This government document, produced by the EPA is an amendment to the West Virginia Regulatory Program under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. The amendment includes changes to West Virginia's regulations for mountaintop removal practices, making mountaintop removal practices more consequential for the coal industry. Some of the stipulations include restoring destroyed land and receiving proper documentation from landowners for permission to mine. This document would be very useful to researchers because it's pretty much the "meat and potatoes" of how environmental activist groups are fighting the coal industry. The document is legal proof of where the coal industry, environmental groups and the government stand. Reviewing this document not only provides the researcher with the laws in place for coal miners to follow, but how they have broken those rules in their practices.
U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service. (2005). Land Reclamation Toxic Discharge Control. (No.) Code 455.
This government document, produced by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, pertains to the control of acid or otherwise toxic, aqueous discharge from abandoned coal mines or waste produced from coal strip mining practices. The purpose of the stipulation is to improve water quality and other destructive consequences of coal strip mining and mountaintop removal methods. The document outlines how these regulations will be implemented and what they will entail for the coal industry. This document would be useful to a researcher because it allows the researcher to see more affects of mountaintop removal, specifically with water quality, and can see where government agencies, like the Natural Resources Conservation Service have entered the battle against mountaintop removal. Documents like these not only give the researcher a sense of the legal processes behind environmental battles, but more of a knowledge and familiarity with the government agencies that initiate the laws and codes.
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