![](media/image1.jpeg){width="7.5in" height="1.625in"}Date: March 2,
2007 Contact: Ben Owens

For immediate release (202) 208-2565

> <Bowens@osmre.gov>

**OSM Issues New Rule for Coal Mining in Tennessee**

(Washington DC) -- The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement (OSM) is publishing a final rule that will give greater
financial strength to Tennessee's mine reclamation program and promote
better tree growth on previously forested areas.

The final rule will provide additional options for bond coverage for
Tennessee coal mine operators, by allowing operators to create trust
funds or purchase annuities to pay for the treatment of discharges
commonly referred to as acid mine drainage

Before coal mining permits are issued, operators must submit hydrologic
reclamation plans showing how water discharges from the mined area will
meet water quality standards. In the rare cases where they fail to meet
water quality standards, operators must make monetary guarantees
ensuring there will be funding to pay for treatment if unanticipated
pollution is created.

Under current rules, OSM requires operators to have surety bonds, which
are often bought through insurers. Coverage is set at purchase. If
unexpected pollution does occur, the cost of cleanup is often very high
and can last for years raising the possibility of costs outstripping the
bond level set several years earlier. By allowing operators to
substitute interest-bearing annuities and trust funds, OSM expects to
create a more reliable reserve of cleanup funds that will be less
affected by inflation. These financing mechanisms will be managed by a
third-party financial expert and will name OSM as the beneficiary.

The final rule also revises the revegetation success standards for
certain post-mining land uses in Tennessee. This revision is based on a
decade's research by scientists at the University of Kentucky, Virginia
Tech, West Virginia University, and other universities from across the
country.

The previous standards produced reclaimed mines with dense grasses that
competed with trees for nutrients, sunlight and water. As a result, any
trees planted on these sites usually did not survive and if they did,
their growth was severely stunted. OSM\'s revised revegetation
requirements for sites with a postmining land use of wildlife habitat,
undeveloped land, recreation, or forestry will make it easier to
reestablish the forests that existed prior to mining.

"It\'s our hope that the revised revegetation standards, combined with
our reforestation initiatives, will promote the restoration of mined
lands to the kind of healthy, thriving and diverse landscapes that
existed before mining took place," said Brent Wahlquist, Acting Director
of OSM.

Researchers have determined that revegetation levels at current levels
are far too high to allow for successful tree survival and growth. They
have demonstrated that planting tree seedlings in lose or lightly graded
material, including rough and rocky spoil with little or no groundcover,
produces survival and growth rates that exceed tree growth on un-mined
lands. Reduced grading also increases infiltration, while storm runoff
and sedimentation are decreased. These factors will lead to reduced
erosion.

Leveraging these research discoveries, the final rule requires a
standard specifically geared to the unique characteristics of each mine
site and to the proposed post-mining land use. The modified revegetation
requirements apply only to sites with a post-mining use requiring the
planting of trees such as wildlife habitat, undeveloped land,
recreation, or forestry. In all cases, the required revegetation must
control erosion on the site.

-OSM-