Environment: The Price of Strip Mining

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The most likely answer is new legislation to enforce reclamation. Some environmentalists point to laws in parts of Europe that make strip miners restore the land to the condition in which they found it—with rocks and subsoil below and topsoil above, all limed, re-seeded and fertilized. Such procedures in the U.S. would cost more per acre (at least $2,000) than an acre of prime mining land. Even so, President Nixon has already asked Congress to pass a bill that would at least make a dent in the problem—and consumers' pocketbooks. It would impose federal standards on states that refused to draw up adequate strip mining laws in two years. The regulations would be designed to "prevent or substantially reduce" water pollution, landslides, fires and "hazards to public health and safety." The cost of protecting the environment around strip mines would be passed on to coal consumers. But given the alternative of land ruined for all uses for decades, the price does not seem too high.