The Clean Water Protection Act () was a

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

introduced in the

111th United States Congress The 111th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government from January 3, 2009, until January 3, 2011. It began during the last weeks of the George W. Bush administration, with th ...

via the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, of the

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. History The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure was formerly known as the Committee on Public Works a ...

. It proposed to redefine "fill material" to not include mining "waste" under the

Federal Water Pollution Control Act Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

. It was introduced by

Frank Pallone Frank Joseph Pallone Jr. (; born October 30, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving since 1988. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 3rd district from 1988 to 1 ...

and

Chris Shays Christopher Hunter Shays (born October 18, 1945) is an American politician. He previously served in the United States House of Representatives as representative of the 4th District of Connecticut. He is a member of the Republican Party. Shays ...

in the

110th Congress The 110th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, between January 3, 2007, and January 3, 2009, during the last two years of the Presidency of George W. Bush. It was composed of ...

, and almost identical bills had been introduced in previous years. As of July 2009, H.R.1310 had 154 co-sponsors. Environmental groups such as

Appalachian Voices Appalachian Voices is an American environmental organization. Their stated environmental concerns include eliminating air pollution, ending mountaintop removal, cleaning up coal ash pollution and promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency ...

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) is a grassroots community organization under the original name of the Kentuckian Fair Tax Coalition. It began when 26 people from 12 countries met in Hazard on August 17, 1981. Though statewide, KFTC has d ...

and

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

supported the legislation because of their stance against

mountaintop removal mining Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), also known as mountaintop mining (MTM), is a form of surface mining at the summit or summit ridge of a mountain. Coal seams are extracted from a mountain by removing the land, or overburden, above the seams. Thi ...

. It would also have affected situations similar to the

Kensington Mine Kensington mine is a gold mine located north of Juneau, Alaska. The mine is owned by Coeur Alaska Inc., a subsidiary company of Coeur Mining. In 1928 the mine halted operations, and since then Coeur Alaska has attempted to resume operations ...

operation near

Juneau, Alaska The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...

where a mine was permitted to discharge mining waste into a small lake as "fill."U.S. Supreme Court
''Coeur Alaska, Inc v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, et al.''
557 U.S. ___ (2009). Decided 2009-06-22. Slip Opinion No. 07-984.

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