The US law states the top soil has to be stored to replace it after FILL is introduced into the pit. The handling of that soil by the mining companies destroys the integrity of the soil and is unusable in many instances.
When coal and pit mining companies measure SUCCESS in restoration they report it as ACRES of land. But, the reality is the real damage is best measured in square miles.
This is from Yale:
...The companies (click here) have filled in giant mine pits, replanted trees, engineered marshes, and brought in bison to graze on boreal shrublands that have been manufactured from excavated earth and wetland vegetation. Today, however, less than one square mile of the 296 square miles of land that has been disturbed by tar sands development has been certified as being reclaimed by the province of Alberta. Standing in the way of certification are poorly defined government guidelines on wetland reclamation and the absence of clear company plans ...
The US law relies on the coal companies to define the restoration methodology with a priority on the mining and not the restoration. There is also vast amounts of damage done 'along the way.' In other words the USA gets out of the way of mining the land and only sees the end product of restoration. Along the way the coal and pit mining companies pollute waters that will take generations to return to their original state. In the case of oil, the lands are permanently compromised. The land in Alberta are beyond restoration efforts.
The insult to the environment doesn't end with water, the tailings and coal ash ponds are a continued danger to COMMUNITIES in the USA during and after the mining is being conducted.
When Presidents complain about Cuba and it's health care system they state there is ONE state of the art facility to entertain foreign media while the people actually have far different outcomes. That is the same concept invoked by the pit mining companies. They have one particular area that has been restored to show the press without looking at the entire picture from the first excavator bucket full of soil to the complete restoration of the area.
The companies propaganda on this issue is well known and the degraded top soils in storage to the purpose of restoration is well documented in peer reviewed journals. The law? Is a joke.
If the law was actually being enforced there would be a far greater demand for Conservation Biologists than there is today. Basically, the Conservation Community has accepted the failure of the law because any complaint has fallen on deaf ears. Instead of hoping the government would require a reassessment of the law and it's lack of success, the scientists have recorded their findings in professional journals. If anyone actually looked for the information in professional journals about the failure of the conservation laws in regard to pit mining they would find volumes and volumes of information, but, no one focuses on that. The focus instead is on Wall Street, pit mining company complaints about regulation impact PROFITS to stockholders. No surprise there, right?
Forbid profits should be impacted by actual enforcement of the law so the people are safe and have returned wildlands to their recreational income of small businesses.
...Land Restoration (click here)
Once mining is complete, the mined lands are restored to create rangeland, prime farmland, wildlife refuges, wetlands, or recreation areas. Land restoration requires the collective efforts of engineers, biologists, hydrologists, range scientists, and other environmental experts to return the land to productive use.
How Does Land Restoration Work?
Land restoration—what the industry calls land reclamation—is the process of restoring or improving (not restoring at all) land after surface mining. U.S. mining companies have reclaimed more than 2.6 million acres of mined land over the last 35 years and have contributed nearly $10 billion for the reclamation of areas mined decades ago before reclamation was a common practice and legal requirement....
When coal and pit mining companies measure SUCCESS in restoration they report it as ACRES of land. But, the reality is the real damage is best measured in square miles.
This is from Yale:
...The companies (click here) have filled in giant mine pits, replanted trees, engineered marshes, and brought in bison to graze on boreal shrublands that have been manufactured from excavated earth and wetland vegetation. Today, however, less than one square mile of the 296 square miles of land that has been disturbed by tar sands development has been certified as being reclaimed by the province of Alberta. Standing in the way of certification are poorly defined government guidelines on wetland reclamation and the absence of clear company plans ...
The US law relies on the coal companies to define the restoration methodology with a priority on the mining and not the restoration. There is also vast amounts of damage done 'along the way.' In other words the USA gets out of the way of mining the land and only sees the end product of restoration. Along the way the coal and pit mining companies pollute waters that will take generations to return to their original state. In the case of oil, the lands are permanently compromised. The land in Alberta are beyond restoration efforts.
The insult to the environment doesn't end with water, the tailings and coal ash ponds are a continued danger to COMMUNITIES in the USA during and after the mining is being conducted.
When Presidents complain about Cuba and it's health care system they state there is ONE state of the art facility to entertain foreign media while the people actually have far different outcomes. That is the same concept invoked by the pit mining companies. They have one particular area that has been restored to show the press without looking at the entire picture from the first excavator bucket full of soil to the complete restoration of the area.
The companies propaganda on this issue is well known and the degraded top soils in storage to the purpose of restoration is well documented in peer reviewed journals. The law? Is a joke.
If the law was actually being enforced there would be a far greater demand for Conservation Biologists than there is today. Basically, the Conservation Community has accepted the failure of the law because any complaint has fallen on deaf ears. Instead of hoping the government would require a reassessment of the law and it's lack of success, the scientists have recorded their findings in professional journals. If anyone actually looked for the information in professional journals about the failure of the conservation laws in regard to pit mining they would find volumes and volumes of information, but, no one focuses on that. The focus instead is on Wall Street, pit mining company complaints about regulation impact PROFITS to stockholders. No surprise there, right?
Forbid profits should be impacted by actual enforcement of the law so the people are safe and have returned wildlands to their recreational income of small businesses.
...Land Restoration (click here)
Once mining is complete, the mined lands are restored to create rangeland, prime farmland, wildlife refuges, wetlands, or recreation areas. Land restoration requires the collective efforts of engineers, biologists, hydrologists, range scientists, and other environmental experts to return the land to productive use.
How Does Land Restoration Work?
Land restoration—what the industry calls land reclamation—is the process of restoring or improving (not restoring at all) land after surface mining. U.S. mining companies have reclaimed more than 2.6 million acres of mined land over the last 35 years and have contributed nearly $10 billion for the reclamation of areas mined decades ago before reclamation was a common practice and legal requirement....
