In the Courts

Earthjustice, the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and Public Justice, on behalf of Coal River Mountain Watch, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, and Sierra Club have fought in federal court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of mountaintop removal mining permits that violate the Clean Water Act. On August 27, 2009, we headed to the U.S. Supreme Court to appeal an adverse decision by a lower court that overturned a victory we won in 2007.

In Congress

In Congress, two proposed bills could curtail mountaintop removal mining by banning certain activities related to this destructive mining practice. The Clean Water Protection Act, a bill in the House of Representatives, would put tighter restrictions on dumping pollution into Appalachian streams by overturning the dangerous fill rule. Led by Representatives Frank Pallone and David Reichert with more than 100 other cosponsors, the Clean Water Protection Act would restore Clean Water Act protections.

The Appalachia Restoration Act, a much narrower bill in the U.S. Senate, would prohibit dumping "excess spoil" resulting from mountaintop removal into streams and headwaters. However it would allow other mining and industrial wastes to still be dumped into waters, practices formally prohibited under the Clean Water Act.