[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 25, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S3789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CARDIN (for himself and Mr. Alexander):
  S. 696. A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to 
include a definition of fill material; to the Committee on Environment 
and Public Works.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, today the Obama administration is taking 
an important first step in ending mountaintop mining, one of the most 
environmentally destructive practices currently in use in this country. 
More than 1 million acres of Appalachia have already been destroyed. An 
estimated 1,200 miles of headwater streams have been buried under tons 
of mining wastes. Over 500 mountains have been permanently scarred. 
Homes have been ruined and drinking water supplies contaminated. It is 
time to end this especially destructive method of coal mining.
  By stopping the issuance of some of the most destructive permits, 
today the administration is sending the right signals that the days of 
mountaintop mining are being relegated to the dust bin of the past, 
where they belong.
  Today, Senator Lamar Alexander and I are introducing bipartisan 
legislation that will go one step further. Our bill, the Appalachia 
Restoration Act, will make clear that mining wastes cannot be dumped 
into our streams, smothering them and sending plumes of toxic run-off 
into groundwater systems. This Cardin-Alexander legislation amends the 
Clean Water Act, specifically preventing the so-called ``excess spoil'' 
of mining wastes from entering our streams and rivers. This simple 
legislation will restore the Clean Water Act to its original purpose. 
In doing so, it will stop the wholesale destruction of some of 
America's most beautiful and ecologically significant regions.
  Mountaintop mining produces less than five percent of the coal mined 
in the United States. This bill does not ban other methods of coal 
mining. Instead, it is narrowly tailored to stop a practice that has 
earned the condemnation of communities across Appalachia as well as 
citizens across the rest of the country.
  I applaud the Obama administration for the steps it is taking today, 
and Senator Alexander and I look forward to working with the 
Administration to pass the Cardin-Alexander Appalachia Restoration Act 
later this year.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                 S. 696

         Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
     of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

         This Act may be cited as the ``Appalachia Restoration 
     Act''.

     SEC. 2. FILL MATERIAL.

         Section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 
     (33 U.S.C. 1362) is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:
         ``(26) Fill material.--
         ``(A) In general.--The term `fill material' means any 
     pollutant that--
         ``(i) replaces a portion of the waters of the United 
     States with dry land; or
         ``(ii) modifies the bottom elevation of a body of water 
     for any purpose.
         ``(B) Exclusions.--The term `fill material' does not 
     include--
         ``(i) the disposal of excess spoil material (as described 
     in section 515(b)(22) of the Surface Mining Control and 
     Reclamation Act (30 U.S.C. 1265(b)(22))) in waters of the 
     United States; or
         ``(ii) trash or garbage.''.
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