I applaud OSMRE for its initiative in conducting this study. While the study pertains only to Kentucky, it is a good start. I will also cooperate with the Department in its effort to obtain the legislation its report indicates is needed.

I will also begin to look at extension of the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund. A new generation of unreclaimed mines has been created since 1977. These are not covered by the AML Fund. These mines must be reclaimed. In addition, the current AML Fund will address only 10 percent or so of the pre-1977 abandoned mines.

We must determine what level of funding is necessary, if we extend the Fund, and what changes, if any, are needed in that program. I also intend to look at selective remining and see what we can do to encourage the remining of abandoned mines.

I could go on much longer, but I won't detail all my frustrations with the implementation of SMCRA. There are many. However, I want to stress that by and large, I feel the majority of the responsible coal mining industry is doing its best to comply with the provisions of the law.

That is not to say that the coal mining industry necessarily likes all provisions of SMCRA, but it is willing to live with it. For that, the industry is to be commended.

The comment I hear most frequently from the reasonable coal mining industry is simply this: Tell us what you want and we will try our best to comply, but don't keep changing the rules and regulations. We need predictability, stability and continuity, not constant change and uncertainty. To that, I say amen.

I renew today my commitment to the citizens of the coalfields. We have fought long and hard over the last 17 years. We have had victories; we have had defeats. I will continue to fight to curb the ravaging of the coalfields. I hope and believe that you will join me in that fight.

It is a long, hard road with many disappointments, but one that must be traveled. I yield to the distinguished gentleman from West Virginia.

Mr. RAHALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I salute you on an excellent statement this morning and associate myself in every way with your remarks. You have mentioned the long, hard battle of 17 years. That goes back before the year 1972, which is a memorable date in the history of my home State of West Virginia.

It was on February 26, 1972, Mr. Chairman, that a coal waste dam located on Buffalo Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, collapsed causing a flood of truly horrible proportions in loss of life, injuries, and people who were left homeless and many millions of dollars of property damage.

This disaster, coupled with mounting concerns over the failure of several States to properly regulate mining, ensure reclamation, and the development of surface coal mining in the vast semiarid West for the first time raised the level of public attention to the plight of coalfield citizens adversely affected by certain coal mining practices from a local to a truly national scale.

Just as it took another mine-related disaster, the November 1968 slaughter of 78 miners in a coal mine explosion at Farmington, West Virginia, to gain enactment of the Federal Coal Mine Health

and Safety Act of 1969, the vivid image of 125 people being killed at Buffalo Creek in West Virginia gave rise to the first serious efforts to enact Federal legislation regulating the environmental consequences of surface coal mining.

The congressional debates of the mid-1970's, and bills passed only to be vetoed, set the stage for your introduction, Mr. Chairman, of H.R. 2 on the opening day of the 95th Congress in 1977, my first Congress.

In that year, I was a young freshman Member of Congress and had the distinct privilege to serve on this committee during the first year of your chairmanship. I was also given a great compliment when you chose this freshman Representative from southern West Virginia to serve on the House-Senate conference committee which ironed out the final version of what was to become the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

As you have mentioned, it was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter 10 years ago today and I had the honor of being in the Rose Garden, also.

And here we sit after those 10 years, Mr. Chairman, during which time we have not always agreed on matters pertaining to the act, especially during the early stages of its implementation; in early stages, I might say, of my congressional career, also.

We are, however, in agreement today. Your original insight and foresight have proven to be correct. It is true that the Federal regulatory program has been plagued with problems in the past, and great challenges still face not only the Office of Surface Mining, but the States as well, most of which have assumed primacy.

Be that as it may, there can be no doubt that overall, the act has made the coalfields of this Nation a much better place in which to live. The vast majority of the coal industry is in compliance with the law, as you have mentioned, and countless acres of old abandoned coal mine lands have been reclaimed under the special fund established by the act.

Mr. Chairman, just as we worked under your leadership to repeal the 2-acre exemption, I stand ready to act in concert with you against those unscrupulous individuals who are engaged in wildcat operations that you so adequately spoke of.

As I wrote to you in June of this year, the existence of these wildcat operations is not only an affront to legitimate coal producers who are being placed at a competitive disadvantage due to illegal mining activities, but represents an injustice to the citizens of those regions where this type of activity takes place.

Mr. Chairman, I thank you for conducting this hearing today. While it commemorates the 10th anniversary of the landmark Federal Surface Mining Act, if you have no objection I would feel it would be proper to dedicate this hearing today to the 125 citizens of Logan County in southern West Virginia who perished in the Buffalo Creek disaster and their survivors. That occurred 15 years ago during which you were engaged in the early struggles to enact the law that is on the books today.

Mr. Chairman, before I yield, if you would indulge me one more moment I would like to make a special presentation to you this morning.

When God made the mountains of my home State of West Virginia, I truly believe he made a special breed of people to preside over them. He made a proud people, and we are indeed a proud people in West Virginia, Mr. Chairman. We are born of the mountains and hallow of our rugged terrain.

Our State motto is "montani semper liberi-mountaineers are always free," and I would, on this occasion, present you with a token of our appreciation for your efforts to ensure the beauty of our mountains. It is a West Virginia mountaineer, Mr. Chairman, made of coal, and I have no doubt that this coal was mined under the Federal Surface Mining Act of 1977. [Applause.]

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Nick.

Those are very kind and moving thoughts, and I am proud to have this great prize. A young man was at a banquet getting an honor, and he was flustered, and he said, "I sure don't appreciate it, but I really do deserve it.'

It has been a long struggle, and you have been an important part of it these last 10 years, and I hope you are here another 10 after I am gone. Sooner or later, the law is going to work the way we want it to work, and I thought these hearings would be a good idea to bring us up to date, but thank you very much for your contribution over the years.

The gentleman from Arizona?

Mr. RHODES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I am sure that you do appreciate it, but there is no doubt in my mind that you also deserve it. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to join you, and the witnesses who will be appearing before us today, as we mark the 10th anniversary of this act.

As we all know, the office got off to a rocky start. The agency has encountered problems administering the Surface Mining Act of 1977. There have been six Directors or Acting Directors during the short life of the agency.

I know that many of our early witnesses will tell us the agency is still in turmoil and not fulfilling its mission. Later witnesses will question whether there is a need for the agency at all.

One question is likely to be prominent throughout this hearing, is simply this: Is the law of 1977 impossible to manage in a reasonable and effective manner with the resources at hand?

In considering the economic and political realities in some of our States, will it ever be possible to entrust the enforcement of this law to the various States? I don't have the answer to all these questions, but after today's hearing, maybe we as a committee will be closer to arriving at some answers to some very meaningful questions.

Our final witness today will be Jed Christensen, present Director of the Office, who I believe has done a good job in getting the agency on sound footing. He will tell us that considerable progress has been made in most every major problem area, and I think the record will show that is right.

In the Congress sometimes we pass laws to correct existing problems and then expect our Federal agency to waive a magic wand and correct them overnight. Sometimes I think we even perceive problems that don't exist.

At any rate, the Office is now 10 years old. I congratulate its leaders and those in the agency who have tried to do a job under difficult circumstances. I know the problem still exists, and we will be hearing plenty about them today. I look forward to hearing what the witnesses have to say, and I thank you for this opportunity, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. The distinguished Congressman, Mr. Murphy of Pennsylvania, who has been a part of this, is recognized.

Mr. MURPHY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Very briefly, so we can get on with the witnesses, I have been privileged to be a sponsor in the early 1960's in Pennsylvania, when we adopted the first stringent regulations for the strip mining of coal, and then when I came here as a new member of this committee led by you as also a sponsor of the 1977 act.

I think the act has basically worked. I agree with you. I commend you, Mr. Chairman, for holding these hearings, because from time to time in the strip mining States, we hear that it is not being enforced well enough, that some regulation is too stringent, that some violations are made, bonds are not high enough, and I commend you, Mr. Chairman.

I think these hearings will bring out the truth of how well in 10 years the act has worked. I look forward to sharing the opportunity with you.

Thank you very much.

The CHAIRMAN. Our first witness is Frank McCloskey, Representative from the great State of Indiana. Frank, you are recognized. [Prepared statement of Hon. Frank McCloskey, with attachment, may be found in the appendix.]

STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK MCCLOSKEY, A U.S.
REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF INDIANA

Mr. MCCLOSKEY. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.

My primary regret today is, as far as I know, Indiana has no mountains. I never felt more divided, but as you know, we have a wonderful place anyway, and indeed, it has much in common with West Virginia and several other States in that we do mine a lot of coal in southwestern Indiana.

In effect, it is a major contribution, and 75 percent of the coal mining in Indiana is mined in my district. Mr. Chairman, I really do appreciate your eloquent remarks, and it posed a point of hope with me with your mention of possible expansion of the abandoned mines fund, and you will see what I am talking about in a moment. I have a formal statement. I would just ask that it be accepted for the record, and I think I can summarize my comments and concerns in 2 minutes, more or less, and I think they are very basic and forthright, but-

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection.

Mr. MCCLOSKEY. I think-the gist of it is that in some six States, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, we have instances where in essence, at the same time both the mining companies and the surety bond companies are going bankrupt in effect simultaneously.

It is obvious that with that happening at the time same that the bereaved landholder, the free holder is being left in location after location with mountainous slags, slag heaps of totally unusable land.

I would note that there are some 3,700 acres of unreclaimed land, because of simultaneous bankruptcies of the surety firms and the mining companies in the Eighth District of Indiana, in Mr. Murphy's State of Pennsylvania.

I am told there is about 22,000 acres and various experts since the last time I appeared before Mr. Rahall's committee on this have told me that with 11,000 acres and more suffering this condition in Kentucky.

Kentucky can expect major or economic devastation as to this problem. Obviously, if we are going to continue healthy mining, particularly in an area that we all know is depressed and the different sizes of mine operators have different problems and feelings about the regulation.

I would note that this primarily or almost exclusively involved smaller operators obviously of having degrees of stability and responsibility, but we do not want to regulate so much that only the larger mine operators are able to operate, but it does not help the mine operators of any size or overall economy to have this land left unreclaimed.

So, Mr. Chairman, I would respectfully suggest that something has to be done involving possible State and almost definitely Federal action.

Indiana, the last term or two in the General Assembly, has tried to handle some of it. They did deposit some more stringent regulations as to surety companies, and they also did have a mining reclamation fund from fines established.

The Federal authorities have recently pointed out that only about 10 percent of mining infractions have been cited in Indiana, and that of those that have been cited only about 7 percent have been collected.

So, it is a very serious problem. There are other concerns. For example, the problems of collateral; a lot of these surety firms require 80- to 100-percent collateral. Obviously, if they go bankrupt, their problems with the collateral responsibilities for the mining operators that are in contract with them, is often the case that these mining operators in effect have to pay double collateral.

I would conclude with a hope for your continuing cooperation and continuing cooperation of everyone on the committee, as has already been essentially promised by Mr. Rahall, but again, I ask you to consider amending the law to apply to abandoned mines, which have developed after 1977.

With that, I again thank you for being here and appreciate your cooperation and stand open to any questions or suggestions you may have.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Are there any questions? I think not. Thanks very much.

Mr. MCCLOSKEY. Thank you, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Next witnesses are a panel, Thomas Galloway; Phil Begley; Wyona Coleman, Mark Squillace. We have a long witness list today, and I will make the usual admonition of the wit