Preliminary overview of current nation-wide research activities related to surface mine land reclamation
A total of five federal agencies and departments are funding reclamation research associated with understanding the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the surface mining of coal. Each organization, depending upon its preconceived mission, approaches the funding from a slightly different direction. While much of the current reclamation research is addressing interesting and real site-specific problems, almost all of it has been initiated without a comprehensive national research plan. Duplication and overlap, disorganization, aggravation, and poor coordination are common faults. There is a strong belief that no one in the government is cognizant of the total reclamation research effort. There does not exist a clear statement of the problems in a regional or national context. It is impossible even to obtain a good estimate regarding the amount of land disturbed each year by surface coal mining. Also, extraction practices of uranium, oil shale, and other mineral mining require closer scrutiny to determine the research efforts required to minimize environmental, health and socio-economic impacts. There is a need to develop a coherent national program that can begin to piece together the patchwork efforts currently underway and identify the information needed to plan and implement a national land reclamation program that can assess the environmental impacts of coal development and provide cost-effective techniques for reclaiming and rehabilitating mined land to productive end use. Much of the past and current research information has not been transferred from the researcher to the user. Therefore, in many instances programs are being initiated to gather information that has already been developed. Any effort that does not assign the highest priority to the transfer of research data to the user is useless. Separate abstracts were prepared for two included reports.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31-109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 6572645
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/LRP-TM-4
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Staunton 1 Reclamation Demonstration Project. Progress report for 1977
Land reclamation program annual report, 1978
Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
LAND RECLAMATION
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
REVIEWS
SURFACE MINING
COAL MINING
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
USA
DOCUMENT TYPES
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
MINING
NORTH AMERICA
010900* - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Environmental Aspects
012000 - Coal
Lignite
& Peat- Mining
510500 - Environment
Terrestrial- Site Resource & Use Studies- (-1989)