Dear MDOSPREY Subscriber,
The Center for Biological Diversity has issued the below alert concerning 
mountain top removal mining, and an ill-conceived EPA effort to eliminate 
what few mitigating measures are left.  As you probably know, mountain top 
removal mining has destroyed untold acres of habitat for the declining 
Cerulean Warbler and other species.
Don't Allow Coal Companies to Annihilate Streams






      The Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of approving a 
proposal that would allow coal-mining companies to dump mining waste 
directly into flowing streams, filling in the streams entirely and 
destroying all the life in them. Since 1983 the Stream Buffer Zone rule has 
prohibited mining within 100 feet of flowing streams, but now the Bush 
administration and the Office of Surface Mining are trying to push through 
an under-the-table, last-minute effort to remove this protection. If the EPA 
approves the repeal, it will be perfectly legal for coal companies to blow 
off the top of a mountain, then dump the waste straight into streams, 
killing the rare salamanders, fish, and other species that live in 
Appalachian waterways. EPA Administrator Johnson could make the decision at 
any moment, so time is critical. Please take a minute to tell the EPA not to 
approve the Stream Buffer Zone revision, and pass this alert along to as 
many of your friends as possible.



      To take action got to: 
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/action/alerts/index.html

      Click on the first campaign Don't Allow Coal Companies.... and fill in 
the requested info.  And modify the provided text as you wish.

      Apologies to HCBC and MOS members who have already received this 
alert.  Norm has authorized this posting.

      Kurt Schwarz, Conservation Chair, MOS