RESTORING THE APPROXIMATE ORIGINAL CONTOUR

In traditional surface mining operations coal companies are required under the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) to restore the land to its approximate original contour when the operations are completed. [see Title 30, Chapter 25 of the U.S. Code]. There has always been at least some debate over the definition of "approximate" original contour. It has been generally agreed that it's not exact reconstruction and does not have to be -- it only has to be "reasonable."

Mountaintop Removal Mining, however, has a variance from this particular reclamation requirement. SMCRA defines the removal operation as one that "completely removes the fraction of a mountain ridge, or hill to extract the entire coal seam running through the mountain. The soil and rock sliced off the top . . . are used to fill the upper reaches of the valleys . . . creating a relatively level plateau in place of the original ridge-and-valley-contour." [see section 515(c)(2)]. The operation must remove the highest elevations of the mountain (even hundreds of feet) in order to qualify for the variance, which is that the approximate original contour does NOT have to be restored. Because of the variance, obviously it would be to the coal companies' advantage to remove the whole top of the mountain.

But coal companies don't get off quite so easy. In the original mining permit application, companies are required to include specific details which demonstrate that the land can and will be put to some productive use, such as recreational, commercial, agricultural, etc. Curiously, a number of Mountaintop Removal permits have been approved which included no specific details about post-mining land use. And one wonders about the reality of these proposals in remote areas where there is no infrastructure at all-- no roads, no towns, no people. If a mall is built, who will shop there?