Yesterday Harold Ward, the Director of the Division of Mining & Reclamation of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) formally terminated the State of West Virginia’s participation in the federal Office of Surface Mining’s (OSM) preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to support its planned revisions to the stream buffer zone rule. WV DEP also announced its decision to withdraw in testimony on Wednesday to the Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee http://naturalresources.house.gov/subcommittees/subcommittee/?SubcommitteeID=5064
West Virginia joined Kentucky, Utah, New Mexico, Alabama and Texas in formally terminating their “cooperating agency” agreements with OSM on the stream buffer zone EIS and rulemaking.
OSM’s revisions to the federal stream buffer zone rule, now referred to as the “stream protection rule” and their supporting EIS, are currently under review at the Office of Management & Budget.
For a copy of the letter please contact Jason Bostic (jbostic@wvcoal.com)