It does not seem that the below post should void the mines from
responsibility. In fact, the Clean Water Act water quality criteria
require the states to and enforce the water quality standards.
therefore, if one state agency loses this responsibility, then another
must take over the responsibility! I don't recall the repercussions,
but the water quality standards are tied to federal monies of some
kind. Maybe the state found a loophole I'm not aware of! :)
Regardless, the motion sounds typical!
On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 6:11 PM, Lisa Regula Meyer
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This was from Center for North American Herpetology, but might be of
interest to many people on ECOLOG. Something to note (not
mentioned in the
forward) is that Captina Creek has one of the last- if not *the*
last-
breeding population of Hellbenders in Ohio.
Thanks!
LKR
Doctoral Student, Kent State University
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CNAH <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 3:42 PM
Subject: Do Not Hurt Hellbenders
To:
NEWS RELEASE
The Center for North American Herpetology
Lawrence, Kansas
http://www.cnah.org
8 December 2008
OHIO'S REMAINING HELLBENDER HABITAT IS IN JEOPARDY
Ohio Senate Bill 386 is being rushed through Legislature. This bill
would
remove the Ohio
EPA's authority to regulate mine discharges, essentially giving full
authority to do this to
the mining industry.
WHAT CAN YOU DO RIGHT NOW?
Go to the URL below.
Check out what is at stake and send your own message directly to the
relevant decision
makers.
Spread the word.
Using this link will send your message directly to Senator Bill
Seitz and
Representative
Robert Mecklenborg. Do it now at
http://ga1.org/campaign/SB386?rk=91XHLM71TJ2uW
The Ohio Senate vote is TUESDAY (9 December) and WEDNESDAY (10
December).
Please act swiftly.
********
For more information, the following is a recent article from the
Columbus
Dispatch.
EDITORIAL: DON'T MUDDY THE WATERS
Environmental-protection experts should regulate water pollution
from mines
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 3:25 am
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency should be in charge of
protecting
the state's
waterways from pollution, whether that pollution comes from a
factory pipe,
a large-scale
farm or the byproducts of mining coal. A proposed bill to put state
mining
officials in
charge of granting water-pollution permits for coal mines is a bad
idea.
State Sen. Timothy J. Grendell, R-Chesterland, is behind the bill
to switch
authority from
the EPA to mining bureaucrats in the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources.
This proposal is similar to a 2001 state law -- also a bad idea --
that
transferred the state
EPA's authority to regulate large-scale livestock farms to the
Department of
Agriculture.
That transfer still isn't final, because the U.S. EPA, which has
ultimate
responsibility for
enforcing the 1972 federal Clean Water Act, hasn't approved it.
In a recent public-comment meeting, opponents of the farm-
regulation switch
pointed out
that the Department of Agriculture's mission is to promote farming
in Ohio,
not to be a
watchdog.
The same potential for conflict of interest exists in putting ODNR's
Division of Mineral
Resources Management in charge of water-pollution permits for mines.
The timing of the bill lends weight to the suspicion that the real
goal is
to allow an end run
by a major mine company that has been denied a permit by the EPA.
Murray Energy Corp., owner of Ohio's largest underground coal
mines, wants
to bury
Casey Run, a 2-mile-long stream in eastern Ohio, under a 1.85-
billion-gallon
coal-slurry
lagoon.
Slurry is water contaminated with coal dust after it has been used
to wash
coal. In 2005, a
broken slurry pipeline from a Murray Energy-owned mine blackened
2,300 feet
of Belmont
County's Captina Creek, killing thousands of fish in a habitat that
supports
the
endangered hellbender salamander.
Casey Run is a tributary of Captina Creek. EPA scientists, in
recommending
denial of the
permit for the massive lagoon, said it would pose "insurmountable"
environmental
concerns for the high-quality water resource.
Murray officials say they'll have to close two mines employing
about 1,000
people if they
can't build the slurry lagoon, but EPA and ODNR officials said the
company
could find
other ways to dispose of its waste.
Another supposed justification for the bill is a claim that the
Ohio EPA
takes too long to
review mining permits. This appears to be a moot point. The bill
would give
mine
regulators a six-month deadline for approving or denying permits.
In recent
months, the
EPA has eliminated its backlog of applications and has pledged to
handle new
ones within
six months.
Murray Energy's checkered track record of multiple environmental
and safety
violations in
Ohio and elsewhere, including the Crandall Canyon mine cave-in that
killed
six men in
Utah in August 2007, argues against easing regulation of the company.
Regardless of one company's history, safeguarding Ohio's waterways
should
remain with
the agency for which environmental protection is the core mission.
--
Malcolm L. McCallum
Associate Professor of Biology
Texas A&M University-Texarkana
Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology
http://www.herpconbio.org
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1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert
1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss,
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