[Old School]

Well Old school, you done one of two things, either you never read the new regulations, or you failed to comprehend them. This would all but do away with the buffer zone rule, this is evident by statements like "no larger than needed", "Minimize", "Aviod", so basically what this does is leave everything in the hands of coal operators.

And please stop trying to define a stream, we all know what one is. I think about 95% of the streams in appalachia are "Epemeral" now, were in a huge drought. So I guess coal companies should go ahead and fill those in while there dry.

I think you should consider working for the bush adminstration, youre really good at taking issues, and rewording them and twisting things so they work out best for you.

First this ruling does not do away with the buffer zone, as your anti-coal buddies are leading you to believe. Oh...I forgot as you stated in another thread that your a college student in pre med I believe and I quote "I know all of Coals Dirty Secrets" . It must be nice to know everything at such a young age.

Second it does not leave everything in the hands of the Coal Operators, why do you want to turn everything around and twist them so they work best for you. Coal companies have to apply to the State for a mining permit this includes calculating the volume of earth proposed to be moved (in Cubic Yards). They also calculate the amount of yardage that can be placed in the mined area during the reclamation process, a valley fill is designed to hold the remaining yardage. 20 years ago it was cheaper to place the extra material into hollow fills, but today to place material into a valley fill could cost coal companies millions of dollars in Mitigation fees before the first load of material is placed in the fill area. For Coal companies to cut cost Valley Fills will become smaller to stay away from paying these mitigation fees.

Third tell me how can you justify calling a dry ditch or gully (epemeral) a stream, when most of these gullies or ditches are no more than 6 inches deep and 12 inches wide, and only have water running through them after it rains. Apparently you don't know what a stream is, so I will continue to define a stream.

If by taking issues and rewording and twisting them around so they help your cause would get someone a job in the Bush adminstration, then D.C. would be infested with Environmentalist and Liberals.