In a decision being hailed by environmental advocates, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has suspended a program that streamlined the permitting process for mountaintop removal coal mining across Appalachia.

The suspension of the Nationwide Permit 21 program is effective immediately and applies to Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The decision targets valley fills, in which the leftover rock and dirt created by blasting off mountaintops to reach coal seams is dumped into streams flowing through valleys below. The photo at right from the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition shows a massive valley fill at the Hobet 21 mine in West Virginia.

"Appalachian Voices is pleased that the Obama administration has recognized the need to give full environmental review to valley fills, which are associated with the enormously destructive process of mountaintop removal coal mining," said Matt Wasson, program director of the North Carolina-based group.

The suspension of the NWP 21 program will remain in effect until the Corps takes further action or until the program expires in March of 2012. While the suspension is in place, companies seeking to dump mountaintop removal mining waste into streams will have to get authorization under the Clean Water Act's normal permitting process, which provides greater opportunity for public involvement than under NWP 21.

To date, more than 2,000 miles of streams have been destroyed by valley fills and thousands more miles of waterways contaminated with toxic pollution from the practice.

Wasson urged the Obama administration to ban all valley fills immediately. He also called on Congress to put a permanent stop to the destruction by passing the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) and the Appalachia Restoration Act (S.B. 696).

(Photo by Vivian Stockman of OVEC.)