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March 25, 2009

EPA Halts Mountaintop Removal Projects
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The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed hundreds of mountaintop
coal-mining projects for a new review of their environmental impact.
Mountaintop removal has been widely criticized for endangering waters
and streams in the Appalachian Valley. The review effectively overrides
last month’s federal appeals court ruling that backed the Army Corps of
Engineers’ authority to oversee mountaintop removals. Environmentalists
had previously won court judgments affirming that the Army Corps
violated the Clean Water Act. In a related action, the EPA also
announced it will block two projects that had won Army Corps approval.
The EPA says the mountaintop removals would have endangered streams in
West Virginia and Kentucky with thousands of feet of mining waste.



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