House Bill 104, Popularly known as the “Stream Saver Bill”

            For the fourth year in a row, Kentucky state representative Don Pasley has filed legislation to prevent mining operators from depositing overburden waste into nearby valleys.  House Bill 104, popularly known as the “Stream Saver Bill”, would require that all overburden be returned to the mine area to the maximum extent possible and that any excess overburden be disposed of in permitted areas or previously mined areas.  The Bill proposes that no overburden be disposed of in an intermittent, perennial, or ephemeral stream or any other water of the Commonwealth.  To the extent that any excess overburden cannot be returned to the mine area or disposed of in a previously disturbed area, the overburden would have to be transported and placed in lifts and concurrently compacted in an engineered, constructed fill.  The Bill would also require that restoration of the approximate original contour of the mine site include both the configuration and elevation of the area prior to disturbance associated with coal removal.

 

“All my bill does is simply call on the coal companies to leave the mountain largely as they found it,” Pasley said on December 18, 2008 shortly before he filed the Bill.  He stated that does not oppose “responsible” coal mining. “It may not be as easy as burying a stream and leveling dozens of square miles in a matter of months, but it is the right thing to do.”

 

Opponents of the Bill respond by pointing out that mountain top removal is the only way to efficiently mine certain seams of coal, some of which are only a foot deep.  They also say that this coal is essential to the state’s economy and energy needs.  Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Caylor has stated that passage of the Stream Saver Bill would drive up the price of coal, cripple production, and lead to widespread unemployment in Eastern Kentucky.  The language of the Bill as written would also place significant restraints on deep mine operators, many of whom also use nearby valleys to dispose of overburden.

 

While many in the coal industry are keeping a close eye on this Bill, most are optimistic that it will not be passed.  The Bill has been assigned to the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee.  Representative Jim Gooch, who chairs the committee, has declined to call the Bill for a hearing in previous sessions of the General Assembly.

 

This optimism from the coal industry has been tempered somewhat by the events of last year.  Through a bit of legislative sleight of hand, the Bill received a hearing last year before the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. The Bill fell only two votes short of the 15 needed to attach it to a measure to provide tax breaks on camel feed.  Rep. Harry Moberly chaired that committee last year and was friendly to the Bill. Since the recent election of House Speaker Greg Stumbo, Moberly no longer chairs that committee.  However, the current chair, Rep. Rick Rand, has been a co-sponsor of the Stream Saver Bill in the past.

 

This article was co-authored by Kevin McGuire and Mary Beth Naumann, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the authors see (McGuire) hereand (Naumann) here.