Figure 21: Types of AOC Variances Approved in Kentucky, 1970–2008 for Surface Coal Mining: Characteristics of Mining in Mountainous Areas of Kentucky and West Virginia

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GAO

United States Government Accountability Office

Report to Congressional Requesters

SURFACE COALMININGCharacteristics of Mining inMountainous Areas of Kentucky andWest Virginia

December 2009GAO-10-21

What GAO Found

United States Government Accountability Office

Why GAO Did This Study

H

ighlights

Accountability Integrity Reliability

December 2009

SURFACE COAL MINING

Characteri

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tic

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of Minin

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in Mountainou

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Area

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ofKentucky and We

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Highlights ofGAO-10-21, a report tocongressional requesters

Surface coal mining in themountainous areas of Appalachia—often called “mountaintopmining”—generates controversy, in part because of its scale and the post-mining appearance of theland. Yet there is limited publicaccess to information on the size,location, and life span of theseoperations, or on how the land canbe expected to look afterward.GAO was asked to report on thecharacteristics of (1) surface coalmining and (2) reclaimed lands thatwere disturbed by surface coalmining in the mountainous, eastern part of Kentucky and in West Virginia, where most such miningoccurs.Federal and state law requiresmining operators to obtain permitsbefore mining. Among otherthings, the permits identify theacres under open permit (the acressubject to mining associated with a permit that has not been closed)and how the land will bereclaimed—including the post-mining land use, whether theapproximate original contour(AOC) of the land will be restored,and the extent to which excessearth, rock, and other materials(known as “spoil”) are placed innearby valleys. For this study, GAOrelied on electronic databases of mining permits maintained byKentucky and West Virginia. Thisreport makes no recommendations.In commenting on a draft of thisreport, the Department of theInterior and the two state miningagencies generally agreed with ourfindings.

Surface coal mining in Kentucky and West Virginia had the followingimportant characteristics, based on permits issued from January 1990 through July 2008:

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The number of acres under open permit increased by an average annualrate of 2.2 percent in Kentucky and 1.7 percent in West Virginia.

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The number of acres under open permit became more geographicallyconcentrated.

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The length of time that permits were open varied from less than a year tomore than 18 years.

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In West Virginia, 28 contiguously permitted areas contained nearly half of the permitted acres, as of July 2008.Reclaimed lands had the following important characteristics, based on permits issued from January 2000 through July 2008:

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The most common type of post-mining land use in Kentucky was fish andwildlife habitat and, in West Virginia, it was forestland.

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Most permits required operators to reclaim the land to AOC, but therewere some exceptions (called variances). Most of the variances were forlands where there was insufficient spoil to restore AOC because the landhad been previously mined but not reclaimed.

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Kentucky and West Virginia collectively approved nearly 2,000 fills tostore at least 4.9 billion cubic yards of excess spoil in nearby valleys.

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View GAO-10-21 or key components. For more information, contact Robin Nazzaroat (202) 512-3841 ornazzaror@gao.gov.

Page i GAO-10-21

Contents

Letter

1

Background 4 Characteristics of Surface Coal Mining in Mountainous Areas inKentucky and West Virginia 8Characteristics of Reclaimed Lands That Were Disturbed bySurface Coal Mining in Mountainous Areas of Kentucky andWest Virginia 29 Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 62

Appendix I Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Appendix II Comments from the Department of the Interior

Appendix III Comments from the Kentucky Department forNatural Resources

Appendix IV Comments from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection

Appendix V GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

Tables

Table 1: Coal Production from Surface Mines in Select States andRegions, 2008 6Table 2: The 10 Counties in Kentucky with the Largest Number of Open Acres in July 2008 and the Number of Open Acres inThose Counties in 1990 20Table 3: The 10 Counties in West Virginia with the Largest Numberof Open Acres in July 2008 and the Number of Open Acresin Those Counties in 1990 22

Surface Coal Mining

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