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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Obama administration is quietly putting together plans for a major new scientific study of the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining.

On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a notice seeking nominations for scientists to serve on an ad hoc panel to "provide expert advice to the EPA on a draft assessment of the ecological impacts" of mountaintop removal.

The EPA said the agency's Office of Research and Development is preparing the assessment at the request of officials from the EPA's Mid-Atlantic regional office in Philadelphia, which oversees regulatory matters in West Virginia.

The ad hoc panel would work under the auspices of the EPA's Science Advisory Board, which provides independent scientific and technical advice, consultation and recommendations to the EPA.

The Obama administration has already promised to take "unprecedented steps" to reduce the damaging environmental impact from mountaintop removal across the Appalachian coalfields.

Unlike other EPA moves on mountaintop removal, though, agency officials on Friday did not issue a news release or other media announcements concerning the science panel. Instead, the announcement was a simple notice published in the Federal Register.

The announcement said, "Recent published scientific information reveals that mountaintop mining and valley-fill operations in Southern Appalachia may be linked to degraded water quality and adverse impacts on in-stream biota."

It said that EPA regional officials had asked for a scientific assessment to include examinations of loss of headwater streams, downstream water quality and subsequent effects to aquatic life, as well as cumulative ecological impacts.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Obama administration is quietly putting together plans for a major new scientific study of the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining.

On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a notice seeking nominations for scientists to serve on an ad hoc panel to "provide expert advice to the EPA on a draft assessment of the ecological impacts" of mountaintop removal.

The EPA said the agency's Office of Research and Development is preparing the assessment at the request of officials from the EPA's Mid-Atlantic regional office in Philadelphia, which oversees regulatory matters in West Virginia.

The ad hoc panel would work under the auspices of the EPA's Science Advisory Board, which provides independent scientific and technical advice, consultation and recommendations to the EPA.

The Obama administration has already promised to take "unprecedented steps" to reduce the damaging environmental impact from mountaintop removal across the Appalachian coalfields.

Unlike other EPA moves on mountaintop removal, though, agency officials on Friday did not issue a news release or other media announcements concerning the science panel. Instead, the announcement was a simple notice published in the Federal Register.

The announcement said, "Recent published scientific information reveals that mountaintop mining and valley-fill operations in Southern Appalachia may be linked to degraded water quality and adverse impacts on in-stream biota."

It said that EPA regional officials had asked for a scientific assessment to include examinations of loss of headwater streams, downstream water quality and subsequent effects to aquatic life, as well as cumulative ecological impacts.

"In addition, the draft assessment will evaluate restoration and recovery methods used by mining companies to address these ecological impacts associated with mountaintop mining and valley-fill operations," the notice said.

However, the notice added, "Cultural, aesthetic and human health impacts that may be associated with this mining technique are not part of the scope of the current assessment."

The federal government already spent nearly seven years and $5.5 million on a broad study of mountaintop removal as part of a court settlement of a major lawsuit over mining permit practices.

That study, released in final form in October 2005, concluded that mountaintop removal was devastating the region's environment, destroying hills and forests and burying or otherwise damaging hundreds of miles of streams. President George W. Bush's administration reversed the study's intended purpose -- to come up with tougher new regulations -- and instead drafted plans to streamline permitting of new mines.

Since that study was completed, research by EPA experts and other scientists has continued to detail mountaintop removal's damage and point out that stream restoration and land reclamation projects by mining companies don't seem to work.

Two weeks ago, EPA officials proposed to take a closer look at 79 mining permit applications pending with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which handles Clean Water Act authorizations for burying streams.

The EPA said this week that its regional offices would finalize that list of permits by Monday, submit it to the Corps of Engineers, and then announce publicly which of those 79 permits would actually undergo more detailed reviews. The deadline for that final list was supposed to have been Saturday, but the EPA extended it.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.