Committee Publication No. 92-10
|
|
Legislative History Committee Publication No. 92-10 |
| |
MEMORANDUM OF THE CHAIRMAN
{2} To members and ex officio members of the Senate Committee on
Interior and Insular affairs, pursuant to Senate Resolution 45, a national fuels
and energy policy study
2 The decisions and the management philosophy underlying the uses we make of
the Nation's limited land and mineral resource base - the endowment of present
and future generations - have come to be viewed as a key element in determining
the quality of the life of our Nation.
2 Important progress has been made in many areas in recent years as a result
of new Federal initiatives in the area of environmental management, including
the balancing and review process established by the National Environmental
Policy Act of 1970. Concomitant with the goals declared in the National
Environmental Policy Act are the goals of the National Mining and Minerals
Policy Act of 1970 which states that the national interest is served by
fostering and encouraging the development of an economically sound and stable
domestic mining industry. The Senate Interior Committee has played an important
role in awakening public interest in land use policy as the key institutional
device for shaping the future, and in recognizing the goals of the National
Mining and Minerals Policy Act as a part of that future.
2 The series of hearings chaired by Senator Frank E. Moss, Chairman of the
Subcommittee on Mining, Materials, and Fuels, on the pending legislative
measures to control and regulate surface mining have served to focus national
attention upon an important and integral part of our total land use
considerations.
2 The pending surface mining measures raise many important issues. Some
relate to the sufficiency of the Nation's energy resource base and industrial
system to provide environmentally clean energy in the form the public needs.
Others concern problems of acid mine drainage, treatment of highwalls, the
handling of refuse and overburden materials which are a source of pollution, and
the bleak and barren landscapes which are too often left unreclaimed in the wake
of surface mine operations. Too often overlooked and therefore usually not
considered in discussions of surface mining regulation is the environmental
impact of water pollution from underground mining, acid mine drainage,
subsidence and ugly tailing piles. Of even more serious concern is the tragic
and appallingly high loss of life and the intolerable accident rates associated
with underground coal mining - the major alternative to surface coal mining
practices.
2 Many other issues associated with surface mine legislation are also of
major policy significance. These include:
2 Important questions as to Federal-State relationships and
responsibilities;
2 Who should pay the costs to correct past abuse;
2 What Federal agency should administer the program;
2 The timetable for implementation of Federal regulations;
{3} The consideration of sanctions for noncompliance;
3 The adequacy of surface mine reclamation knowledge, techniques, and
management practices; and
3 The imposition of uniform Federal and/or State severance taxes.
3 As a nation, we can no longer accept the social and environmental costs
imposed by some past surface mining practices. These costs, estimated in 1967
at $1 .2 billion, are real and pose a serious national problem. Their
resolution will require a national policy that is balanced yet firm; that
recognizes the widely different circumstances and problems involved in different
kinds of mining operations and in differing regions across the land; that
protects private as well as public lands from abuse; and that is capable of
incorporating new technological concepts to improve environmental standards so
that the social and environmental costs of surface mining are mitigated.
3 Mr. George H. Siehl of the Environmental Policy Division of the
Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, at my request has prepared
a report summarizing some of the major issues related to surface mining
legislation and a compilation of excerpts from the current literature and the
testimony from the hearings. This material will be of significant assistance to
the committee and others in analyzing the issues presented in the pending bills.
3 I have directed, therefore, that Mr. Siehl's paper be reproduced as a
committee print so that it will be readily available to members of the committee
and other interested parties.
3 HENRY M. JACKSON, Chairman.
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
{4} THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, Washington,
D.C., December 27, 1971.
4 Hon. HENRY JACKSON, Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior and Insular
Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.
4 Dear MR. CHAIRMAN: I am pleased to transmit herewith a report "The Issues
Related to Surface Mining" prepared at your request by Mr. George H. Siehl,
analyst in our Environmental Policy Division. We have drawn these issues from a
review of the extensive literature on the topic, and from hearings on surface
mining proposals which were held by your committee on November 16 and 17, and
December 2, 1971.
4 Also included is a selection of recent readings which illustrate in some
detail the issues which have been identified.
4 Sincerely yours, LESTER S. JAYSON, Director.
INTRODUCTION
{5} KEY ISSUES IN SURFACE MINING FROM THE LITERATURE
5 For a period of 30 years the Congress has had before it legislative
proposals bearing on the recovery of various minerals by surface mining. A
history of these bills was contained in a Committee Print issued earlier this
year by this Committee. n1
5 n1 Legislative Proposals Concerning Surface Mining of Coal. 92nd Congress.
1st Session, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, United States Senate.
September 1, 1971.
5 Surface mining refers to the process of removing the soil, rock and other
material which covers the mineral, e.g. strip mining, open cast mining, placer
or hydraulic mining, quarrying, and dredging.
5 A related method, used in the recovery of coal, is auger mining, a process
in which large drills are used to bore horizontially into coal seams on
hillsides.
5 An Interior Department study, "Surface Mining and Our Environment", has
identified these advantages of surface mining methods:
5 It makes possible the recovery of deposits which, for physical reasons,
cannot be mined underground; provides safer working conditions; usually results
in a more complete recovery of the deposit; and, most significantly it is
generally cheaper in terms of cost-per-unit of production.
5 Surface mining is of great importance in our domestic mining industry, as
illustrated by recent remarks of Interior Secretary Morton to the Interstate
Mining Compact Commission in which he noted:
5 Surface mining in 1969 accounted for 94 percent of all domestic production
of crude metallic and nonmetallic ores: 2.45 billion tons compared with 165
million tons from underground mines.
5 Approximately 38 percent of all coal in 1969 came from surface mines.
Preliminary data for 1970 indicates that this figure has risen sharply to 44
percent.
5 On a comparison basis, surface mines in 1969 produced 218 million tons and
269 million tons in 1970. Underground mines produced 347 million tons in 1969
compared with 338 million tons in 1970. Only the sharp increase in
surface-mined coal enabled the industry to meet demand last year.
5 A more detailed picture is presented by the tables in the reader section
of this Committee Print which show the production of various commodities by
surface mining. Tables are included under the heading on Natural Resource and
Energy Requirements.
5 Another study has recently noted these characteristics of coal surface
mining operations:
5 In strip mining, output per man-day is roughly 100 percent higher than in
underground mining, average recovery is 60 percent higher, and operating costs
are 25-30 percent lower.
5 This report, "Stripping Coal Resources of the United States" by Paul
Averitt of the U.S. Geological Survey shows the increased efficiency of recovery
made possible by strip mining methods. A Pennsylvania anthracite field, for
instance, saw only one-third recovery by underground mining years ago. In the
1920's and 1930's strip mining with small shovels increased the recovery. Now
partly mined coal is being recovered by surface mining methods in pits as much
as 400 feet deep.
{6} Averitt indicates that by 1980 the pits may reach a depth of 1,000 feet.
6 Despite the magnitude and value of surface mining operations some Members
of Congress and other concerned citizens feel the adverse environmental effects
of surface mining are so severe in the case of coal that they seek a total ban
on all coal strip mining. Other bills have sought to ensure a nationwide system
of State, Federal or a combination of State and Federal control of surface
mining which would, among other things, require the restoration of lands to be
disturbed by surface mining. Some of the proposed bills provide reclamation of
lands already disturbed.
6 It was estimated that some 3.2 million acres had been disturbed by surface
mining as of January 1, 1965. Of this total, some "two-thirds of the acreage
(about 2.0 million) still require some remedial attention", according to the
1967 Interior Department report.
6 One serious deficiency in working with the problem of land reclamation is
the lack of adequate current statistics on the amount of land disturbed and
restored since the 1965 information was published. The Bureau of Mines, which
compiles national mineral industry statistics has released the following figures
only for 1969 and only for coal, although it is understood that later figures
are being gathered and will be made available:
SALIENT STATISTICS ON SURFACE MINING OF COAL IN THE
UNITED STATES, IN 1969 n1
Production Surface mined land
Percent of
disturbed
Quantity land
Number of (thousand Acreage Acreage reclaimed
State mines short tons) disturbed reclaimed during year
Alabama 65 8,169 n(2) n(2) n(2)
Alaska n3 3 667 15
Arkansas 6 167 n(3) n(3) n(2)
Colorado 9 1,915 n(3) n(3) n(3)
Illinois 37 34,640 6,711 5,479 81.6
Indiana 32 17,976 3,33 5 3,118 93.5
Iowa 11 534 120 40 33.3
Kansas 4 1,313 1,176 250 21.3
Kentucky:
Eastern 262 17,082 12,200 9,600 78.7
Western 51 27,632 12,200 9,600 78.7
Maryland 38 1,045 261 459 175.9
Missouri n3 8 3,299 n(2) n(2) n(2)
Montana 5 995 31 33 106.5
New Mexico n3 3 3,636 250 100 40.0
North Dakota 20 4,704 330 140 42.4
Ohio 276 32,616 10,629 7,902 74.3
Oklahoma 8 1,722 1,674 1,441 86.1
Pennsylvania:
Bituminous 602 22,592 11, 774 9,298 79.0
Anthracite 174 4,579 534 539 100.9
Tennessee 73 3,609 n(2) n(2) n(2)
Virginia 158 5,182 2,258 2,331 103.2
Washington 2 5 n(2) n(2) n(2)
West Virginia 340 19,388 15,711 17,117 108.9
Wyoming 8 4,481 154 51 33.1
Total n4 2,195 217,952 67,163 57,898 86.2
6 n1 Data on acreage disturbed and acreage reclaimed compiled from Bureau of
Mines form O.M.B. No. 42-S70014.
6 n2 Data not reported.
6 n3 No State regulation on surface mining.
6 n4 Data may not add to totals shown because of rounding.
{3} On the unreclaimed surface mined site there is destruction of the
vegetative cover; the overburden is strewn upon adjacent lands; and surface and
subsurface drainage patterns are altered. The 1967 Interior report notes these
additional offsite damages:
3 Stream and water-impoundment pollution from erosion and acid mine water;
isolation of areas by steep highwalls; and, the impairment of natural beauty by
the creation of unsightly spoil banks, rubbish dumps, and abandoned equipment.
3 An important loss from unreclaimed lands is the fish and wildlife which
the affected area would have supported in its natural condition.
3 Only seven commodities have been identified as being responsible for 95
percent of the 5,000 square miles which have been disturbed by surface mining.
They are:
Percent
Coal 41
Sand and gravel 26
Stone 8 percent, gold 6 percent, clay 3
percent, phosphate 6 percent, iron 5
percent 28
All others 05
3 These figures explain, perhaps, the prominence given to coal in the public
discussion of problems related to surface mining. A contributing factor must
also be the fact that coal mining is conducted largely in the East where it is
visible to a larger portion of the population than is the case with Western
mines which are primarily for metallic ores.
3 Although the prime arguments over legislation to regulate surface mining
are economic and environmental, there are a number of additional points of
controversy. These include the need for continuing supplies of minerals,
particularly coal because of the current concern over energy supplies; and the
effectiveness of reclamation procedures. The question of who shall administer
regulation programs, and the safety of mine workers are also of concern.
Briefly, the contentions over these matters are as follows.
3 The energy crisis
3 The Senate Interior Committee has been particularly cognizant of the
mounting public concern over the continued availability of adequate energy
supplies. Recent evidences of action in this matter are the establishment of a
National Fuels and Energy Policy Study pursuant to Senate Resolution 45 of the
92nd Congress, action by the Committee on S. 1846, to develop an accelerated
program of coal gasification, and a review of the Department of Interior's
prototype leasing program for oil shale.
3 Estimates of major energy sources in the period beyond the year 2000
indicate that fossil sources will decline in importance. Until that time,
however, fossil fuels must be considered our primary energy source. Of those
fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - coal is the most abundant and the most
accessible. The major use of coal is in the generation of electricity.
3 The 1970 edition of Mineral Facts and Problems published by the Bureau of
Mines notes:
3 Increasingly, environmental and social considerations can be expected to
constrain the supply and limit the use of direct fuels to those that are
nonpollutant. Land use and ecological considerations may restrict strippable
coal supply.
3 Environmentalists have advocated constraint in the use of energy
generally, and strip mined coal in particular, on the theory that our current
level of electrical power use is needlessly high. Power companies have also
been criticized for extensive advertising to generate additional consumer demand
for power. Major portions of the U.S. coal reserves are recoverable only by
surface mining techniques. Satisfaction of electric power demands without
access to these coal deposits would add a new and significant dimension to the
energy crisis.
{4} } Our need for non-fuel minerals has been presented as largely a choice
between surface mining for domestic reserves or dependence on foreign sources of
supply. Interior Secertary Morton in his remarks to the Interstate Mining
Commission declared:
4 It is the surface mining industry that, in the future, will provide a
strong domestic mineral supply base and prevent our dependence on foreign
sources of mineral raw materials from becoming dangerously large or
prohibitively expensive.
4 Reclamation feasibility
4 The capability adequately to restore surface mined lands using available
technology is a matter which is still under debate. While industry has returned
to productive use some thousands of acres of mined land, opponents claim that,
in the main, these are simply "showcase" projects which are not representative
of the vast majority of reclamation efforts.
4 State-by-State statistics and examples of reclamation efforts by the coal
industry in 1970 are contained in the reader portion of this document under the
heading "Reclamation."
4 Although existing State laws require land rehabilitation, opponents of
surface mining have claimed that the requirements are not rigid enough to
provide environmental protection, or that there is little or no enforcement of
the provisions.
4 Federal or State regulation
4 A major question concerning the regulation of surface mining has been
whether the Federal or State government should establish and operate the
program.
4 State regulation has been favored by the mining industry on the grounds
that local unique conditions could be more easily recognized and built into the
regulatory program. An overall Federal program, it was claimed, would be too
inflexible and would work a disadvantage on some surface mining operations.
4 Proponents of a Federal program criticize the lack of strong regulations
and enforcement under State management. They cite as an additional argument
that, with uniform nationwide standards and requirements, unscrupulous surface
mine operators would not be able to move from State to State, in effect,
"shopping" for the lowest standards of environmental protection.
4 Wayne Davis wrote in his article "The Stripmining of America":
4 As the acceleration of stripmining proceeds, attempts to regulate it are
frustrated. Although Kentucky has a fairly good mining reclamation law and some
honest, conscientious people in the Division of Reclamation, law enforcement has
broken down. An employee of the Division told me that during the summer of 1970
permits were issued to over 100 new operators. Since anyone who can borrow
enough to get a bulldozer into operation can go into business and get rich
now, there is a flood of new people into stripmining. The enforcement officer
said that some of these inexperienced operators could not operate within the law
even if trying to do so and spills of spoil onto public highways and into the
streams are the result.
{5} Davis added:
5 * * * We must have federal regulations of mining practices. Any local
efforts to regulate this or any other industry encounter the standard and
somewhat justified reply that regulation would put them at a disadvantage with
their competitors in other states.
5 Edmund Faltermayer has examined the strip mine reclamation requirements
and operations in Pennsylvania, and in Life magazine expressed a strongly
contrary opinion. After commenting on the several State and Federal proposals
to ban strip mining of coal he writes:
5 * * * It costs $1 .50 a ton less, on the average, to strip coal than to
send men into the bowels of the earth for it. That cost advantage is so great
that stripmining companes can afford to do some pretty fancy regrooming if they
are made to do it. I know this is so, because I've been to Pennsylvania, a
state which rigorously enforces its reclamation law, the toughest in the land.
A lot of Pennsylvania companies are now going beyond what the law requires -
replacing topsoil, for example. "They've really got religion on reclamation
now," says William E Guckert, who runs the states' enforcement program. "But,"
he quickly adds, "they didn't get religion until we put the screws to them."
5 Cynics will greet with disbelief the news that there is a state government
anywhere that puts the screws to the strip-mining industry. How it happened is
worth telling. With more scarred acreage than any other state.Pennsylvania also
has the country's biggest constituency of outdoorsmen to notice all the ruined
terrain - 1.1 million licensed hunters and 800,000 fishermen - and they know how
to lobby.
5 Both of these articles appear in their entirety in the later pages of this
committee print.
5 Several of the pending bills combine Federal and State roles in regulating
surface mining. The Federal responsibility lies in formulating general
guidelines within which the States are to develop and enforce reclamation
programs. In the event a State does not do so, the Federal Government is
empowered to develop and or administer a program deemed satisfactory by the
Secretary of the Interior.
5 Worker safety
5 An important social issue which had been discussed with regard to the
relative merits of underground and surface mining is the health and safety of
the miners.
5 Mr. Harry Perry, Senior Specialist for the Congressional Research Service,
has stated:
5 * * * The fatality and injury rate in underground mines is much higher
than for strip mines. In 1970 the fatality rate in underground mines was 1.17
per million man hours of exposure while it was only .64 for strip mines. If all
coal stripping were banned and the fatality rates remained as they now are the
conversion to all underground mining would indicate statistically 90 additional
men killed in mining for 1970.
5 Strip mine opponents have contended that rigorous enforcement of the 1969
Mine Health and Safety Act would do much to reduce the hazards of underground
mining
SELECTED READINGS:
GENERAL
{19} [From New York Times, Aug. 22, 1971]
19 COAL RUSH IS ON AS STRIP MINING SPREADS INTO WEST
19 (By Ben A. Franklin)
19 WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 - A new stage in the development of the American West
is beginning on the arid plains and badlands that flank both slopes of the Rocky
Mountains.
19 On thousands of square miles of vacant land west of the Mississippi -
much of it in Federal ownership or in Government land grants to Indian tribes
and railroads - a feverish coal rush is on.
19 The scramble is for coal leases and rights that will open an enormous and
virtually untapped reserve of cheap Western fuel to strip mining.
19 On a scale far larger than anything seen in the East, where acreage
totaling half the area of New Jersey has been peeled off for coal near enough to
the surface to be strip mined, portions of six Western states - Arizona,
Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming - face a topographic and
environmental upheaval.
19 It is being brought on by the nation's apparently insatiable demand for
energy, by the air pollution crisis in urban centers, by new technology in the
conversion of coal to clean fuels, and by the economies of bulldozing rather
than tunneling for coal that are available in the West.
19 In resolving the energy and air pollution problems, however vast areas of
isolated open spaces in the West may be drastically altered.
19 The visual impact of strip mining is invariably stunning. On flat or
rolling terrain, mammoth power shovels crawl day and night through great
trenches, lifting, wheeling and depositing, the unwanted strata above the coal
seam into thousands of uninterrupted acres of geometrically perfect windrows of
spoil banks.
19 In mountain coalfields where one, two or as many as five seams may lie
horizontally through timbered slopes far above the valley bottom, the contour
strip mines are notched in continuous, sinuous strips around the mountainsides.
Trees and earth and rock are cast down the mountain flanks to expose the
strippable edge of the coal bed.
19 The legacy of upheaval remains. Silt fills streams for thousands of
miles.Sulphurbearing coal, left in place and exposed to the elements, yields a
long-lasting trickle of sulphuric acid which chemically burns streams and kills
aquatic life. From the air over a "hot" acidic strip mine, pools of rainwater
glow in weird shades of red and orange.
19 The debate over strip mining has been gathering since the late
nineteen-fifties, when larger and larger earth-moving machinery made its growth
economically feasible and gave it a cost advantage over underground mining.
With a passion that coal men tend to see as mysticism, conservationsts say that
stripping destroys the very roots of men's souls - the land. The mining
industry sees it with similarly strong conviction as the best way to tap a vital
national resource which, as one strip mining executive put it recently, "God put
there for man's use - it's a sin to waste it."
19 According to one Government geologist here, the six states and others in
the West - Oklahoma, Texas and even a patch of Washington State - "are on the
brink of, not years, but generations of strip mining for coal that will make the
excavation for the Panama Canal look like a furrow in my backyard vegetable
garden."
19 The first wave has begun. In 1970, for the first time in the 100-year
history of coal mining in America, a Western mine - the Navajo strip mine of the
Utah Construction and Mining Company near Farmington, N.M. - became the largest
single producer in the country. Its output from Indian coal lands was more than
six million tons for the Four Corners Electric Power Complex, an environmentally
controversial steam-electric station serving New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and
Southern California.
{20} Near Centralia, Wash., 30 miles south of Olympia and just beyond the
foothills of Mount Rainer, a 5,000-acre, 135-million ton deposit of coal that
was only nibbled at by tunneling from 1870 into the nineteen-fifties for
pre-diesel locomotive fuel for the Northern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads,
is being turned into one of the biggest strip mines in the country. The planned
rate of production is five million tons a year for a 700,000 kilowatt generating
station of the Pacific Power and Light Company and the Washington Waterpower
Company.
20 Pacific Power and Light also owns rights to an estimated 1.6 billion tons
of strip mine reserves in Wyoming and Montana. The company expects to rank
among the top fine coal producers in the country by 1977 with production of 23
million tons a year. Its president has said that the company will go slow on
expensive investment in nuclear power stations because "we've got coal running
out our ears."
20 Even Texas lignite - lignite is the lowest rank of coal in energy per ton
and it has never generated more than an asterisk in Government coal production
statistics - is having a sudden boom.
20 Three electric utilities - Texas Power and Light, Dallas Power and Light
and Texas Electrical Service, Inc. - announced two months ago that they would
begin a 35-year strip mine operation on 17,500 acres of lignite beds in
Freestone County, near Fairfield, to fuel the new Big Brown steam-electric
station east of Waco. Other lignite-fired plants are scheduled for Rusk and
Titus Counties.
20 Western coal is low in sulphur - a boon to electric utilities caught
between soaring power demand and new air pollution regulations that forbid the
burning of sulphur-contaminated fuel. Accordingly, also for the first time last
year, some low-sulphur western coal was hauled by rail as far east as Chicago.
20 But according to Government coal men, an immense strip mine explosion
west of the Mississippi River that, by comparison, will make this excavation for
electric power stations look like a mere desert gulch, is coming in the nineteen
eighties for a giant new coal consuming industry, gasification.
20 Officials forecasts here say that 20 years from now perhaps 300 million
tons of coal a year - half of last year's total United States production - will
be processed at huge, refinery-like plants, surrounded by massive strip mines in
the Western coal fields. The product will be quadrillions of cubic feet of
pipeline quality, pollution-free gas. The Government and the mining and gas
industries are now committed to this basic change.
20 VAST COAL BEDS IN WEST
20 Coal gasification will replace the country's dwindling supply of natural
gas from wells, now estimated to be only about a 15-year reserve. Consumed in
power plant and industrial boilers in the East, the gas will reduce air
pollution. And pumped through pipelines that might otherwise be empty, it will
save the pipeline industry from collapse.
20 Millions, perhaps billions, of dollars are thus finally ripening in coal
beds under Western sagebrush, where the mineral has lain for geologic time, 130
million years.
20 The speculative market in Western strip mine leases to dig it, and in
permits to explore for more, has suddenly become a bonanza.
20 In the 12 months that ended in July, 1970, the increase in prospecting
permits issued by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management for coal
exploration on Federal land - national forests, grassland, desert and range -
shot up by 50 percent to the greatest number in history, covering 733,576 acres.
That is the area of all New York City and Long Island, with Westchester and
Rockland counties thrown in.
20 Prospecting permits on Indian reservations, issued separately by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, went from none to exploration rights covering 500,000
more acres. Such permits are convertible to firm mineral leases if coal is
found.
20 COAL-FIRED TURBINES
20 Nearly one million acres of public and Indian coal land in the West is
already leased. Leases by private owners, chiefly by the transcontinental,
land-grant railroads, are unknown but may cover an equal area.
20 The forces behind the sudden migration of coal mining to the West are
complex, and the reasons for them are probably as irresistible as money.
20 First, despite the wide acceptance during the nineteen-sixties of
visionary forecasts for nuclear electric power, half the nation's electricity is
still generated by coal-fired steam turbines.
{21} Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, the retiring chairman, of the Atomic Energy
Commission, recently conceded that the poor record of the A.E.C.'s vaunted
nuclear-electric program means that coal will fuel an even greater portion of
the enlarged generating capacity required for the next three decades.
21 Other important factors are mining costs and mining volume.
21 Strip mine production of coal in the country as a whole has advanced very
rapidly in the last few years, from about one-third of the annual tonnage in
1968 to 40 or 42 per cent last year. According to the United States Bureau of
Mines, the cost advantage over deep mined coal is on the order of three to one.
21 Productivity per worker runs as high as five to one in favor of strip
mining, and is going higher under the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of
1969, which requires deep mines to take expensive steps to curb the high rate of
death and injury underground.
21 Moreover, particularly for gasification, huge guaranteed volumes of
cheap, strip-mined coal are essential.
21 77 PERCENT OF RESERVE
21 The Bureau of Mines has just cautiously disclosed in an unpublished
compendium that beneath 13 states west of the Mississippi River there lies 77
percent of the country's total of economically strippable coal reserves of 45
billion tons. The Western coal is in seams 12 times thicker, on the average,
than in the East. And 25.5 billion tons of it is low-sulphur coal.
21 Wyoming and Montana, together, contain 21 billion tons of the entire
Western reserve of low-sulphur coal. Wyoming's low-sulphur reserve, alone, is
eight times West Virginia's and Kentucky's put together.
21 The Government has apparently pre-empted most of one of Colorado's major
strip mine fields by building the Air Force Academy on top of it at Colorado
Springs.But Colorado still contains nearly half a billion tons of the highest
grade of low-sulphur strip mine coal.
21 And still undisturbed beneath the wheat and grasslands of western North
Dakota wait 50 billion tons of lignite - the leanest rank of coal, but
equivalent in total energy to all the better grades of coal left to be mined in
the four largest producing states, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and
Illinois.
21 The Bureau of Mines has recently disclosed that Pennsylvania and Illinois
have no low-sulphur stripping coal left at all. *the reserve in West Virginia
is only about 1.2 billion tons, one twenty-fifth of the national reserve.
21 For a hundred years the traditional coal field regions of the United
States have been there - in the Appalachian east and south and across southern
Indiana and Illinois, tapering off into Missouri, Kansas and eastern Oklahoma.
21 Billions of tons of coal and billions of dollars of investment in
immovable tools and tunnels remain in these traditional coal areas, and
depletion of total coal reserves is not the most important factor in the move to
the West.
21 But although the Eastern and Midwestern fields now supply 94 per cent of
the 600 million ton-a-year coal production, they contain only 17 per cent of the
remaining reserve of strippable low-sulphur coal.
21 ENERGY SYSTEM SHIFTING
21 It is this arcane statistic, the 83 per cent of shallow, strippable,
low-sulphur coal beneath the Western states, that is starting what the United
States Geological Survey calls "a massive change" in the whole national fuel and
energy system.
21 Until the air pollution crisis of the nineteen sixties and seventies the
West's low-sulphur coal was as worthless as a coyote. Coal is the cheapest of
fossil fuels and, accordingly, freight is a large part in its cost to
consumers.Longhaul reserves were not cost-competitive.
21 But now that many urban pollution abatement laws forbid the burning of
coal or oil containing more than 1 per cent sulphur by weight - and the Federal
Environmental Protection Agency has said the limit may have to be pushed to 0.7
per cent - the ancient economic maxims of coal, a $3-billion a year industry,
are caving in.
21 Already, in a break with transportation tradition, the historic flow of
coal from Appalachian mines to Lake Erie port to docks at Superior, Wis., or
Duluth, Minn., has begun to turn around.
{22} For example, Burlington Northern, Inc., the merged railway system - and
also one of the largest private owners of Western coal reserves through 19th
century Federal land grants - has been loading low sulphur coal from the Peabody
Coal Company's Big Sky strip mine at Colstrip in eastern Montana. The coal goes
by train to the docks at Superior and is shipped lake steamer to Tasonit Harbor,
Mich., a movement that would have been economically unthinkable a few years ago.
22 It is the prospect, however, of prodigious volumes of stripmined coal to
supply gasification plants that lies behind the frantic scramble by coal,
petroleum and pipeline interests - and by land brokers and speculators who
expect to profit at their expense - to assemble leases and rights to large
tracts of Western coal for future stripping.
22 The scope of this Western stripping for gasification - large both on a
plant-by-plant basis and also in the area to be affected by big new surface
mines - is suggested by what the American Gas Association calls its "very
confidential" study of potential gasification sites.
22 Apparently for fear of stimulating price gouging in mineral leases and
arousing conservationist opposition, the association will not discuss the
study beyond acknowledging its existence. Association officials will not even
say which states have been identified as gasification sites, much less which
counties.
22 But it is known that the association report pinpoints 176 prospective
plant locations - each to require a $200-million to $3 00-million investment in
strip mine and coal processing facilities - and industry officials say variously
that "a large majority" or "nearly all" of them lie west of the Mississippi.
22 A Government geologist who has seen the association study says that 156
of the 176 sites - all but 20 - are in "the Rocky Mountain West." Enough of them
are to be developed by 1985, the study suggests, so that gasification by then
will materialize as a $1-billion-a-year industry on the West's open spaces.
22 According to Interior Department reports, coal for future gasification is
spurring recent transactions like these:
22 In response to a United States Bureau of Land Management invitation to
bid on 6,560 acres of Federally owned coal land in Campbell County near
Gillette, Wyo. - the bureau delicately described the 10-square-mile area as
"susceptibleto stripping" - the Cordero Mining Company won the coal leases with
a record high price of $5 05 an acre. In recent years, some Federal coal leases
have gone for under $1 an acre. Cordero is a subsidiary of the Sun Oil Company.
22 On the same day last December, the Mobil Oil Company bid $4 41 an acre
for leases on 4,000 acres of bureau land adjoining the Cordero site. The United
States Geological Survey had estimated its worth at $35 an acre.
22 LEASE PRICES SOAR
22 Bureau lease prices have advanced so rapidly that a short time earlier a
successful bid of $2 57.50 an acre by a land-buying affiliate of the Ashland Oil
Company - $1 .9 million for coal rights to 7,600 acres, or 13 square miles, of
Carbon County near Hanna, Wyo. - was being called a "precedent-shattering high
price." The $2 57.50 precedent lasted two weeks, when Cordero doubled it.
22 But particularly on Indian reservations, there have also been what one
official of the Bureau of Indian Affairs here calls "some damn lucky breaks" for
Eastern coal companies bidding for leases of tribal coal reserves.
22 Last September, Westmoreland Resources, Inc., a year-old Western strip
mining partnership of the Philadelphia-based Westmoreland Coal Company, Penn
Virginia, Inc., the Kewanee Oil Company, the Morrison-Knudson Company, and the
Kemmerer Coal Company of Wyoming, had to bid an average of only $7 .87 an acre
for 32,300 acres of coal rights held by the Crow Indian reservation in the Sarpy
Creek area of Treasure and Big Horn Counties, Mont.
22 Within months, the syndicate had sold options to buy 300 million of its
900 million tons of Montana coal reserves to the Colorado Interstate Gas
Company, the pipeline division of the Colorado Interstate Corporation. The
company is a major pipeline company and may be one of the first to erect a coal
gasification plant, presumably near Hardin, Mont.
{23} OTHER VAST RESERVES
23 Other vast coal reserves in the West are owned by the railroads.
Government land grants to the railroads, which were originally meant to
encourage and finance the construction of track to the West but which have
remained dormant and unsalable for 100 years, are suddenly valuable.
23 The Union Pacific, for example, has become a profitable lessor of its
10-billionton to 12-billion-ton reserve of coal on land given the company by the
Federal Government under the railroad land grants of the last century.
23 But by far the greatest acreage of coal leaseholds is being acquired on
speculation for later sale to the coal gasification industry.
23 An unpublished "working paper" prepared at the Interior Department shows
that the 10 largest holders of Federal coal leases control 49 percent of the
773,000 acres of public domain turned over to mining interests or land
speculators as of July 1, 1970, and that very little of their acreage is being
mined. Some of the inactive leases have been held at little cost since the
nineteen-twenties but most are about five years old.
23 The 10 largest lease holders, in order of the acreage of their coal
rights, are listed as the Peabody Coal Company; the Atlantic Richfield Company;
the Garland Coal and Mining Company; the Pacific Power & Light Company; the
Consolidation Coal Company; the Resources Company; the Kemmerrer Coal Company;
the Utah Construction and Mining Company; Richard D. Bass, a Dallas geologist
and land investor, and the Kerr McGee Corporation.
23 DRASTIC CHANGE SEEN
23 The Interior study says that, of all the Federal coal acreage under
lease, those 10 lease holders control 97 percent of the leases in Montana and
North Dakota, 91 percent in New Mexico and Oklahoma, 79 percent in Utah, 75
percent in Colorado and 77 percent in Wyoming. Peabody and Atlantic Richfield
together hold one-third of all the federally leased coal land in Montana and
North Dakota.
23 Federal coal leases, many at bargain rates, are not the only incentives
that the Government has provided for the development of Western coal.
23 On Aug. 4, the Interior Department signed an agreement with the gas
industry that will add $80-million in Federal funds to $4 0-million from gas and
pipeline companies for a four-year acceleration of existing work on small-scale
but working pilot coal gasification plants. Some $1 76-million more in Federal
money has been set aside for the next step - construction of a full-scale
demonstration plant.
23 Meanwhile, the coal industry is working hard to picture the environmental
prospect for the West as benign, if not uplifting.
23 Carl E. Bagge, a former member of the Federal Power Commission who now
heads the National Coal Association, an influential Washington-based industry
group, has been making an unusual number of trips into the West to preview the
"new prosperity" in Western coal and to inveigh in speeches against "reckless,"
"radical," "emotional" conservationist attacks on strip mining.
23 Mr. Bagge has been pointng tot in his Western travels that the strip
mining industry genuinely means to do better there than in the ravaged coal
fields of the East, and that the tempo of Western nature is slower - there is
less timber, less rainfall, less visual discontinuity in stripping buttes and
badlands than Appalachian hickory forests or Indiana cornfields.
23 One coal industry suggestion, put forward earlier this year at a session
of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, was that tourists might have some
interest in visiting the scarred and barren "badlands" created by strip mining.
SULFUR CONTENT OF STRIPPABLE COAL RESERVES
Grade n1 Millions of tons by sulfur content
Low Medium High Total
Wyoming B 13,377 65 529 13,971
Montana B, C 6,133 764 0 6,897
New Mexico B 2,474 0 0 2,474
North Dakota C 1,678 397 0 2,075
West Virginia A 1,138 669 311 2,118
Texas C 625 684 0 1,309
Kentucky
(east) A 532 189 60 781
Colorado A 476 24 0 500
Arizona B 387 0 0 387
South Dakota C 160 0 0 160
Virginia A 154 99 6 258
Washington B 135 0 0 135
Alabama A 33 74 27 134
Arkansas A, C 28 118 28 174
California B 25 0 0 25
Oklahoma A 10 44 57 111
Utah A 6 136 8 15 0
Tennessee A 5 43 26 74
Michigan A 0 0 1 1
Maryland A 0 8 13 21
Ohio A 0 126 907 1,033
Iowa A 0 0 180 180
Kansas A 0 0 375 375
Pennsylvania A 0 225 527 752
Kentucky
(west) A 0 0 977 977
Indiana A 0 293 803 1,096
Missouri A 0 0 1,160 1,160
Illinois A 0 80 3,167 3,247
Total 31,787 4,036 9,161 44,986
24 n1 A - Bituminous; B - Subbituminous; C - Lignite.
24 Source: The New York Times, Aug. 22, 1971.
24 Note: The westward movement of stripmining has resulted from low-sulfur
reserves west of the Mississippi that promise less pollution in fuels to meet
the energy crisis.
24 PRO AND CON IN A BITTER DEBATE
24 WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 - Behind the argument over strip mining there lies a
maze of complex public issues and private interests that the combatants on both
sides agree touch on the most serious environmental questions in the country
today.
24 On one side is the nation's seemingly infinite demand for electrical
energy and, at the same time, for clean air. On the other is its equally urgent
desire to preserve the national environment.
24 Coal, the cheapest of fossil fuels, now provides the energy for more than
half the country's electric power production. Although it has been a major
source of particulate and sulphur-dioxide pollution, the Atomic Energy
Commission is now saying that coal will continue to dominate the utility market
for three more decades.
24 Thus, as power demands increase, so will coal mining. The cheapest coal
- and the safest coal to mine in human terms - is strip mined coal.
24 Much of the vast Western coal reserves can be mined in no other way. It
is too shallow for underground tunneling, or in seams that are too thick or
structurally unsound.
24 One of the chief attractions of the Western coal is that it is low enough
in mineral and chemical contaminants to meet the strictest air pollution
standards when it is burned.
24 It is also the only coal abundant enough, in concentrated beds, to supply
the new coal gasification industry, another source, when it is fully developed,
of nonpolluting fuel.
24 The assault on strip mining has brought a fierce response from the coal
and electric utility industries, and even from some Government officials.
24 "Unwilling or unable to face up to the facts of life" is the
characterization given the conservationists by Aubrey J. Wagner, the board
chairman of the giant, Government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's
largest single power producer and the largest consumer of strip-mined coal.
{25} In testimony before the Tennessee Legislature last April, Mr. Wagner
said that environmentalist critics who seek to abolish strip mining outright or
to impose prohibitive reclamation standards "fail to recognize that coal is
essential if the electric power needs of the nation are to be met."
25 "Nor do they understand that coal cannot be obtained in the near term
without resort to strip mining," he continued, "and, further, that resort to
deep-mined coal instead, even in the long term, creates problems of
environmental deterioration and human safety. They would outlaw strip mining
even in the face of the fact that such action would create a power shortage in
which industrial activity would be severely curtailed, unemployment would
increase, commerce would stagnate, and home life would be disrupted."
25 Conservationists call the "trade off" idea - that a measure of strip-mine
damage is acceptable to guarantee the nation's power supply - a rationalization
in advance for a permanent defacement of the land.
25 Moreover, many conservationists seriously question the industry's
assertion that it is averting an electric power crisis by strip mining more and
more coal.
25 "We waste electric power as if it were cheap and easy to get," Ed Chaney,
a National Wildlife Federation lawyer, said in an interview."But if you look at
what strip mining has done to West Virginia or Southern Illinois and Indiana,
you see that it wasn't cheap after all."
25 "If we ever see, as a people, what strip mining is doing to our country,"
Mr. Chaney said, "I'm sure we would insist on some other answer, and less use of
electricity may be a temporary solution while we find other means of generating
power."
25 [From the Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 23, 1971]
25 STRIP COAL ON WAY IN MONTANA
25 BILLING, MONT. - Montana Power Company has picked the small southeastern
Montana community of Colstrip, 100 miles east of Billings and the site of
extensive strip mining of coal for many years, to locate a 350,000-kw.,
coal-fired power-generating station. It is a possible first step in turning the
area into the electricpower generation center for the entire northern Rocky
Mountain area.
25 Cost of Colstrip Unit No. 1, as the plant is being called, is $6 0
million, exclusive of transmission facilities. George W. O'Connor, president of
Montana Power, says preliminary construction began in August, and the plant is
scheduled for completion by July 1, 1975. The first of two 230,000-volt
transmission lines, which will carry power from the plant site to the company's
load and switching center in Billings, is under construction.
25 The plant, which Mr. O'Connor said "can be developed ultimately to
produce 3,000,000 or more kws. of power," is the first minemouth generating
station to be constructed in Montana and may be the forerunner of a much more
extensive development of eastern Montana's vast coal fields.
25 RECENT UPROAR
25 News of the new Montana plant comes on the heels of a recent uproar over
coalfired power plants in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada. The plants
there have triggered heavy opposition from environmentalists and caused
Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton, to clamp a moratorium on new
plants on the Colorado Plateau pending a study of their impact on the
environment.
25 Eastern Montana coal is prized for power-generating plants in a
pollutionconscious nation because of its low sulfur content and because it lies
near the surface, readily available for strip mining. Much of it also is in a
sparsely settled sagebrush-covered area of plains or low rolling hills, where
reclamation of disturbed land is neither difficult nor costly.
25 Numerous coal or power companies are interested in the area.
25 A new coal mine recently was opened near Decker in the southeastern
corner of Montana, an area other mines formerly had operated. It will supply 22
million tons of coal over a six-year period to Commonwealth Edison Company of
Chicago, beginning early in 1972.
25 Another likely development area is in the vast Sarpy Creek coal field
about 80 miles northeast of Billings, where four major coal companies have
acquired holdings. Sarpy Creek reportedly has more than 6 billion tons of
subbituminous coal with less than 1 percent sulfur content.
{26} Planned developments stirred some opposition in the recent session of
the Montana Legislature. Some lawmakers opposed "mine-mouth energy" plants that
would use Montana coal to produce electrical energy for transmittal out of
state. They would prefer industrial firms to locate plants in Montana to use
locally produced power.
26 The Montana power plant at Colstrip will use coal being produced at the
site by the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Western Energy Company.
26 But other coal companies also are interested in the area. In February,
Peabody Coal Company bid $5 6 per acre to win a 4,306-acre federal coal lease
near Colstrip. Edwin Azidlicz, state director of the United States Bureau of
Land Management, said "spirited bidding . . . indicates a new era for Montana's
valuable coal resource."
26 In April, bids totaled $2 ,348,290 for prospecting permits on the
Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, south of Colstrip.The propsecting area
covers 367,429 acres in 18 tracts. Low bidders for various tracts, with 13
companies submitting bids, included Meadowlark Farms of Indianapolis, Ind.;
Consolidation Coal Company of Pittsburgh; Belco Petroleum Corporation and some
Montana firms.
26 ACTION CENTER
26 Consolidation Coal Company also is interested in some huge coal fields at
Roundup, 50 miles north of Billings, where it plans extensive strip mining in an
area that formerly produced coal from underground mines. The community of
Roundup welcomes the development, but landowners in the Bull Mountains, a scenic
area, oppose the company on ecological grounds. Consolidation, however, claims
it can successfully reclaim any strip-mined area satisfactorily, even if not
restoring it to its original condition.
26 Westmoreland Resources Group of Colorado has purchased coal prospecting
and water rights from the Crow Indian tribe, whose reservation in southeastern
Montana also has vast coal deposits.
26 While action has centered within 50 miles or so of the Colstrip area,
most of eastern Montana has vast beds of readily accessible coal. Coal
production in the area doubled last year, and will increase another 65 to 75
percent by 1973, according to C. R. Binger, vice-president for resource and
development of Burlington Northern.
26 The 1971 session of the state Legislature recognized the likely
development of eastern Montana coal fields in the near future, and took steps
both to obtain revenue from it and to protect the region from the evils of strip
mining that have been evident elsewhere.
26 A tax bill signed into law this year has sliding rates of from 4 to 12
cents a ton, depending upon heating content of the coal, and averaging about 10
cents per ton. The state also adopted laws requiring reclamation of strip-mined
lands, and new federal strip-mining regulations are being enforced for the first
time in the new developments at Colstrip.
26 [From the Sierra Club Bulletin, February 1971]
26 THE STRIPMINING OF AMERICA
26 (By Wayne Davis *)
26 * Mr. Davis is Professor of Zoology at the University of Kentucky,
Lexington.
26 Kentucky is being destroyed by stripmining.Not slowly and surely, but
rapidly and at an ever accelerating rate. And the disease that affects Kentucky
soon may spread to more than half our other states.
26 Most Sierrans are aware of the problem of acid mine drainage.Sulfur
impurities in coal, when excavated and exposed to the air, invite invasion by
bacteria which manufacture sulfuric acid. The result is streams with a pH so
low that nothing survives but bacteria, the damage is permanent; some sickly red
streams run dead a hundred years after mining operations have ceased, with
little prospect of improvement in sight.
26 The extent of the problem is enormous. Keith O. Schwab, of the Federal
Water Quality Administration in Cincinnati, has data showing 12,000 miles of
degraded streams from mine acid drainage in the Appalachian states. "We can ill
afford to lose more streams to mining pollution," he said, "but this is exactly
what is happening."
26 Acid mine drainage has been with us as long as we have been mining coal.
It comes from deep mines and surface mines. It has long been accepted by most
local people as a price they must pay for an economy which removes the coal and
burns it up as quickly as possible. Progress means removing the wealth,
destroying it, and leaving the land and streams permanently impoverished.
{27} Acid mine drainage, considered one of the most vicious of industry
by-products, is trivial however compared to the massive onrush of destruction
caused by the incredibly rapid move to surface mining.
27 In surface mining heavy machinery removes the soil, including trees,
grass and everything else on the surface, to expose the coal seam beneath. In
the steep hill country of Eastern Kentucky, this means pushing massive amounts
of spoil down the mountainside. Even the largest trees are broken and pushed
over. The magnitude of the devastation is difficult to imagine for anyone who
has not seen it. Man's ever accelerating technology, now rushing forward faster
than the speed of thought, has designed machinery which will move 100 cubic
yards of dirt with a single bite. Such shovels, standing as high as a 12
story building, are used around the clock, as is the smaller equipment at many
of the mountain stripping sites. With profits running as high as 50 percent
annual return on the dollar invested and the minimum price of Eastern Kentucky
coal having doubled over a 6 month period last year, the rush is on while the
getting is good. Western Sierrans who watched the timber barons' frenzied
efforts to cut as many big trees as they could before Congress established a
national park will understand the rape of Kentucky. As stripping grows and as
people become more informed, the opposition forces encompass an ever larger
segment of the public.
27 When rain falls upon a strip mine site massive quantities of mud wash
into the streams. A study by the U.S. Forest Service in Kentucky showed
streams carried as much as 46,000 ppm of suspended sediment, compared to a
maximum of 150 ppm in adjacent forested watersheds. Stream bed burdens of as
much as 66,500 cubic feet of sediment per square mile of watershed were observed
in the stripped areas. In addition to the stream beds the woodland flood plains
were also made a muddy mess from silt. Subsequent rains not only brought down
more silt but moved part of the previous loads on downstream, affecting more of
our watercourses.
27 Bethlehem Steel Corporation has mined the high quality low sulfur coal
needed for processing steel from deep mines in Eastern Kentucky for many years
without arousing the displeasure of conservationists. However, their decision
in 1969 to strip 40,000 acres in several counties changed them from an
acceptable responsible corporation into the number one target and rallying point
for the anti-stripping forces. Stripmining not only puts permanent scars on the
mountainsides, but it also kills the streams, which are public property.
27 Silt kills streams by destroying the nature of the bed. Many aquatic
invertebrates upon which fish feed live beneath stones in the gravel-covered
bottom of a stream. A fine load of silt from the clay-banks above glues down
the stones, making them inaccessible and preventing the free movement of
oxygen-carrying water among the gravel and beneath the stones.
27 The effect upon spawning of fish is similar. Most species of game fish
lay eggs in the gravel of the stream bottom. If a fine layer of silt washes off
the strip mine spoils and covers the eggs, they are deprived of sufficient
oxygen for development and fail to hatch. Thus the stripminers rob the public
of a valued resource.
27 Although land destruction occurs, acid mine drainage and silt are the
best known effects of stripmining, a less known but equally dangerous factor may
be the raising of the mineral ion concentration of the water effecting its
usability by man and his industries. The U.S. Public Health Service sets
standards for drinking water quality and the various industries have their own
tolerance levels depending upon the purpose of the water they use.
27 The U.S. Forest Service has done studies on the effects of stripmining on
water quality in Eastern Kentucky. In a report they point out that although the
U.S. Public Health Service's Maximum Permissible Level for sulfates in water is
250 ppm, on severely disturbed watersheds in Eastern Kentucky they found
concentrations ranging up to 2100 ppm. Whereas the tolerance level for
manganese is 0.05 ppm, concentrations of up to 74 ppm were found, and for iron,
whose recommended maximum level is 0.3 ppm, concentrations ranged up to 88 ppm.
27 Why the tremendous increase in stripmining activity? Many reasons have
coalesced to result in today's frenzy.
27 The use of electrical power, pushed along by Madison Avenue's request
that we live better electrically, have been growing at 7 percent per year, a
rate which doubles consumption every 10 years.Coal is a major energy source for
power generators.
{28} Even with nuclear reactor power generators increasing at a rate that
doubles their numbers every 2.4 years, with this rate expected to continue at
least through 1980, the demand for power is increasing so fast that coal powered
generators also are being built.
28 The scarcity of natural gas, which caused gas companies in the East to
deny service to many new industrial customers in 1970, and the ever increasing
dependency of this country on foreign oil sources, has increased the interest in
coal, one resource which is still in abundant supply.
28 The new mine safety law has helped push operators out of deep mining into
the stripmining business. Stripping produces three times as much coal per man
as an underground operation and requires less machinery and investment. It is
safer for the workers and more profitable to the operators. The result has been
that the strip mine has risen from 29 percent of the production 10 years ago to
36 percent today. In the steep Appalachian hills of 9 states strip mine benches
now extend for 20,000 miles. Since only 4.6 billion of the estimated 108
billion tons of strippable coal have been harvested, one can see what the future
holds.
28 As the acceleration of stripmining proceeds, attempts to regulate it are
frustrated. Although Kentucky has a fairly good mining reclamation law and some
honest, conscientious people in the Division of Reclamation, law enforcement has
broken down. An employee of the Division told me that during the summer of 1970
permits were issued to over 100 new operators. Since anyone who can borrow
enough to get a bulldozer into operation can go into business and get rich now,
there is a flood of new people into stripmining. The enforcement officer said
that some of these inexperienced operators could not operate within the law even
if trying to do so and spills of spoil onto public highways and into the streams
are the result.
28 The business is so lucrative that an operator has been quoted as saying
that if we will leave him alone for just two years he doesn't care if we outlaw
stripmining, for by that time he would be rich enough to retire.
28 Operators are getting rich and selling out to the big corporations. The
giants of oil and steel, smelling the killing at hand, have been rushing into
the fray like a pack of sharks to a bleeding swimmer. The major stripmining
operations are subsidiaries of such corporations as Gulf Oil, Humble Oil, U.S.
Steel and Bethlehem Steel. TVA is also heavily involved.
28 If you think coal mining is only a problem for Kentucky and such well
known coal states as West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Illinois, you are in for a
surprise. A total of 26 states have strippable reserves of coal. We easterners
will not even be in the running when the big time arrives, because the states
with the largest reserves of strippable coal are North Dakota, Montana and
Wyoming. If we draw a line from Pennsylvania to the coal-laden northwestern
tip of Georgia, every state west of the line except Wisconsin, Minnesota and
Hawaii has some coal deposits. With the industry's trend toward building power
plants where the coal is, the destruction of parts of your state may be even now
on the shallow horizon.
28 Stripmining as a big business has moved into Ohio. Ben A. Franklin of
the New York Times reports that 5 billion tons of low grade fuel, long
considered too marginal for mass mining, lie near the surface in Ohio, and the
boom is on from Cincinnati to the east-central border to recover it. In 346,000
acre Belmont County alone 200,000 acres have been sold, leased or optioned to
the strippers. Two giant electric shovesl, each 12 stories high, scoop up
farms, barns, silos, churches and roads to uncover the coal, piling the rubble
into strip mine spoil banks. Franklin quotes Ohio Congressman Wayne Hays, whose
home is in Belmont County, as saying "They're turning this beautiful place into
a desert," but Ford Sampson, head of the Ohio Coal Association is credited with
the line, "Are we going to cut off the electric power because some guy has a
sentimental feeling about an acre of coal?"
28 Perhaps a better example of what we are up against is illustrated by the
opinion of James D. Riley, a vice president of Consolidation Coal Company, who
spoke to the American Mining Congress in Pittsburgh in 1969. To the thunderous
applause of the assembled strip miners, Mr. Riley declared that the
conservationists who demand a better job of land reclamation are "stupid idiots,
socialists and commies who don't know what they are talking about. I think it
is our bounden duty to knock them down and subject them to the ridicule they
deserve."
28 What can be done? First we must insist that Americans take their heads
out of the sand and recognize the fact that power demand cannot continue to rise
as it has been. Nothing - whether the power demand, the production of coal, the
number of people, the number of cars, or the gross national product - can
continue indefinitely to rise at an exponential rate in a finite world. The
sooner we face reality on this, the sooner we can begin to attack the problems.
{29} So the next time the power tycoons tell you they must double power
capacity by 1980 you should reply, "Nonsense - long before 1980 we must plan and
put into practice a program to level off power consumption at something like
present levels or less."
29 Second we must have federal regulations of mining practices. Any local
efforts to regulate this or any other industry encounter the standard and
somewhat justified reply that regulation would put them at a disadvantage with
their competitors in other states.
29 Dr. Robert Kuehne says that in Kentucky we could not have designed a
better system to ruin the maximum number of streams in a shorter period.
Instead of mining watersheds that are already destroyed until all the coal is
gone, the economic system assures that we skip around in such a way as to kill
all our streams in the coal country.
29 The Committee on Resources and Man of the National Academy of
Sciences-National Research Council has pointed out that the culmination of oil
production in this country is now at hand and the culmination of natural gas
will arrive at the end of this decade. We are now dependent upon foreign
sources for 20 percent of our oil supplies, and by the end of this decade this
is expected to rise to 40-45 percent.Although coal reserves are much greater, we
should not continue to treat them as the common enemy to be destroyed with all
speed by the system found to be so effective in getting rid of our oil and gas.
29 We simply cannot afford to continue the present pattern of exploitation
of the fossil fuels.
29 [From Coal Age, March 1971]
SELECTED READINGS
NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENERGY REQUIREMENTS
{45} [From the Minerals Yearbook, vols. I-II, U.S. Department of the
Interior, 1969]
45 TECHNOLOGIC TRENDS IN THE MINERAL INDUSTRIES (METALS AND NONMETALS EXCEPT
FUELS)
45 (By John L. Morning n1
45 n1 Physical scientist, Division of Ferrous Metals.
45 A banner year was enjoyed by the mining industry as value of metals and
nonmetals reached $8 .96 billion. To accomplish this, nearly 4 billion tons of
material was handled, including 2.6 billion tons of crude ore.
45 In the battle for lower unit costs, wheel tractor scrapers have found
wider application owing to improved design, which has added versatility and
increased production capability of these units. n2
45 n2 Fites, Donald V. Tractor Scrapers Break New Ground. Min.Eng., v. 21,
No. 5, May 1969, pp. 69-71.
45 The development of larger size front-end loaders during the past 10 years
has resulted in a change in their use from strictly stockpile loading to
competition with electric shovels for primary pit loading applications. n3 Also,
during the past 10 years there has been an improvement in the cost performance
of off-highway haulage trucks with the increase in truck size from 22- to 40-ton
capacity in 1960 to the present-day 85 to 120 tons and larger. n4
45 n3 Haley, W. A. Trends In Front End Loaders. Min.Cong.J., v. 55, No. 5,
May 1969, pp. 58-60.
45 n4 Halls, J.L., and R. E. Buckley. Open-pit Mining. Min.Ann.Rev., 1970
ed. (London), June 1970, pp. 149-165.
45 A comparison of various construction and mining earth-moving equipment
made by various manufacturers was published. n5 Tractor shovels ranged to 22-ton
carrying capacity; self-propelled scrapers to 72 tons; and off-highway haulers
to 200-ton maximum carrying capacity.
45 n5 Construction Methods and Equipment. Specs. For Your Files 1969. V.
41, No. 11, November 1969, pp. CM1-CM24.
45 Surveys were conducted by the Engineering and Mining Journal on the use
of trucks in the metal and nonmetal mining industries. n6 According to one
study, an estimated 8,930 off-highway trucks were in use in the United States in
1968. Over 67 percent of the trucks in use were over 30-ton capacity; 28
percent were over 70-ton capacity. The great majority were equipped with
automatic transmissions and power steering. Vehicle availability averaged 82
percent and operating costs averaged $15 5.64 per hour. The survey indicated
continued mining industry expansion and forecasts major growth in truck haulage,
and increasing use of over 100-ton units.
45 n6 Engineering and Mining Journal. E&MJ Survey of On-Highway Trucks in
the U.S. Metal and Nonmetallic Mining Industry. 1969, 19 pp.
45 Engineering and Mining Journal. E&MJ Survey of Off-Highway Trucks in the
Metal and Nonmetallic Mining Industry. 1969, 20 pp.
45 According to the second survey, over 30,000 on-highway trucks were in use
at domestic metal and nonmetal mines in 1968. More than half of these trucks
were pickup or panel types, and over 60 percent had a gross weight of over
10,000 pounds. In contrast to off-highway trucks, comparatively few on-highway
trucks were equipped with automatic trnsmissions and power steering. Operating
costs averaged $5 .39 per hour. The survey indicated that the use of this type
vehicle will grow at the same rate as the mining industry.
45 Big hole drilling continued to hold the interest of miners, contractors,
and manufacturers as the Second Symposium on Rapid Excavation was held late in
the year. n7 It was indicated that raise boring as a method for creating mine
openings has accounted for 90,000 to 100,000 feet of big hole raises in all
parts of the world to date. Canada heads the list of raise drilling machines in
operation with 16 and the United States was next with 12. The worldwide total
was 51.
45 n7 World Mining. Big Hole Drilling, Progress and Costs. V. 6, No. 1,
January 1970, pp. 28-31.
45 The International Nickel Co.Inc., a pioneer in bore hole raising,
reported a 40-percent decline in mining costs and a 60-percent increase in
mining rate. n8
45 n8 Scott, James J. Underground Mining. Min.Cong.J., v. 56, No. 2,
February 1970, pp. 35-41.
{46} Mining minerals from the ocean continued to interest many individuals
and concerns. At the First Annual Offshore Technology Conference, sponsored by
nine professional technological societies, a prototype underwater mining system
suitable for commercial exploitation of sea resources was described. n9
46 n9 Flipse, John E. An Engineering Approach to Ocean Mining. Paper
Number OTC 1035, Off-shore Technology Conference, May 18-21, 1969, 16 pp.
46 Surface mines continued to account for 95 percent of total material
handled and 94 percent of the crude ore produced. Underground mining was
rsponsible for substantial percentage of crude ore production in five States; 19
States reported no underground activity.
46 Lower ratios for crude ore to marketable product were the trend compared
with 1968, but were generally higher than those in 1964. Ratios for material
handled to marketable product for various mineral commodities were generally
slightly higher than in 1968, but large-volume commodities were substantially
higher.
46 Exploration and development activities continued to accelerate owing
primarily to increased activities at copper, lead, and uranium properties.
Stripping operations for copper in Arizona accounted for 35 percent of total
material handled by exploration and development activities. Arizona also
reported over 500 million tons of material handled. This is the first time that
any State reported reaching this milestone.
46 In 1968 the use of ammonium nitrate blasting agents continued to
increase, whereas the use of permissible explosives continued to decline. The
industrial consumption of explosives in 1968 was 2 percent higher than in 1967,
but was lower than the record year of 1966
46 MATERIAL HANDLED
46 Total material handled at metal and nonmetal mines and quarries in the
United States, approached 4 billion tons during 1969. The quantity of material
handled during the past 10 years has increased at an average annual rate of 3.6
percent. A significant portion of this increase was in waste material handled
at surface mines which indicated an increase of 5.9 percent annually; crude ore
production increased 2.5 percent.
46 Waste material accounted for one-third of the yearly total of material
handled owing primarily to stripping activities in the copper industry. For
metal operations, copper mines led in waste and total material handled, and iron
mines led in crude ore production. The States of Arizona and Florida continued
to be the leaders in material handled as they have been since 1965. The
quantity of material handled in Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico was more than
twice as much as the quantity in 1960. Mineral commodities that indicated a
significant gain in material handled, compared with 1968, were copper,
manganiferous ore, molybdenum, uranium, and sand and gravel. Total material
handled decreased for placer gold and dimension stone.
46 Surface mines accounted for 95 percent of total material handled during
the year; the same as in 1964. However, the quantity of material handled at
surface metal mines increased to 93 percent compared with 90 percent in 1964.
46 MAGNITUDE OF THE MINING INDUSTRY
46 In 1969, the number of mines reporting crude ore production to the Bureau
of Mines totaled 1,831. In addition, there were 1,423 clay mines, 4,704 crushed
and broken stone operations, and 638 dimension stone mines in operation. The
1969 grand total was 8,596 mines, compared with 8,555 mines in 1968; both years
exclude sand and gravel operations. Reporting metal mines decreased by 258
mines, of which 50 percent were uranium operations. Nonmetal reporting mines
increased by 43 and were spread over a number of mineral commodities.
46 Three iron mines joined the list of those mines producing over 10 million
tons of crude ore, but two phosphate rock mines dropped from this category. The
Utah copper mine of Kennecott Copper Corp. was the metal mine leader in both
output of ore and of total material handled, whereas the Noralyn mine of
International Minerals and Chemicals Co. was the leader of nonmetal mines in
both categories.
46 COMPARISON OF PRODUCTION FROM SURFACE AND UNDERGROUND MINES
46 Surface mining accounted for 94 percent of the total crude ore production
and 95 percent of the total material handled. Although the percentages remained
the same as in 1968, some minor shifting occurred for the various mineral
commodities. Five metal commodities, registered an increase, but four
registered a decrease for surface crude ore output. For nonmetal commodities,
five indicated an increase, but four decreased in crude ore output.
{47} Crude ore production at surface metal mines was more than five times
higher than at underground mines; total material handled at surface mines was 14
times higher than at underground mines. Of the nearly 2.5 million tons of
material handled at nonmetal mines, only 82,000 tons were from underground
operations.
47 Underground mining accounted for substantial percentage of crude ore
handled in five States: Colorado, 43 percent; New Mexico, 40 percent; Missouri,
29 percent; Wyoming, 24 percent; and Kentucky, 23 percent. Nineteen States
reported no underground activity.
47 RATIO OF ORE TO MARKETABLE PRODUCT
47 The trend for most mineral commodities for the year was toward lower
ratios of ore to marketable product compared with 1968, but ratios were
generally higher than for 1964. At surface metal mines the ratios were mixed
compared with 1968, with about equal distribution of gains and losses. Of the
large-volume commodities, copper registered an increased ratio, and iron ore
indicated a reduced ratio. In general, surface nonmetal mines indicated smaller
ratios compared with 1968 with only feldspar and vermiculite registering
increased ratios.
47 Ratios of material handled to marketable product for various mineral
commodities indicated increased ratios for nearly one-half of the listed
commodities compared with 1968. Copper continued to have the highest ratio as
stripping continued to develop new properties and expand other operations.
Compared with 1964, the ratio increased 53 percent for copper, 25 percent for
iron, and 35 percent for phosphate rock, and marketable units increased 28
percent, 6 percent, and 47 percent, respectively.
47 Most metal commodities indicated an increase in average value per ton
compared with 1968 with only mercury and uranium showing a decrease in value.
Of the 27 listed nonmetal commodities, 16 indicated increased values, compared
with the previous year. Total average value of metal commodities rose to $6.15
from $5 .61 in 1968. Total average value data for nonmetal commodities are not
comparable with previous published data.
47 EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT
47 The upward trend in exploration and development accelerated in 1969 and
totaled 31.7 million feet, compared with 25 million feet in 1968.The data,
however, is not comparable because clay and stone mines were not included in the
1969 total. Exploration and development work for clay and stone mines totaled
1.5 million feet in 1966, 1.6 million feet in 1967, and 1.2 million feet in
1968. For metals, a significant increased activity was noted for copper, iron,
and uranium mines.Rotary drilling accounted for most of the gain at copper and
uranium mines, whereas percussion drilling was largely responsible for the
increase at iron mines.
47 Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming accounted
for 86 percent of total footage of exploration and development and were also the
only States reporting over 1 million feet. This compares with 1968 when five
States reported over 1 million feet each. Rotary drilling accounted for 76
percent of the total activity, and all categories, except trenching and diamond
drilling, registered increased footage.
47 Stripping operations for copper in Arizona accounted for 35 percent of
total material produced by exploration and development activities. The total
tonnage produced increased 28 percent compared with 1968.
47 Increased mining activity in Arizonal resulted in the total material
handled exceeding 500 million tons of for the first time. Montana and Wyoming
joined the list of States reporting over 100 million tons; New York and
Pennsylvania dropped from the list.
47 EXPLOSIVES
47 Explosive statistics for the year of review are released too late for
incorporation in this chapter. For 1968, 1,948 million pounds of industrial
explosives were reported consumed in the United States. This total was 2
percent higher compared with 1967, but was slightly lower than the record high
of 1,970 million pounds in 1966. The coal mining industry used 35 percent of
the total, metal mines used 21 percent, and quarrying and nonmetal mines, 20
percent. This is in contrast to 1963, when coal mining accounted for 35
percent, metal mining, 17 percent, and quarrying and nonmetal mining, 22 percent
of the industrial consumption.
{48} The use of ammonium nitrate blasting agents continued to increase,
whereas the use of permissible explosives continued to decline. There was no
reported use of liquid oxygen explosives during 1968.
48 The five top ranking States in order of total quantity of explosives and
blasting agents consumed were as follows: Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Arizona,
and Illinois. This was in contrast to 1963 when the ranking order was
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Minnesota. In 1968, the explosive
consumption of the ranking States totaled 751 million pounds, or 39 percent of
industrial explosives and blasting agents used in the United States. In 1963
the ranking States used 545 million pounds or 37 percent of all industrial
explosives consumed.
48 More detailed explosive information is published by the Bureau of Mines
in the Annual Explosive issue of Mineral Industry Surveys prepared by Andris
Viksne.
TABLE 1. -MATERIAL HANDLED AT SURFACE AND UNDERGROUND MINES,
BY COMMODITIES, IN 1969
[In thousand short tons]
Commodity Surface Underground All mines
Crude Crude Crude
ore Waste Total ore Waste Total ore Waste Total
Metals:
n1 n1 n1
Bauxite 2,501 3,437 5,938 n(2) n(2) n(2) 2,501 3,437 5,938
Beryllium 176 507 683 2 2 178 507 685
Copper 198,439 621,726 820,165 27,486 452 27,938 225,925 622,178 848,103
Gold:
Lode 1,614 8,980 10,594 2,104 355 2,459 3,718 9,335 13,053
Placer 2,195 772 2,967 1 1 2,195 773 2,968
Iron ore 213,997 168,593 382,590 14,877 2,413 17,290 228,874 171,006 399,880
Lead 6 32 38 9,507 749 10,256 9,513 781 10,294
Mangani ferous ore 1,009 2,832 3,841 1,009 2,832 3,841
Mercury 278 535 813 204 19 223 482 554 1,036
Molybdenum 5,339 36,579 41,918 15,861 156 16,017 21,200 36,735 57,935
Nickel 1,184 362 1,546 1,184 362 1,546
Silver 128 75 203 653 298 951 781 373 1,154
Titanium: Ilmenite 22,204 3,529 25,733 22,204 3,529 25,733
Tungsten 26 3 29 442 20 462 468 23 491
Uranium 1,823 89,307 91,130 3,497 1,306 4,803 5,320 90,613 95,933
Zinc 571 1,419 1,890 10,032 7,926 17,958 10,603 9,245 19,848
Other n3 4,082 2,328 6,410 12 12 4,094 2,328 6,422
Total 1,396,0 1,494,0
metals 455,000 941,000 00 85,000 13,000 98,000 540,000 954,000 00
See footnotes at end of table,
p. 50.
Nonmetals:
Abrasives n4 396 141 537 48 48 444 141 585
Asbestos 2,178 1,363 3,541 22 3 25 2,200 1,366 3,566
Barite 6,038 3,157 9,195 115 17 132 6,153 3,174 9,327
Boron minerals 12,461 12,010 24,471 12,461 12,010 24,471
n5
Clays 57,524 50,000 107,524 1,063 n5 16 1,079 58,587 50,016 108,603
Diatomite 1,042 7,701 8,743 268 268 1,310 7,701 9,011
Feldspar 1,698 389 2,087 9 9 1,707 38 9 2,096
Fluorspar 62 40 102 470 1 471 532 41 573
Gypsum 7,691 11,968 19,659 2,328 73 2,401 10,019 12,041 22,060
Mica 661 463 1,124 661 463 1,124
Perlite 612 1 613 612 1 613
Phosphate rock 126,056 278,411 404,467 671 20 691 126,727 278,431 405,159
Potassium salts 16,989 819 17,808 16,989 819 17,808
Pumice 3,952 136 4,088 3,952 136 4,088
Salt 5,400 3 5,403 14,371 636 15,007 19,771 639 20,410
Sand and gravel 936,906 936,906 936,906 936,906
Sodium carbonate (natural) 4,072 124 4,196 4,072 124 4,196
Stone: Crushed and broken 822,077 n5 68 822,145 38,935 n5 270 39,205 861,012 338 861,350
Dimension 4,000 n5 900 4,900 29 29 4,029 900 4,929
Sulfur: Frasch-process mines 8,003 8,003 8,003 8,003
Other mines 2 2 2 2
Talc, soapstone, and pyrophy llite 553 1,235 1,788 519 14 533 1,072 1,249 2,321
Vermiculite 1,505 4,150 5,655 1,505 4,150 5,655
Othern5 1,946 2,836 4,782 85 85 2,031 2,836 4,867
Total nonmeta 2,001,0 2,376,0 2,081,0 2,458,0
ls 00 375,000 00 80,000 2,000 82,000 00 377,000 00
Grand 2,456,0 1,316,0 3,772,0 2,621,0 1,331,0 3,952,0
total 00 00 00 165,000 15,000 180,000 00 00 00
[See Table in Original]
49 n1 Includes underground; Bureau of Mines not at liberty to publish
separately.
49 n2 Withheld to avoid disclosing individual company confidential data.
49 n3 Magnesium, manganese, platinum-group metals, rare-earth metals, and
vanadium.
49 n4 Emery, garnet, and tripoli.
49 n5 Estimated.
49 n6 Aplite, graphite, greensand marl, kyanite, lithium minerals,
magnesite, olivine, pyrites, and wollastonite.
TABLE 2. - MATERIAL HANDLED AT SURFACE AND UNDERGR OUND
MINES (INCLUDING SAND GRAVEL AND STONE),
BY STATES, IN 1969 n1
[In thousand short tons]
State Surface Underground All mines
Crude Crude Crude
ore Waste Total ore Waste Total ore Waste Total
Alabama 32,257 18,251 50,508 1,974 248 2,222 34,231 18,499 52,730
Al aska 22,627 1,475 24,102 22,627 1,475 24,102
506,23
Arizona 135,273 353,935 489,208 16,639 384 17,023 151,912 354,319 1
Arkansas 32,465 4,574 37,039 946 17 963 33,411 4,591 38,002
California 195,658 56,729 252,389 2,103 36 2,139 197,761 5 6,765 254,526
Colorado 23,523 125 23,648 17,777 1,323 19,100 41,300 1,448 42,748
Connecticut 16,817 42 16,89 16,817 4 2 16,859
Florida 183,565 245,043 428,608 183,565 245,043 428,608
Georgia 40,531 61 40,592 995 995 41,526 61 41,587
I daho 16,385 12,795 29,180 1,755 323 2,078 18,140 13,118 31,258
Illinois 99,102 1 99,103 2,429 2,429 101,531 1 101,532
Indiana 53,047 53,047 905 34 939 53,952 34 53,986
Iowa 45,722 6,218 51,940 1,306 1,306 47,028 6,218 53,246
Kansas 27,80 4 195 27,999 2,671 6,000 8,671 30,475 6,195 36,670
Kentucky 32,683 12 32,695 7,350 1 7,351 40,033 13 40,046
Louisiana 33 ,045 33,045 5,914 5,914 38,959 38,959
Maine 12,642 1,187 13,829 6 6 12,648 1,187 13,835
Maryland 30,409 16 30,425 57 57 30,466 16 30,482
Massachusetts 27,635 27,635 27,635 27,635
Michigan 130,789 14,104 144,893 14,090 379 14,469 44,879 14,483 159,362
Minnesota 206,133 91,412 297,545 206,133 91,412 297,545
Mississippi 13,909 13,909 13,909 1 3,909
Missouri 51,300 2,348 53,648 21,277 462 21,739 72,577 2,810 75,387
Montana 41,566 59,071 100,637 868 15 883 42,434 59,086 101,520
Nebraska 17,540 17,540 33 33 17,573 17,573
Nevada 33,265 61,223 94,488 353 108 461 33,618 61,331 94,949
New Hampshire 6,683 6,683 6,683 6,683
New Jersey 37,428 286 37,714 150 1 151 37,578 287 37,865
New Mexico 28,819 117,087 145,906 18,790 1,241 20,031 47,609 118,328 165,937
New York 86,225 5,148 91,373 5,938 214 6,152 92,163 5,362 97,525
North Carolina 46,866 16,817 63,683 52 10 62 46,918 16,827 63,745
North Dakota 7,174 7,174 7,174 7,174
Ohio 103,886 103,886 5,654 400 6,054 109,540 400 109,940
Oklahoma 24,950 5,525 30,475 1,178 1,178 26,128 5,525 31,653
Oregon 29,811 472 30,283 1 1 2 29,812 473 30,285
Pennsylvania 84,682 84,682 7,207 1,836 9,043 91,889 1,836 93,725
Rhode Island 2,900 2,900 2,900 2,900
South Carolina 17,713 869 18,582 17,713 869 18,582
South Dakota 13,501 1,606 15,107 1,924 179 2,103 15,425 1,785 17,210
Tennessee 43,074 4,870 47,9 44 9,970 766 10,736 53,044 5,636 58,680
Texas 90,787 5,066 95,853 460 9 469 91,247 5,075 96,322
157,9
Utah 68,434 89,554 88 2,687 398 3,085 71,121 89,952 161,073
Vermont 6,563 48 6,611 215 215 6,778 48 6,826
Virginia 46,024 168 46,192 2,811 708 3,519 48,835 876 49,711
Washington 50,737 787 51,524 284 116 400 51,021 903 51,924
West Virginia 13,478 13,478 1,918 1,918 15,396 15,396
Wisconsin 62,298 1,943 64,241 858 48 906 63,156 1,991 65,147
Wyoming 16,480 85,831 102,311 5,285 143 5,428 21,765 85,974 107,739
Other Statesn2 9,796 30 9,826 9,796 30 9,826
2,454,0 1,265,0 3,719,0 2,619,0 1,280,0 3,899,0
Total 00 00 00 165,000 15,000 180,000 00 00 00
[See Table in Original]
51 n1 Partially estimated data in table 1 not included in State totals.
51 n2 Delaware and Hawaii.
TABLE 3. - VALUE OF PRINCIPAL MINERAL PRODUCTS AND BYPRODUCTS OF
SURFACE AND UNDERGROUND ORES MINED IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1969
[Value per ton]
Ore Surface Underground All mines
Princip Princip Princip
al al al
mineral Byprodu mineral Byprodu mineral Byrpodu
product cts Total product cts Total product cts Total
Metals:
Bauxite $10.40 $10.40 n(2) n(2) n(2) $10.40 $10.40
Beryllium 9.26 $0.05 9.31 9.42 $0.05 9.47
Copper 6.02 .42 6.44 $9.14 $0.94 $10.08 6.40 .49 6.89
Gold:
Lode 10.92 .02 10.94 13.69 2.74 16.43 12.54 1.61 14.15
Placer .47 .47 .47 .47
Iron ore 3.79 3.79 7.45 .27 7.72 4.04 .02 4.06
Lead 40.00 19.00 59.00 13.69 5.58 19.27 13.70 5.59 9.29
Mercury 19.50 19.50 43.00 43.00 29.30 29.30
Molybdenum 4.43 4.43 6.64 .29 6.93 6.16 .23 6.39
Platinum-group metals .54 .54 .54 .54
Silver 5.48 2.64 8.12 39.95 8.13 48.08 34.57 7.28 41.85
Titanium:
Ilmenite .84 .27 1.11 .84 .27 1.11
Tungsten 13.92 13.92 46.57 4.17 50.74 44.69 3.93 48. 62
Uranium 27.22 .01 27.23 21.53 .03 21.56 23.97 .02 23.99
Zinc 12.67 4.41 17.08 11.92 2.93 14.85 11.96 3.01 14.97
Average valuen3 4.89 .20 5.09 10.33 1.53 11.86 5.73 .42 6.15
Nonmetals:
Asbestos $4.61 $4.61 $24.81 $24.81 $4.81 $ 4.81
Barite 2.28 2.28 16.10 16.10 2.53 2.53
Clays 4.43 4.43 8.13 8.13 4.49 4.49
Diatomite 41.54 41.54 9.32 9.32 33.59 33.59
Emery 19.85 19.85 19.85 19.85
Feldspar 4.90 $0.22 5.12 4.66 4.66 4.90 $0.22 5.12
Fluorspar 22.51 .01 22.52 14.41 $3.80 18.21 15.33 3.37 18.70
Garnet 25.09 25.09 25.09 25.09
Graphite 328.33 328.33 328.33 328.33
Gypsum 3.52 3.52 4.81 4.81 3.82 3.82
Kyanite 11.82 .24 12.06 11.82 .24 12.06
Lithium minerals 5.81 .76 6.57 5.81 .76 6.57
Magnesite 2.75 .12 2.87 2.75 .12 2.87
Mica:
Flake 3.69 .01 3.70 3.69 .01 3.70
Olivine 16.73 16.73 16.73 16.73
Perlite 8.24 8.24 8.24 8.24
Phosphate rock 1.60 1.60 11.70 11.70 1.62 1.62
Potassium salts 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00
Pumice 1.35 1.36 1.35 1.35
Salt 16.73 .75 17.12 6.39 .67 7.06 9.39 .69 10.08
Sand and gravel 1.14 1.14 1.14 1.14
Stone:
Crushed and broken 1.52 1.52 1.63 1.63 1.52 1.52
Dimension 51.06 51.06 156.51 156.51 52.69 52.69
Sulfur:
Frasch 24.09 24.09 24.09 24.09
Talc, soapstone, and pyrophyllite 6.32 6.32 7.92 7.92 7.10 7.10
Tripoli 14.13 14.13 4.10 4.10 8.53 8.53
Vermicultie 4.49 4.49 4.49 4.49
Average valuen3 1.69 .01 1.70 3.87 .13 4.00 1.77 .02 1.79
Averagevalue - metal and nonmetals n3 2.28 .05 2.33 7.16 .85 8.01 2.59 .10 2.69
Average value - nonmetals (excluding stone, sand, and gravel)n2 3.97 .12 4.09 5.77 .26 6.03 4.24 .14 4.38
Average value - metals and nonmetals (excluding stone, and gravel)n3 4.57 .18 4.75 8.83 1.12 9.95 5.23 .32 5.55
[See Table in Original]
53 n1 Includes underground; Bureau of Mines not at liberty to publish
separately.
53 n2 Withheld to avoid disclosing individual company confidential data.
53 n3 Including unpublished data.
SELECTED READINGS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
{91} [From Surface Mining and Our Environment, U.S. Department of the
Interior, 1967]
91 Basic Disturbances
91 Surface, mining affects the environment in three ways.To some degree, it
influences the quality of our air, land, and water; and, through these, animal
and plant life.
91 Air. - Although air pollution is one of our more serious environmental
problems, surface mining, per se, cannot be considered a major contributor.
However, the dust and vibrations resulting from blasting and movement of
equipment during mining operations can be annoying and, in densely populated
areas, a public nuisance. Some abandoned surface mines and waste piles also may
be a source of air-borne dust.
91 Land. - Two factors that are essential to the establishment of vegetation
on surface-mined areas are the physical and chemical characteristics of the
spil. The spoil material was considered suitable for agricultural use at only
25 percent of the sites observed during the random-sampling survey. Where
excessive stoniness exists (at about 20 percent of the sites inspected) the
possiblility of getting a quick, vigorous cover is hampered by the rapid run-off
and lack of soil.Most of the remaining 55 percent might be receptive to tree or
herbaceous type plantings if climatological conditions are favorable.
91 There were no serious erosion problems at about 60 percent of the areas
examined primarily because some vegetation had been established and the slope of
the land was relatively gentle before and after mining. Most of the remaining
sites showed evidence of erosion in the form of gullies less than one-foot deep;
but, at 10 percent of the sites gullies were found that exceeded this depth.
Sediment deposits were found in 56 percent of the ponds and 52 percent of the
streams on or adjacent to the sample sites.
91 Spoil bank materials which have a pH of 4.0 or less are lethal to most
plants. A pH of 7.0 is neutral; values higher than 7.0 indicate alkalinity.
Free acid may be leached enough in 3 to 5 years to permit planting, but the
leaching process will not improve soil conditions if erosion is allowed to
expose more sulfuritic minerals in the spoil. Although some plants achieve
successful growth in spoil with a pH range under 5.0, most plants require a less
acid environment for successful growth. Of the measurements taken on spoil
banks, 1 percent showed a pH of less than 3.0 and 47 percent, a range between pH
3.0 and 5.0.
91 About 15 percent of the spoil banks are covered with vegetation
sufficient to provide adequate site protection. Another 15 percent have fair to
good cover which, with more time and some spot planting, should suffice to
protect the areas and speed renewal of the soil.Twenty percent will require
direct seeding, seedlings, and fertilization. About 30 percent of the sites
inspected had little, or no, cover and will, therefore, require extensive
treatment. On the remaining 20 percent of the sites examined, vegetation will
be extremely difficult to grow because of excessive stoniness or toxic
conditions. It was also observed that wide variations occur in the rate at
which natural revegetation takes place because of differences in physical and
chemical characteristics of the spoil, and proximity to seed sources.
91 It was assumed for the random-sampling survey that, generally, mined land
had been used prior to mining for purposes similar to those on adjoining tracts,
and that, if left untreated by man, the mining site would eventually regain the
same types of cover. Field observations made during the survey showed this to
be largely untrue, however, because only about one-half of the areas assumed to
have been forested had returned to forest and land classified as idle had
increased almost fourfold. Land which had been devoted to crops and human
occupancy, of course, had not voluntarily returned to these uses. Curiously,
most land assumed to have been grassland had returned to grass. Clearly then,
in most cases, natural forces will need a strong assist from man if mined sites
are to be brought back to their former uses.
91 When natural vegetation is removed by exploration and mining activities,
the area becomes virtually useless for wildlife because it becomes barren of
food, nesting, and escape cover. Even in the most arid areas of the country,
erosion eventually follows removal of vegetation, and the resulting silt and
sediment may affect fish and wildlife habitat. Thus, except in a few limited
areas of the Midwest, poorer soils and vegetative cover resulting from surface
mining create less favorable wildlife habitat. However, mining create less
favorable wildlife habitat. However, the rough broken ground found at many
sites does afford protection from hunters for some species.
91 Water. - Although basic to human existence, water is perhaps America's
most abused resource. The surface mining industries are not the major
contributor to the degradation of our water supplies on a national basis, yet in
many areas such as Appalachia, they are a significant source of pollution.
91 Chemical pollution of water by surface mines takes many forms. The
polluted water may be too acid, too alkaline, or contain excessive
concentrations of dissolved substances such as iron, manganese, and copper.
High concentrations of dissolved minerals may make the water unsuitable for
certain purposes, but not for [*] [*] [*] in it.
91 Sulfur-bearing minerals are commonly associated with coal, and are a
major cause of water pollution. When exposed to air and water, they oxidize to
form sulfuric acid. This acid may enter streams in two ways: (1) Soluble acid
salts formed on the exposed spoil surfaces enter into solution during periods of
surface run-off, and (2) ground water, while moving to nearby streams, may be
altered chemically as it percolates through spoil, or waste dumps.
{92} Acid drainage is but one of several adverse chemical effects caused by
surface mining. Even in minute concentrations, salts of metals such as zinc,
lead, arsenic, copper, and aluminum are toxic to fish, wildlife, plants, and
aquatic insects. Indirectly associated with acid drainage are the undesirable
slimy red or yellow iron precipitates ("yellow boy") in streams that drain
sulfide-bearing coal or metal deposits. Of the streams receiving direct run-off
from surface mine sites, 31 percent of those examined contained noticeable
quantities of precipitates. Water discoloration was recorded at 37 percent of
the streams adjacent to the sites observed, suggesting chemical or physical
pollution. The discoloration occurred most frequently in connection with the
mining of coal, clay, sand and gravel, peat, iron, stone, and phosphate rock.
92 Streams are also polluted by acid water from underground mines,
preparation plants, and natural seepage from unworked coal and other pyritic
material. Because of the intermingling of effluents from these sources, it is
difficult, if not impossible, to determine the quantity of acid that comes from
surface mining alone.Many authorities believe, however, that not more than 25
percent of the acid load created by coal mining can be attributed directly to
surface operations. Many streams in the Appalachian region are affected to
various degrees by acid drainage from both surface and underground mines.
Although acid conditions are associated with coal mining conducted elsewhere,
the problems are not usually so severe because the topography is not as rugged,
rainfall is less profuse, pyritic materials oxidize more slowly, and, in some
cases, limestone formations act as a neutralizing agent. Where acidity is
neutralized by alkaline water, or limestone, the concentration of certain
dissolved substances still may remain high and the water may not be usable
without treatment.
92 Acid mine drainage affects fish and wildlife in several ways. Acid
changes the water quality of streams into which it is discharged and, although
the concentration may not be lethal to fish or wildlife, it may bring about
changes in their physical condition and rate of growth. However, acid may be
present in such concentration as to be directly lethal to fish or tend to
suppress or prevent reproduction of the most desirable species.
92 The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife reported that in the United
States some 5,800 miles of streams (about 57,000 acres) and 29,000 surface acres
of impoundments and reservoirs, are seriously affected by surface coal mining
operations. The Bureau reported that, in 1964, 97 percent of the acid mine
pollution in streams and 93 percent in impoundments, resulted from coal mining
operations. Similar data were obtained by a United States Geological Survey
reconnaissance conducted in 1965, which disclosed that water quality at 194 of
318 sampling sites in Appalachia was measurably influenced by acid mine
drainage. None of these data, however, reflect the percentage of damage that
can be attributed to surface mining alone.
92 Access roads built of pyritic waste material may also be sources of acid
water.In past years, some highway departments have hauled waste from the mines
for road building purposes. This practice is not generally followed today, and
is forbidden in some States; however, roads built of this material continue to
acidify rainwater passing over them - despite long periods of leaching. In
addition, some privately constructed mine-access roads are being built of
pyritic material.
92 Roads opened on National Wildlife Refuges by prospectors frequently
result in broken levees; interfere with controlled burning; increase human
activity, which interferes with the nesting and breeding of birds and animals;
and, restrict animal movements. The distance that each species, or even
individual animals, will place between themselves and the disturbance varies
greatly, but some species will leave an area entirely when their natural habitat
is invaded by people and equipment.
92 Physical pollution is most serious in areas typified by high-intensity
storms and steep slopes, particularly during and shortly after mining. In areas
undisturbed by strip mining within the Appalachian region, the average annual
sediment yield ranges from about 20 to 3,000 tons per square mile of watershed,
depending upon land use. Research conducted in Kentucky indicated that yields
from coal strip-mined lands can be as much as 1,000 times that of undisturbed
forest. During a four-year period, the annual average from Kentucky spoil banks
was 27,000 tons per square mile while it was estimated at only 25 tons per
square mile from forested areas.
92 Erosion and sedimentation problems from surface mining are less severe in
arid regions; however, even in such areas, storms do occur during which large
quantities of sediment are discharged from mine workings, spoil heaps, and
access roads. At some idle surface mines in arid country, the effects of wind
and water erosion are still evident on steep spoil banks that were abandoned
many years ago.
92 One of the major causes of sedimentation problems is the failure to
control surface run-off following rainstorms. In areas outside Appalachia, 86
percent of the surface-mined areas investigated were found to have adequate
run-off control. Areas lacking sufficient control were confined almost
exclusively to the surface mining of coal, phosphate, manganese, clay, and gold.
92 Some 7,000 miles of stream channels have had their normal storm-carrying
capacity reduced according to the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. It
was observed that the normal water-carrying capacity of about 4,500 miles of
these streams had been moderately to severely affected.The remaining 2,500 miles
had been affected only slightly (debris reducing channel by less than one-third
of capacity). Sediment generally was not a significant problem on small streams
located more than two miles from the sample site.
{93} Substandard access and haulage roads, and others built in connection
with prospecting activities, are a major source of sediment. Based on the
sample data, 95 percent of these roads were less than 3 miles long, but the
proximity of many to natural stream channels had considerably increased their
potential for sedimentation damage. The roads were fairly passable in the
majority of cases; however, approximately 15 percent were eroded to a point that
would make them difficult to traverse by ordinary vehicles.
93 Beneficial Effects of Surface Mining
93 When massive rocks are fragmented during surface mining, the resulting
piles of material contain considerably more void space than existed in the
fractures, partings, and pore spaces of the undisturbed rock. As a result,
certain desirable hydrologic effects may occur. The danger of floods is
diminished because a significant portion of the rainfall is trapped in
depressions and behind the spoil banks where it sinks into the earth to
augment ground-water supplies, rather than running off rapidly to nearby
streams. Because water stored in the banks moves slowly, drainage will continue
for a long time before the water level declines to that of adjacent streams.
Thus, streams near surface-mined areas often maintain a longer sustained flow
during dry weather than those draining undisturbed ground. This phenomenon was
verified through field studies conducted in the Midwest by the Indiana
University Water Research Center, but it occurs less frequently in most of
Appalachia because of the rapid run-off.
93 In the Western United States, some surface mines have exposed
ground-water sources and made water available where none existed before. This
water has proved invaluable to livestock and wildlife. At some surface mining
operations along mountainsides, the pits impound surface run-off from torrential
rains, minimize the sediment load of streams draining the area, and effect
considerable ground water recharge as well.
93 In California, piles of dredge tailings are quite permeable. However,
because of their irregular conformation, they undoubtedly inhibit surface
run-off to a greater degree than the original slopes, thus making some
contribution to flood control and ground-water recharge. In Alaska, dredge
mining for gold has destroyed the permafrost and the resulting tailings and
mined areas are considered premium property for residential and industrial
development.
93 Many mine-access roads, when properly repaired and maintained, can be of
considerable value since they may be used to promote the multiple-land-use
potential of extensive areas. Accessibility for fire protection, recreation,
and management activities, can mean the difference between use and isolation.
For example, by improving fire protection, investments can be made more safely
in growing timber, and hazards to human and wildlife considerably reduced.
Where massive equipment was used in the mining process, the access roads were
usually well constructed, and the cost of repairing and maintaining them would
be low. By converting some of these roads to public use, tourism might also be
encouraged because many of the sites examined (33 percent) were located in areas
that afforded spectacular views of mountains, valleys, and lakes.
93 Surface mining has created many opportunities to develop recreational
areas where none existed before. Water in the form of small ponds or lakes, and
the spoil piles themselves, frequently provide a pleasant topographic change in
areas of virtually flat land. Examples may be found in flat coastal areas and
in such States as Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and California.
{94} [From the Mineral Industry and the Environment]
94 POLLUTION OF THE LANDSCAPE
94 (By Samuel M. Brock, West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va., June
1970)
94 Considerable progress has been made in air and water pollution, both in
terms of regulation through legislation and development of technology for
pollution abatement. By contrast, pollution of the landscape through activities
such as surface mining and disposal of solid wastes continues to present many
unsolved problems. Indeed, progress in air and water pollution control has
contributed to the complexity of these problems. Removal of particulates and
other impurities in air, for example, creates additional solid waste for
disposal.
94 Past trends in land use indicate that there often has been a lack of
concern in extracting minerals and other natural resources from land resources.
Mineral deposits which were most accessible, and which promised the greatest
profit to the producer, were mined with little concern for associated
destruction of the land. Social costs, including creation of millions of acres
of derelict land through surface mining, were largely ignored. In recent years,
however, such practices have been subjected increasingly to public criticism.
This has led to more stringent regulation of the mineral industry. Surface
mining, in particular, has been more rigorously controlled.
94 Simply stated, surface mining consists of removing the topsoil, rock, and
other strata that lie above mineral or fuel deposits to recover them. n36 In the
process protective vegetative cover is destroyed, and overburden often is cast
in massive piles onto land adjacent to the mine site. The mining results in a
considerable alteration of the land surface, and changes sub-surface drainage
patterns as well. Acres upon acres of land may be disturbed to depths sometimes
exceeding 100 feet. Such disturbances have led to massive landslides which have
blocked rivers and highways. They also have contributed to water pollution by
acid mine drainage and sediment.In addition, land areas have been isolated by
mile after mile of contour benches, and aesthetic and other economic values have
been seriously impaired. 94 n36 For a general description of surface mining
and its effects on the environment, see U.S. Department of the Interior, op.cit.
note 15.Also see D.B. Brooks, "Strip Mine Reclamation and Economic Analysis,"
Natural Resources Journal, Vol. 6 (1966), pp. 13-44.
94 Disturbances created by surface mining are evident in almost every state.
However, probably nowhere are the results of mining more spectacular than in the
mountainous Appalachian region. There, the contour strip mining of coal has
produced about 20,000 miles of cliff-like highwalls. n37
94 n37 U.S. Department of the Interior, op.cit. note 27 at p. 22.
94 It has been estimated that prior to 1965, 3.2 million acres of land had
been disturbed by surface mining in the United States. n38 This area includes
only the excavation, or pit, and land upon which waste or spoil from mining was
deposited. About 320,000 additional acres have been disturbed through the
construction of access roads and by exploration. An estimated 95 percent of the
acreage disturbed by surface mining can be attributed to seven commodities;
coal, sand and gravel, stone, gold, clay, phosphate, and iron. All other
commodities combined account for only 5 percent of the acreage.
94 n38 U.S. Department of the Interior, op.cit. note 15 at p. 39.
94 The economic productivity of surface mining is subject to considerable
debate. Economic returns are probably quite variable, depending upon such
factors as the terrain, depth of the mineral or fuel deposit and its thickness,
and possibilities for returning the land resources to productive uses following
mining. n39 Undoubtedly, there are cases where the social costs incurred in
mining coal and other commodities exceed the social benefits. In such cases,
surface mining is wasteful of resources, and according to economic criteria,
should be prohibited. However, even if surface mining is economically
productive, society may be willing to bear the cost of prohibiting it in order
to preserve the environment. Thus, the issue of whether or not to permit
surface mining raises some difficult social, economic, and legal questions.
Limited research has been undertaken to provide answers. Cost and benefit data
for mining operations under varying conditions, for example, are not available,
and are not easily obtainable. n40 Nor has the legality of prohibiting surface
mining even if it is clearly economically indefensible been resolved. These
problems will require considerable research effort and social action, including
litigation, to provide satisfactory solutions.
94 n39 See, for example, S. M. Brock and D. B. Brooks, The Myles Job Mine -
A study of Benefits and Costs of Surface Mining for Coal in Northern West
Virginia. Research Series No. 1 (Morgantown: West Virginia University, Office
of Research and Development, 1968).
94 n40 S. M. Brock, "Benefit-Cost Analysis of Surface Coal Mining," Mining
Engineering, Vol. 21 (1969), pp. 75-77.
{95} In contrast to pollution of air and water resources, which is regulated
under various federal laws, there is no federal legislation regulating surface
mining. Thus, no national program of mined-land conservation exists. Twenty of
the 50 states now directly regulate surface mining. Regulation of mining under
these laws often has not been consistent because of conflicting opinions
concerning land use.
95 West Virginia was the first state to enact surface mining legislation.
It passed its first law in 1939. Indiana enacted a similar statute in 1941,
followed by Illinois, 1943; Pennsylvania, 1945; Ohio, 1947; Kentucky, 1954;
Maryland, 1955; Virginia, 1966; and Tennessee, 1967. Since 1967, Kansas, Maine,
Oklahoma, Alabama, Iowa, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Minnesota, North Dakota,
and Georgia have enacted laws. All of these laws cover the surface mining of
coal. n41 Only six states, however, regulate the surface mining of all
commodities.
95 n41 A brief summary of the provisions of laws enacted prior to 1967 is
given by U.S. Department of the Interior, op.cit. note 15 at pp. 118-20. Also
see G. S. Bergoffen, op.cit. note 26 at pp. 32-61. The laws of individual
states are generally reviewed in detail in law journals shortly after passage or
amendment.
95 Land usually may be returned to productive uses following mining by the
reclamation required by the state laws. Reclamation consists of backfilling,
regrading, and revegetation the mined area. Regrading and revegetation tend to
reduce or eliminate mine drainage problems and stabilize the soil, thus reducing
erosion. Oftentimes, agricultural crops or commercial timber products may be
produced on reclaimed land. Sometimes attarctive recreational areas may be
created. However, restoration of natural scenic values often may be difficult
or impossible, depending upon the type of mining and topography. Elimination of
scars caused by highwalls may prove economically infeasible. n42
95 n42 S. M. Brock and D. B. Brooks, op.cit. note 39.
95 Problems of reclaiming mined areas have not been adequately solved. n43
Finding less costly methods for successfully returning mined areas to productive
uses presents an urgent research need. There also are technological and
engineering problems that require solution. Previous research has provided
only partial answers for such problems as eliminating acid and sediment
pollution, and developing techniques to form and stabilize the soil. The
identification of plant species that will thrive on mined areas is another
research need.
95 n43 See, for example. W. C. Lorenz, op.cit. note 20 and G. S. Bergoffen,
op.cit. note 26.
95 The success and extent of previous reclamation efforts can be ascertained
by comparing the acreage disturbed by surface mining with the total reclaimed.
Of the 3.2 million acres that have been disturbed since surface mining began in
the United States, about one-third has been judged by the Soil Conservation
Service as needing no further treatment. n44 This means that about 2 million
acres require further reclamation work.
95 n44 U.S. Department of the Interior, op.cit. note 15 at p. 14.
95 Most of the reclamation that has been accomplished has been on coal
lands. Only a very small acreage has been reclaimed in the case of other
commodities. This may be explained by the fact that initial efforts to regulate
surface mining have been primarily concerned with coal. In 1967, in six of the
states with laws, more than 50 percent of the land disturbed by surface coal
mining had been reclaimed.However, these state laws have been amended frequently
to strengthen reclamation requirements. Thus, it would appear that the state
governments themselves often have not been satisfied with the degree of
reclamation achieved.
95 Destruction of land and water resources and natural beauty through
surface mining represents a serious problem insofar as preservation of the
environment is concerned. Recent concern over the problem merited provision for
its study in the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965. The Act
contained a section which directed the Secretary of the Interior to make a
survey of strip and surface mining operations in the United States, and to
submit to the President recommendations for a program of reclamation. The
recommendations have been completed, and pertain to both repair of past damage
and prevention of future damage. n45
95 n45 Ibid. at pp. 104-8.
95 To prevent future damage, the report of the Secretary recommends that
federal standards and reclamation requirements be drawn up as a basis for
regulating future surface mining activity. These standards would be used to
review state surface mining regulations, and to gauge the adequacy of state
programs. In lieu of state legislation, the federal requirements would be
imposed upon the surface mining industry.To repair past damage, the report
recommends that the federal government share reclamation costs with state
governments to rehabilitate abandoned surface-mined lands. This program would
include purchase of privatelyowned lands by the federal government in cases
where this was deemed in the public interest. These recommendations have not
yet been adopted.
{96} Surface mining in other countries is also regulated to control future
use of mined lands. In Germany, for example, mining and reclamation are
considered an integral operation. n46 Mining methods depend upon the type of
soil overlying the coal, and future use to which the land is to be put.
Fertile surface layers of soil are segregated during mining, and replaced on the
surface to ensure the future productivity of the reclaimed land. Similar
procedures are required in Great Britain. There, land suitable for agricultural
purposes is placed in the hands of the government immediately after mining and
reclamation for a period of intensive care and management. n47 After five years,
the land is returned to the farmer for agricultural use.
96 n46 W. Knabe, "Methods and Results of Strip-Mine Reclamation in Germany,"
The Ohio Journal of Science, Vol. 64 (1964), pp. 75-100.
96 n47 W. M. Davies, "Bringing Back the Acres," Agriculture, Vol. 70 (1963),
pp. 133-38.
96 In the United States, and elsewhere, some of the major side effects of
surface mining are "internalized" through regulation. Similar results might be
obtained through a system of charges or payments. n48 Charges might be levied,
for example, for discharge of acid mine water or sediment into adjacent streams.
Unfortunately, there are not sufficient data for comparing the effects of
regulation with those which might be realized through such alternative schemes.
96 n48 D. B. Brooks, op.cit. note 36 at pp. 39-41.
96 The second major source of pollution of the landscape of concern to the
mineral industries is solid wastes. The disposal, control, and reclamation of
waste products resulting from the extraction, processing, and utilization of
mineral substances are important technological and economic factors in the
effective conservation of mineral resources.
96 In 1965, the annual rate of accumulation of solid wastes arising from the
extraction, processing, and utilization of minerals and fossil fuels was about
1.1 billion tons. n49 Seven of the mineral-based industries contributed about 80
percent of these wastes. These industries were copper, iron and steel, lead,
zinc, alumina, phosphate rock, and bituminous and anthracite coal. By 1980, it
is estimated that the rate of accumulation o