Projected acreage of prime farmland to be disturbed by coal surface mining in the corn belt, 1980--2000

Technical Report · Thu Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1979

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6256817· OSTI ID:6256817

Bernard, D. P.

In the 20-year period 1980--2000, 433,000 acres of land in the Corn Belt are forecast to be affected by surface mining for coal. Of this land area, 122,000 acres are expected to be prime farmland, which is equivalent to 0.2% of the total regional prime farmland area. During this same period, over 3 million acres of prime farmland could be affected by urban expansion, road building, and water projects if current trends continue. Overall, the acreage of prime farmland affected by mining is significant, especially at the local level. Considering the small amount of prime farmland which has successfully been returned to crop production, the resulting challenge to reclamation specialists is large.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 6256817
• Report Number(s): DOE/TIC-10094
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010900 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Environmental Aspects
012000 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Mining
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290400 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Energy Resources
510500* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Site Resource & Use Studies-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
COAL MINING
ENERGY POLICY
FARMS
FORECASTING
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
GREAT LAKES REGION
ILLINOIS
INDIANA
IOWA
LAND RECLAMATION
LAND USE
MIDWEST REGION
MINING
MISSOURI
NATIONAL ENERGY PLAN
NORTH AMERICA
OHIO
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
SURFACE MINING
USA