Media Advisory

OSM TO COMMEMORATE 25TH ANNIVERSARY
  OF SURFACE MINING CONTROL & RECLAMATION ACT

OSM was created by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977--the first federal law to regulate the environmental effects of strip mining and to require the reclamation of land and water damaged by coal mining. The act also created a fund to correct health and safety problems through reclamation of abandoned mines.

In the past twenty-five years, more than 180,000 acres of pre-1977 abandoned mine lands have been restored to productive use, more than 493 miles of acid mine drainage polluted streams have been reclaimed, and more than 2.5 million linear feet of dangerous cliff-like high walls have been eliminated.

A regional airport in Kentucky -- baseball fields, a golf course and an industrial park in West Virginia -- prime farmland in Illinois -- are all examples of post mining land development that are in use benefitting people across the nation because of SMCRA.

            Who: The Office of Surface Mining

            What: 25th Anniversary Commemoration of the signing of The Surface Mining Control and
                       Reclamation Act 

             When: Thursday, August 1, 2002
                         10:00 a.m. (EDT)  

             Where: South Interior Building 1951  
                          Constitution Ave. N.W.
                          Washington, D.C.

- DOI -

U.S. Department of the Interior