A legacy of Torment

"We must end the reckless pillaging of our land, the spoiling of our streams, and the destruction of our fish and wild life. We must pass this bill." So spoke West Virginia's Governor Hulett C. Smith earlier this year in urging his legislature to pass the toughest state law in the nation controlling strip mining for coal.

Strip mining is a simple, productive and inexpensive method of mining coal, both hard and soft; it accounts for one-third of the nation's total 500 million ton annual output. Big power shovels rip off the topsoil, then bite into the underlying seams to depths of more than 100 feet and load the coal onto trucks. But far too often, irresponsible strip miners, operating under ancient mineral-rights leases, have mined the land and simply moved on, leaving behind a fearful legacy of tormented earth. In West Virginia alone, strip miners are tearing up land at the rate of 6,000 acres a year, annually creating 240 miles of "high wall"--vertical cliffs of "overburden" (discarded earth and rock) that resist vegetation, frequently slide over onto adjacent homes and property.

Tighter Laws. Last week, by overwhelming votes of 98 to 1 in the house and 33 to 0 in the senate, the West Virginia legislature passed Governor Smith's bill. The new statute gives absolute authority over strip mining to the director of natural resources, taking it away from the state mines department, which has a reputation for favoring strippers. The law prohibits stripping within 100 feet of any public road, stream, park, school or building. Strippers, when they apply for a mining permit, must now submit a detailed advance plan of how they intend to reclaim the mined land. They are further required to carry a minimum of $50,000 liability insurance to cover damages from sliding overburden to any adjacent property owners, who may recover three times the actual damage.

In the absence of any federal legislation, the states have had to move on their own. Only eight of the 23 states in which strip miners operate have statutes requiring miners to reclaim their land; but the eight--Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia--produce 80% of all strip-mined coal. And as the realization spreads of how badly strip mining destroys nature, the laws are getting tighter. Pennsylvania, for example, amended its existing law in 1963 to require that miners put everything back into the hole except the coal; Kentucky passed a similar measure last year.

Who Pays? Next the Federal Government is preparing to step in. After a year's study, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall will present President Johnson with his recommendations for federal legislation in May. His chief dilemma: who should pay to reclaim orphaned "spoil banks"--land that was stripped before there were any laws by miners who are no longer around. The Interior Department estimates that there are some 800,000 acres of barren, orphaned land in the twelve-state Appalachia region alone, pegs the cost of reclaiming them at $250 million.

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