Saturday, January 09, 2010

 

New Guidelines For "Mountaintop Mining"

KENTUCKY...
The Department of Natural Resources has introduced a new set of guidelines to cover the controversial practice of mountaintop mining. The department says the guidelines, called the Fill Placement Optimization Process, will reduce the "number and size" of mining waste dumps and minimize the impact on streams. The new protocol was formed by a study group of state and federal officials, along with environmentalists and members of the mining industry. A member of the study group responsible for the new regulations says they should "significantly reduce the footprint of mining operations." Attorney Tom Fitzgerald says for years mining companies were allowed to "knock 1,000 feet off the top of a mountain," dump the waste into a stream and say they followed federal law.





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