Hey Anglers, Get Ready To Enjoy Some Toxic Heavy Metals With Your Trout Fishing
By Monte Burke, a contributing editor at Forbes
“ . . . according to Science, this bill will do nothing to help out the struggling coal industry, which makes it the very definition of a lose-lose proposition.”
[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]ou are forgiven if the only thing you paid any attention to yesterday was President Donald J. Trump’s impromptu 77-minute press conference.But President Trump also did a bit of work yesterday, including the signing of a bill that nullified the Office of Surface Mining’s Stream Protection Rule, which was finalized last December by the Obama administration. The rule, an update to 1983 regulations, was designed to protect waterways from coal mining waste. While by no means a perfect rule—it had no provisions for waste created by mountain-top coal removal—it was a step in the right direction for protecting our nation’s headwaters.
Learn to say goodbye to some trout streams in America. Sorry, It’s not making America Great Again to pass a bill that allows (guarantees) pollution of trout streams and drinking water sources. Image credit Little River Outfitters, Townsend, TN.
Headwaters happen to be some of the most important parts of our river systems, the critical habitat where, among other things, trout and other fish species spawn. With no protections in place, those trout will now be spawning among coal mining waste, like toxic heavy metals. (There is, of course, a public health element to this, too. Some of those toxins could easily seep into groundwater. An alternative headline to this post could have read:
“Hey Humans Who Drink Water, Get Ready To Enjoy Some Toxic Heavy Metals.”
President Trump has personally shown little interest in nature (unless you categorize golf courses as “nature”). His son, Donald, Jr., however, is a self-described sportsman. It is fairly widely known that he does some trout fishing on public water in New York State’s Catskill Mountains that very well could be adversely affected by the bill his father just signed. Trump, Jr., in an interview with Field & Stream a year ago, promised that he would be a strong advocate for sportsmen and conservation. One wonders if he had any conversations with his father before the signing of this bill.
According to The Hill, at the bill signing ceremony:
“Trump called the regulation “another terrible job-killing rule” and said ending it would save “many thousands American jobs, especially in the mines, which, I have been promising you — the mines are a big deal.”
“This is a major threat to your jobs and we’re going to get rid of this threat,” he added. “We’re going to fight for you.”
Read complete story with fact links and images . . .
NOTE: Featured Image is of mountaintop removal mining in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. A place no longer desirable, but something nice to look forward to.
About Monte Burke
I am the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Saban: The Making of a Coach,” a biography of Alabama head coach, Nick Saban. I’m also the author of “4TH And Goal: One Man’s Quest to Recapture His Dream,” which won an Axiom Award, and “Sowbelly: The Obsessive Quest for the World-Record Largemouth Bass,” which was named one of the best books of the year by Sports Illustrated and Amazon, and was chosen for Barnes & Noble’s “Discover Great New Writers” program. After a 14-year stint as a reporter, staff writer and editor at Forbes, I am now a contributing editor at the magazine. I’m also a contributing editor at Garden & Gun and The Drake. You can reach me at monteburke13@gmail.com, via Twitter @monteburke, or through monteburke.com.
