One More Threat to Clean Water

[groovedaddy]

Thanks to the Bush administration’s industry-friendly rulings and a Supreme Court determined to ignore the plain language of the Clean Water Act, America’s waterways are at risk of becoming industrial dumps.

The latest indignity was a 6-to-3 decision on Monday that will allow an American gold mining company to discharge 210,000 gallons a day of potentially toxic mining waste into a 23-acre lake near Juneau, Alaska. A joyous Sarah Palin, Alaska’s governor, called the ruling a “great victory” for Alaska and, astonishingly, “a green light for responsible resource development.”

What it is, rather, is a green light for the extinction of every fish in the lake. The mining company says it will pretreat the waste and restore the lake’s vegetation down the road, but we’re not betting on it.

The decision was based in part on a 2002 Bush rule that cleared the way for the dumping of mining waste in previously protected waters. Until that rule, the Clean Water Act had stipulated that the Army Corps of Engineers could place “fill material” in waters when it was building bridges and levees. The Bush administration enlarged the definition of fill material to include contaminated mining waste, in clear violation of the law’s intent. This is the same regulatory trick the corps relies on to allow coal mining companies in Appalachia to dump the waste from mountaintop mining into the valleys below — a practice that has obliterated 1,200 miles of streams.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy argued that the court had little choice but to “accord deference” to the corps’ reading of the law. To which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg replied, in effect, what about paying deference to the Clean Water Act?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/opinion/25thu2.html?th&emc=th

[Buzz Clik]

1. This will take at least a decade to unravel.

I'll never forget that moment of disbelief when Ralph Nader with a big grin on his face told a tv interviewer that he didn't mind putting Bush in the White House because it would mean endless opportunities for environmentalist once he left office.

It wasn't funny then, it is not funny now.

[Javaman]

3. nader is a stooge. Great public advocate, but a stooge when it comes

to anything outside his realm of expertise.

[quidam56]

2. Appalachia can't stand anymore of the progress and prosperity of Mountaintop Removal !

http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138 We are already living in a disease ridden, toxic 3rd world America.