GAO Suggests Superfund As Means Of Addressing Mountaintop Mining

On February 16 the General Accounting Office released Surface Coal Mining: Financial Assurances for, and Long-Term Oversight of, Mines With Valley Fills in Four Appalachian States. In it, the GAO observes that there are laws other than the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) that might be used to monitor the long term effects of surface mining. One of those federal acts is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), or Superfund. Over the years Superfund has caused many industrial companies to engage in extremely costly remediations, and the thought of applying that Act to coal mines sends shivers down the spines of those in the industry.