BILLINGS, Mont.—A pair of environmental groups said Friday that “dismal” efforts by federal and state officials to enforce a 30-year-old mining law have left hundreds of thousands of acres of disturbed land not restored to an acceptable condition.
The groups produced a report using government data that shows companies had fully reclaimed less than 6 percent of roughly 400,000 acres mined for coal in the West over the past decade. The report was released on the 30th anniversary of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.
It counted land as reclaimed only if the government had released all bonds posted by companies prior to mining. The regional director of the federal Office of Surface Mining, Jeffrey Fleischman, said that ignores restoration work still in progress by mining companies.
Wyoming, by far the nation’s biggest coal producer, was said in the report to have the most unreclaimed land, with 627 acres restored out of almost 350,000 acres mined over the last decade. That’s less than one acre restored for every 500 disturbed.
“The (government) should stop issuing permits for new mines or mine expansions until the reclamation is done,” said Johanna Wald, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and author of the report, which focused on Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico and North Dakota.
Fleischman said the groups had failed to take account of much work done to date, such as mine pits backfilled and regraded or land with new topsoil and vegetation. While some bonds are released after those activities, others are held long after the bulk of the work is done.
Fleischman added that with a dramatic spike in coal production during the last couple of decades, “it takes a while for reclamation to catch up.”
The findings in the report contrasted with Congressional testimony last month by Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality director John Corra. Corra, whose office said he could not be reached Friday, told the House Natural Resources Committee that companies had reclaimed “almost half” of the disturbed acres in the state.
A statement from the Office of Surface Mining’s headquarters in Washington criticized the report for unspecified “factual errors” and suggested it was based on “haphazard research.”
The NRDC, based in Washington, D.C., and the Western Organization of Resource Councils of Billings released their report to bolster enforcement of the surface mining act, considered a landmark environmental law when it was signed by then-President Jimmy Carter.
Among those present at the signing was Helen Waller, a past chair of the Western Organization of Resource Councils. Waller, a farmer from Circle, Mont., said Friday the pledge by government at the time was that “if our lands are ravaged by strip mining, there would be some assurance those lands would be reclaimed.”
But that promise has not held up, Waller and others now claim. Too little enforcement, vague definitions of reclamation and few ways to punish companies that delay restoration work has resulted in a “shockingly low” rate of reclamation, they said.
Montana, with far less coal mined than Wyoming, had the lowest reclamation rate: Only one in 735 acres. Colorado had the best record, with an almost one-to-one ratio of land reclaimed and disturbed. New Mexico saw one of every 54 mined acres restored, and North Dakota one of every 11 acres, the report said.
Marion Loomis with the Wyoming Mining Association said companies often put off seeking final government approval of restored land until they have a large block completed, to avoid a piecemeal process that could prove more costly.
About $1.8 billion in reclamation bonds are outstanding in Wyoming, he said.
“I disagree strongly that industry is not reclaiming the land,” he said. “As we go forward we’re going to see more companies apply for final bond release.”
