OSM NEWS
U. S. Department of the Interior        
Office of Surface Mining

For release: June 24, 1999                        Jerry Childress (202) 208-2719
                                        Jchildre@osmre.gov
     

    OSM DIRECTOR DETERMINES AOC DOES NOT APPLY TO VALLEY FILLS

     Kathy Karpan, Director of the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining
Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM), today issued a policy document that the
requirement to restore disturbed areas at surface coal mine sites to approximate
original contour (AOC) does not apply to valley fills. The policy document attaches a
legal opinion from the Interior Solicitor's Office that supports the determination.

     "One of the issues that has arisen from OSM's oversight of the State of West
Virginia's approved regulatory program and the lawsuit filed by a group of West Virginia
citizens, and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy is whether excess spoil disposal
sites, particularly valley fills, must be reclaimed to AOC," Karpan said. 

      "That's why I asked the Department's Associate Solicitor for Mineral Resources
to analyze the pertinent sections of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
(SMCRA) on that issue," Karpan said.  "The analysis, with which I concur, shows that
the requirements to restore disturbed areas to AOC does not apply to valley fills,"
Karpan said.  

     "Consequently, I concur with the statement in the 1998 West Virginia Oversight
Evaluation Report on Approximate Original Contour and Post Mining Land Use, that
valley fills are outside the mined area to which AOC applies, and therefore, valley fills
themselves are not subject to a requirement to achieve AOC," Karpan said.  "This
interpretation is consistent with OSM's past treatment of the issue of excess spoil,"
Karpan added.  

     Both SMCRA and the approved West Virginia regulatory program contain the
requirement that surface coal mines be restored to AOC.  AOC requires that the mined
land should closely resemble the pre-mining landscape, after reclamation is completed. 

     Surface mining in steep slope mountains creates spoil material (broken rock )
that cannot be completely put back where it came from because it swells in volume
during the mining process, and because of other features like stability and access roads
that must be considered. The portion of the spoil that cannot be safely returned to the
mined area is termed "excess spoil " and is typically placed in valleys adjacent to the
mined area.

     Copies of the policy document and legal opinion may be obtained from Vermell
Davis of the OSM Technology Development staff, telephone: (202) 208-2802, or the
OSM home page, www.osmre.gov.      

-OSM-