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The regulatory requirements could be simplified and
made clearer as a positive first step toward actual enforcement. The proposed
new application form is an opportunity in this regard. As pointed out
above, however, there are significant problems with the current version
of the proposed new application form, including a general tendency to weaken
current wetland protections.
The rules and regulations with which a mine operator
must contend admittedly are complex and cumbersome. The affected public
finds them and the resulting paperwork arcane, as well as ineffective.
Making the regulations more understandable would be a positive step. However,
this effort should not be equated with the Regulatory Basics Initiative
focus on making the regulations less stringent.
Simplification actually may benefit BMR and the public
even more than the mine operators, who have the financial resources to
employ lawyers and engineers astute enough to understand the current regulations
in all of their complexity, including the loopholes contained therein and
as allowed by BMR practice.
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The opportunity exists to employ and apply complex
watershed hydrology models to existing conditions when predicting potential
impacts from various mining alternatives. Underground coal mines have
become large and few in number, with each longwall operation now covering
many dozens of square miles. Longwall mining entails huge capital investment
and long-range planning and design. Hydrologic impact analyses ostensibly
are required by the current regulations, but to date have not been carried
out, especially with respect to wetlands. If properly executed, such models
can help mine operators justify their operations and help BMR develop useful
baseline databases against which to evaluate future mine projects.
For example, as a condition of the BMR approval of
a recent revision for the Bailey Mine (Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company,
Permit #30841316) in Greene County, periodic monitoring of stream flow
in Enlow Fork was required to determine any adverse effects from recent
longwall mining. As part of its monitoring, during September 1998 Consol
began collecting baseline information on stream habitats, water quality,
and benthic macro- invertebrate and fish communities in the stream (CECI
1999).
There is no justification
for any significant loss of wetlands to underground mining whatsoever,
and none has ever been provided in any permit application file. The technology
exists to eliminate wetland loss resulting from longwall mining, but BMR
refuses to require it.
As a result of the Consol monitoring, the decreased
habitat value in the subsided streambed of Enlow Fork has been clearly
documented. A required monitoring and reporting effort such as this is
a noteworthy and positive first step in understanding the true extent of
damages of high-extraction mining to wetlands, streams, and other natural
resources. It should be expanded to include wetlands, and it should be
required for all longwall mine permits involving new or additional
underground mine acreage.
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Specific goals for the protection and preservation
of wetlands and other water resources should be established as a condition
of each underground mine permit. Compliance should be enforced by severe
economic penalties for failure to achieve the required levels of performance.
In
this way, the mine operators would have the opportunity and the flexibility
to devise the most cost-effective technology to achieve compliance. Regulators
for their part need to ensure that the goals that they set are concrete
and measurable, and that regular, thorough monitoring and reporting is
provided by mine operators subject to agency and public review and inspection.
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Enforcement of existing environmental regulatory
requirements could provide a strong economic incentive for mine operators
to reexamine the potential of backstowing. Backstowing technology has
long been available to eliminate significant subsidence and with it most
wetland damage from longwall mining. The principal challenges are to improve
the efficiency of backstowing techniques and to incorporate them into the
early design of an operation so as to minimize the overall cost.
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