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ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF THE SURFACE MINING CONTROL AND RECLAMATION ACT
Author(s) -
Desai Uday
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1989.tb01025.x
Subject(s) - land reclamation , surface mining , dozen , coal , coal mining , control (management) , political science , mining engineering , environmental planning , business , environmental science , engineering , economics , geography , waste management , management , archaeology , arithmetic , mathematics
Even a dozen years since the passage of the Surface Mining. Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) there is little agreement on how well i t has worked. The paper attempts to assess the impacts of SMCRA in six major surface coal producing states. Although i t is not possible to make an unqualified overall national assessment, the evidence presented in the paper indicates that in many (but by no means all) cases, surface coal mining is now carried out in environmentally less destructive ways then before the Act. However, the accomplishments have fallen far short of expectations. The situation in some states has gotten worse than before the Act. Overall, the impact of the Act on the ground has been mixed and has depended on the rigor with which the Act has been implemented in individual coal states.