Open Letter to Virginia Senator Stuart, my representative to the Virginia Legislature:
I am curious what you had in mind when you voted in favor of SB 1025 last week.
Was it your constituents? Clean water and land? Lobbyists for the coal industry? This is 2011 and elected officials who obey the coal industry are so 1900s.
Votes like this belong in the last century.
As one of your constituents, I am extremely disappointed that you voted for this bill. It will make it easier for mountaintop removal sites, and their associated toxic mining waste dumps known as "valley fills," to get permits.
The bill will tie the hands of Virginia officials, restricting their ability to use the effluent testing and water quality monitoring necessary to protect Virginia's waterways and communities from the severe impacts of surface mining.
The bill also repeals the State Water Control Board's authority over an important category of pollution discharge permits, eroding the authority of this board of citizen experts.
To do their jobs, Virginia regulators must be able to use all tools at their disposal to assess water quality impacts when evaluating and enforcing permits. This bill will unnecessarily restrict their authority to gather and consider evidence, leading to dangerous leniency in permitting and enforcement.
Finally, SB 1025 sets a bad precedent by creating an exemption in state implementation of the Clean Water Act and repealing the State Water Control Board's authority over a critically important category of permits. Similar measures could be proposed to create loopholes for other pollution sources.
In the future, I hope you will vote to INCREASE protections of Virginia waterways, and the people of Virginia, not to allow easier destruction of Virginia's precious natural resources.
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