Clinton-Gore Administration in an Anti-Environmental Move

(Adapted from a message sent by Ami Grace at <cleanwaternt@igc.org>)

The Clinton Administration is considering both regulatory changes and litigation positions that would undermine the laws that protect the streams, mountains and forests across the country, including those of Appalachia.

Instead of accepting the decision of the court and enforcing the law, the Clinton Administration has filed an appeal and is proposing to change the one of the important regulations on which the court decision was based. The Court held that mining spoil is "waste" whose disposal in mountain streams cannot be authorized by the Corps of Engineers under section 404 of the Clean Water Act. So the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps are planning to change the definition of "fill material" under section 404 to redefine mining waste as fill material, thereby giving the Corps authority to permit the wholesale destruction of Appalachian streams.

The Justice Department has also appealed the Court’s decision. The Justice Department’s Notice of Appeal indicates it will take the position that regulations implementing the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Act allow the destruction of Appalachian streams, even though the Court held that the plain language of the regulations protects the streams. Instead of supporting regulations that were intended to protect the environment, the Administration appears to be preparing to argue that those rules should be read to actually authorize the devastation of mountains, forests and streams to continue.

The Justice Departments Notice of Appeal also indicates that it will appeal citizens’ rights to sue state officials in federal court for their failure to enforce federal environmental and other laws. A Justice Department argument that the Eleventh Amendment bars such citizen suits even when they are explicitly authorized by Congress goes beyond even what the most conservative members of the Supreme Court have so far been willing to do. If such an argument were to prevail, citizens would lose one of their most important means of assuring that federal environmental laws are enforced by the states. No responsible administration would even threaten to take such a position.

What to Do:

Call the White House (202) 456-1414 and demand that the Administration abandon its appeal and its proposed rule changes and instead join with environmentalists in enforcing the laws that protect our stream from obliteration by mining wastes.

Send a letter to the President and to the Attorney General asking them to withdraw the appeal and not make changes to the rules to make these illegal, highly destructive valley fills lawful.

President Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

The Honorable Janet Reno
Attorney General of the United States
Main Justice Building
10th and Constitution Ave., NW
Room 5111
Washington, DC 20530