Government decisions to weaken clean water protections are putting communities at risk. Under the weakened protections large coal mining operations are allowed to dump mining waste and fill into mountain streams, burying and polluting local supplies of drinking water.

In places like Appalachia, mining companies blow the tops off mountains to reach a thin seam of coal and then, to minimize waste disposal costs, dump millions of tons of waste rock into the valleys below, causing permanent damage to the ecosystem and landscape. This destructive practice, known as mountaintop removal mining, has damaged or destroyed approximately 1,200 miles of streams, destroyed forests on some 300 square miles of land, disrupted drinking water supplies, flooded communities, and destroyed wildlife habitat.