
Ed.hopkins@sierraclub.org
202-675-7908

Background

Mountaintop-removal mining has buried and contaminated more than 1,200 miles of streams in Appalachia. The federal government has estimated that past and future mining could destroy more than 1.4 million acres. By the end of the century, more than 2,200 square miles of Appalachian forests and mountains will be gone. Appalachia is an area of high biodiversity, and mountaintop removal could harm more than 240 species of animals.

Find out more about mountaintop-removal mining on our coal website.