U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of Surface Mining
For Immediate Release:				Jerry Childress (202) 208-7941
July 9, 2002

REDUCING THE SOCIAL COSTS OF ENERGY

The Office of Surface Mining & SMCRA
For 25 years, making the Coalfields a safer place to live and work.

The United States covers only about five percent of the world's land area, 
yet it has one-quarter of the world's coal reserves. During the last two centuries, 
this abundance of coal fueled the nation's tremendous industrial growth. But that 
growth carried a price. 

	For those miners fortunate enough to survive the dangers of working 
below ground-cave-ins, explosions, and the lingering death of black lung 
disease-there were plenty of dangers above ground. Land and water scarred by 
coal mining posed a constant threat to the health, safety, and well-being of 
people living in America's coal regions. Mine wastes dumped down slopes or 
poorly compacted on hillsides created an ever-present threat of landslides. 
Dangerous highwalls loomed over barren stretches of stripped earth where even 
weeds could not grow. 

	The landscape was dotted with mining pits filled with polluted water, 
streams clogged with sediment and rivers poisoned by acid runoff from exposed 
coal seams. There were places in Appalachia that looked more like the moon 
than planet earth. It was well into the 20th century before a handful of states 
began to require reclamation at coal mines-returning land as much as possible 
to its natural condition before it was mined. Even those meager efforts were 
largely unsuccessful as the demand for coal increased to support the national 
efforts in the first and second world wars. 

	By the mid-1900s, the advent of larger and more effective earth-moving 
machines made strip mining of coal more efficient than ever before. Compared to 
traditional underground coal mining, strip mining generally costs less, is safer for 
miners, and usually results in more complete recovery of the coal. Leaders in 
Washington came under increasing pressure from citizens and environmental 
advocates to develop a national program to require coal mining reclamation. 

	On August 3, 1977, after many years of debate, President Jimmy Carter 
signed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act-the first federal law to 
regulate the environmental effects of strip mining and to require the reclamation 
of land and water damaged by coal mining. The act also created a fund to correct 
health and safety problems through reclamation of abandoned mines. The law 
created two major programs to be carried out jointly by the states and the 
Federal Government. 

	The first was an environmental protection program to establish standards 
and procedures for approving permits and inspecting active coal mining and 
reclamation operations, both surface and underground. The second was a 
reclamation program, financed by fees paid by active coal operators, to restore 
land and water at abandoned mines. Congress included provisions for prohibiting 
mining in sensitive areas, requirements that coal companies obtain bonds to 
cover the costs of reclamation in case the companies failed to meet their 
obligations, and provisions for citizen participation in mine permitting, inspection 
and enforcement. 

	Ensuring that the surface mining act's requirements are met is the 
responsibility of the Department's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and 
Enforcement-a small bureau of about 650 employees nationwide. Under the 
act, the Secretary of the Interior grants direct regulatory authority to state 
governments, provided they develop programs that meet certain conditions. 
Once a state is granted "primacy," it takes over responsibility for issuing coal 
mine permits, conducting inspections, and taking enforcement actions.  Of the 26 
coal-producing states, 24 have primacy. OSM retains regulatory authority on 
Indian lands, and in the coal states that do not have primacy. Though most coal 
states have primacy, OSM retains responsibility for monitoring states to ensure 
that they properly carry out their delegated authorities and require operators to 
meet certain minimum requirements. 

	Through independent oversight, OSM evaluates how effectively each 
primacy state is administering its approved program. If the office finds serious 
deficiencies in a state's conduct of its program, OSM can exercise backup 
enforcement authority or rescind primacy and resume direct federal regulatory 
authority. The agency's oversight role helps states to maintain high standards, 
contributes to operator compliance, and maintains a level playing field so that the 
coal industry in any one state does not have an unfair economic advantage in 
interstate competition. 

OSM supports primacy states with training and technical assistance and 
by providing 50 percent of regulatory program funding. OSM also provides 
primacy states and Indian tribes with full funding for the reclamation of 
abandoned mine lands. In addition, OSM operates programs to eliminate the 
environmental and economic impacts of acid mine drainage from abandoned 
mines, encourage reforestation of reclaimed mine land, develop techniques that 
can ensure reclamation of prime farmland soils, and publicly recognize 
outstanding reclamation work. 

-OSM-