Gutting Stream Protection Rule puts coal company profits above Ohioans’ right to safe drinking water

Kristy Meyer, February 1, 2017

“Updates to the critical Stream Protection Rule would have protected clean water and held large coal companies accountable whenever they polluted or destroyed small streams. Stopping this rule threatens the quality of our drinking water, and favors corporate polluters over people across Ohio and this country.”

“The health of small streams is essential to safe drinking water. Approximately, 90 percent of Ohioans rely on rivers and streams for their drinking water. In Southeast Ohio, over 200,000 people get their drinking water from the small streams this rule would have covered.”

“This would have been the first update to the Stream Protection Rule in 33 years. Science has come a long way since then. The rule is a sensible, albeit modest step in the right direction to ensure coal companies are held accountable for the destruction and degradation of small streams. The Ohio Environmental Council is disappointed in Ohio’s Congressional members who voted to put the interests of coal companies above Ohioans’ right to clean drinking water.”