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Pennsylvania's New All Surface Mining Law DONALD A. LAZARCHIK, Director Bureau of Land Protection & Reclamation Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources Harrisburg, Pennsylvania INTRODUCTION Surface mining of a variety of minerals has been conducted in Pennsylvania for more than 250 years. Laws to control such mining have existed for only 30 years. Pennsylvania law developed as more and more people became concerned with the devastation caused by mining operators in their quest for exploiting the rich deposits of coal, sand, stone, slate, metal ores and other minerals that exist in the Commonwealth. Unregulated surface mining has left Pennsylvania a legacy of thousands of acres of abandoned and useless mining lands, hundreds of miles of streams contaminated by mine drainage and silt, and numerous quarry holes that are hazards to public safety and often become a convenient repository for the unwanted waste products from our homes and factories. As debate on the pros and cons of surface mining proceeds in the Congress and in many state legislatures, Pennsylvania is already moving forward with a program to prevent future environmental problems from active surface mines. We have already accumulated nearly 10 years of experience in controlling the development of our bituminous coal reserves by surface mining methods. The General Assembly of Pennsylvania wrestled with the need for extending our regulatory control to other types of surface mining for well over three years before enacting our new Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act. Many people believe that an outright ban on strip mining is the only way to avoid irrepairable damage to the land. They believe that strip mining causes a disruption to the ecological balance that can never be fully repaired. The Conservation Foundation in a recent newsletter stated: "At its worst, stripping brings indescribable ugliness, destroying natural systems and, with them, tourist and recreation resources, wildlife habitat and other values. It pollutes rivers and water supplies with silt and acid drainage. It leaves denuded lands and spoil banks, which are often shoved over hillsides. Among the results are serious erosion, landslides and flooding. . . . Damage to roads and bridges from heavy trucks can be severe. Blasting can cause both property and psychological damage. In short, strip mining is often disruptive of both the natural and community environments." Statements of this type lead the public to condemn all types of surface mining since the public equates the evils of unreclaimed strip mined lands with surface mining. The distinctions between contour and area strip mining, block cut, modified block cut, auger, open pit, dredging or hydraulic mining are of little concern to the outraged citizen. M odern reclamation practices do not remove all of the scars from all of the abandoned strip mine lands that are all too visible from public roads and are a constant source of irritation to conservationists. The General Assembly of Pennsylvania stated the following purpose in enacting our new law: "Section I. Purpose of Act.This act shall be deemed to be an exercise of the police powers of the Commonwealth for the general welfare of the people of the Commonwealth, by providing for the conservation and improvement of areas of land affected in the surface mining of bituminous and anthracite coal and metallic and nonmetallic minerals, to aid thereby in the protection of birdsand wildlife, to 610
Object Description
Purdue Identification Number | ETRIWC197255 |
Title | Pennsylvania's new all surface mining law |
Author | Lazarchik, Donald A. |
Date of Original | 1972 |
Conference Title | Proceedings of the 27th Industrial Waste Conference |
Conference Front Matter (copy and paste) | http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/u?/engext,20246 |
Extent of Original | p. 610-616 |
Series | Engineering extension series no. 141 |
Collection Title | Engineering Technical Reports Collection, Purdue University |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Rights Statement | Digital object copyright Purdue University. All rights reserved. |
Language | eng |
Type (DCMI) | text |
Format | JP2 |
Date Digitized | 2009-06-08 |
Capture Device | Fujitsu fi-5650C |
Capture Details | ScandAll 21 |
Resolution | 300 ppi |
Color Depth | 8 bit |
Description
Title | page0610 |
Collection Title | Engineering Technical Reports Collection, Purdue University |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Rights Statement | Digital object copyright Purdue University. All rights reserved. |
Language | eng |
Type (DCMI) | text |
Format | JP2 |
Capture Device | Fujitsu fi-5650C |
Capture Details | ScandAll 21 |
Transcript | Pennsylvania's New All Surface Mining Law DONALD A. LAZARCHIK, Director Bureau of Land Protection & Reclamation Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources Harrisburg, Pennsylvania INTRODUCTION Surface mining of a variety of minerals has been conducted in Pennsylvania for more than 250 years. Laws to control such mining have existed for only 30 years. Pennsylvania law developed as more and more people became concerned with the devastation caused by mining operators in their quest for exploiting the rich deposits of coal, sand, stone, slate, metal ores and other minerals that exist in the Commonwealth. Unregulated surface mining has left Pennsylvania a legacy of thousands of acres of abandoned and useless mining lands, hundreds of miles of streams contaminated by mine drainage and silt, and numerous quarry holes that are hazards to public safety and often become a convenient repository for the unwanted waste products from our homes and factories. As debate on the pros and cons of surface mining proceeds in the Congress and in many state legislatures, Pennsylvania is already moving forward with a program to prevent future environmental problems from active surface mines. We have already accumulated nearly 10 years of experience in controlling the development of our bituminous coal reserves by surface mining methods. The General Assembly of Pennsylvania wrestled with the need for extending our regulatory control to other types of surface mining for well over three years before enacting our new Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act. Many people believe that an outright ban on strip mining is the only way to avoid irrepairable damage to the land. They believe that strip mining causes a disruption to the ecological balance that can never be fully repaired. The Conservation Foundation in a recent newsletter stated: "At its worst, stripping brings indescribable ugliness, destroying natural systems and, with them, tourist and recreation resources, wildlife habitat and other values. It pollutes rivers and water supplies with silt and acid drainage. It leaves denuded lands and spoil banks, which are often shoved over hillsides. Among the results are serious erosion, landslides and flooding. . . . Damage to roads and bridges from heavy trucks can be severe. Blasting can cause both property and psychological damage. In short, strip mining is often disruptive of both the natural and community environments." Statements of this type lead the public to condemn all types of surface mining since the public equates the evils of unreclaimed strip mined lands with surface mining. The distinctions between contour and area strip mining, block cut, modified block cut, auger, open pit, dredging or hydraulic mining are of little concern to the outraged citizen. M odern reclamation practices do not remove all of the scars from all of the abandoned strip mine lands that are all too visible from public roads and are a constant source of irritation to conservationists. The General Assembly of Pennsylvania stated the following purpose in enacting our new law: "Section I. Purpose of Act.This act shall be deemed to be an exercise of the police powers of the Commonwealth for the general welfare of the people of the Commonwealth, by providing for the conservation and improvement of areas of land affected in the surface mining of bituminous and anthracite coal and metallic and nonmetallic minerals, to aid thereby in the protection of birdsand wildlife, to 610 |
Resolution | 300 ppi |
Color Depth | 8 bit |
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