Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

ANNIVERSARY OF THE SURFACE

MINING CONTROL AND

TENTH

OF 1977

RECLAMATION ACT

MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 1987

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT,

COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND Insular AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m., in room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Morris K. Udall (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in session.

I notice we have an overflow crowd. There are 8 or 10 seats at this level. If any of our friends would like to sit in these good seats here, we welcome you.

Ten years ago today, on a steamy August afternoon, I stood in the Rose Garden at the White House with maybe a few people who are present here today, but with a lot of us who had been engaged for about 10 years in getting a Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act on the statute book. The act was passed after years of struggle by people in the coalfields.

In passing the act, it was the voices of these people which were heard, people who had lived with the mutilated mountainsides, polluted streams, landslides and destruction of their homes.

Consequently, the act was, and is, more than a piece of legislation; it is a vehicle of hope for those who live and who will live in America's coalfields. In the 10 years since 1977, the struggle has not ceased; I and the citizens of the coalfields have suffered many disappointments in our efforts to remedy the ills of strip mining. The act has not accomplished what I or the people of the coalfields had hoped.

There are many reasons for this. A number of coalfield States have not improved their regulatory programs; the drastic change in regulatory philosophy from Secretary Andrus to Secretary Watt severely disrupted the program; and a segment of the coal industry has continued in its bitter and implacable opposition to the most basic of environmental controls.

We will hear today of problems: Thousands of mines left unreclaimed since 1977, hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid fines, inadequate or nonexistent protection to water supplies, little or no protection from subsidence, inadequate bonds, and increased wildcatting, to mention several major problems.

These problems are real. They are, in many cases, severe. However, I do not conclude from the existence of these problems that the act has failed; indeed, I draw a sharply different conclusion.

After 10 years of implementation of the act, it has proven to me that the act is fundamentally sound; its basic requirements to internalize the environmental costs of mining, to restore the land to its premining contour and condition, to require viable post mining land uses which recognize the mining is but a temporary use of the land, are sound and indeed fundamental to any responsible approach to the mining of coal in America.

After 10 years, I see no glaring weakness in the law itself; the only serious flaw in the act, the 2-acre exemption, was recently removed through legislative action.

I also believe that despite a small renegade portion of the industry, despite the thousands of unreclaimed mines, despite the problems, we have made progress. Reclamation is better. Mining practices have improved. This progress would not have occurred but for the act.

Moreover, this progress occurred without any appreciable impact on our Nation's ability to meet its energy needs, as predicted by many opponents during our long battle.

Thus, today as I look at the act and the past 10 years, I ask myself, where do we go from here? How do we address the myriad problems?

Let me say, and say clearly, that I have not spent 17 years of my congressional career to give up the fight now. If coal operators refuse to obey the law, they should mine no more in America. If wildcatters believe they can ignore the law, they should think again. They can be put in jail where they belong.

If officials in either the Federal or State regulatory agencies are not doing their job, then they should be removed. And finally, if one or more States cannot do the job, the Federal Government should step in and take over the work.

For I believe the work will be done.

I intend to focus on several areas. Wildcatting must be stopped. Bonds must be made adequate. Protection must be afforded both homes and water supplies from subsidence. Enforcement must be stepped up. The permit block system must be made to work.

Let me digress for just a moment. With respect to wildcat mining, let me make a point. It appears this activity may replace the abuse of the 2-acre exemption as the next problem.

To give an example, a recent study by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, OSMRE, indicated, and I quote:

Illegal mining operations occur primarily in southeastern Kentucky. These activities affect about 600 acres each year in an environmentally destructive manner. About $52.5 million worth of coal has been removed, 2.1 million tons, resulting in a loss of about $7,750,000 of coal production revenues to the local, State, and Federal Governments.

Loss to the Black Lung and Abandoned Mine Lands Funds alone equals $2.6 million. The control of illegal mining requires a concerted Federal effort in support of State action. Currently, the mining of coal without a permit is not a Federal felony, nor does OSMRE have the necessary authority to enforce criminal activities through SMCRA. Therefore, some legislation is needed.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »