I have been troubled most of the week by something I heard on the radio. As I drove to work last Monday I was listening to a NPR commentator discussing a proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)/Army Corps of Engineers regulatory change that, relative to air and water pollution, could have serious long term consequences. You know, I thought that the issue of whether it is legal to remove the tops of mountains so that they could be mined had been resolved, but, based on what I heard, I guess that it hasn't been.

If my understanding of the matter is correct, the Environmental Protection Agency (no irony there), in partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a change in the regulations that reclassifies the material that is removed from the tops of mountains during strip-mining operations so that they can be considered "fill." Now this may seem like a subtle nuance, but in my opinion it is not. Under the current regulations, this material is considered "waste," and a disposal permit must be obtained before proceeding. And happily, over the years, these permits have become difficult to obtain. Therefore, the chopping-off of entire mountaintops had become a thing of the past.

You see, mining companies call the top 800 to 1000 feet of a mountain "overburden." And by reclassifying this material as "land fill"(as the proposed rule change would do), the EPA is giving the mining companies the green light to once again begin their strip mining activities, activities that had been illegal under the existing rules for some time.

And why are they illegal under the existing rules? Well, it seems to me that as a society, we have reached the conclusion that it is unacceptable to remove the entire tops of mountains with large machinery. By the way, many of these mountains are adjacent to where people live. But this isn't just an aesthetic argument, you see, when this material is removed from the mountaintops; it is thrown into the valleys, into the creeks, rivers and backyards of the people that live there.

As I drove to work that day, with the Adirondack Mountains rising to the west and the Green Mountains to the east I tried to imagine what it would be like, if these mountains were desecrated like those in West Virginia, Kentucky and other places. And as I tried to imagine the experience I listened to one fellow that was interviewed who spoke of a strip-mine that had started up just prior to the existing law that prohibits such things. He said that the mine completely disrupted his little West Virginia village. Aside from the trauma, noise, and destruction of recreational and wildlife habitat, courtesy of the strip-mine, he and his neighbors now get their drinking water from a large plastic container brought in by the fire department each week. And, evidently, this isn't an isolated case. No, the NPR commentator detailed a litany of similar cases.

So much I guess, for the Clean Water Act, and for any confidence that I had in the Environmental Protection Agency in this regard. I understand and appreciate the President’s desire to promote coal burning as an alternative to oil. But it seems to me that, in the case of the above, the expense is far too great. For as stewards of this earth, how in the world can we justify these actions?

Yes, as a race, it would appear that we now have the ability to move mountains. But do we have the right to exercise this power? It seems to me that there is oftentimes strength in exercising restraint, and in knowing one’s limitations. But hey, that is just the opinion of a hack Internet writer.