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