Reclamation Costs Research Articles

ENVIRONMENTAL "REMEDIATION" EXPENSES AND A NATURAL INTERPRETATION OF THE CAPITALIZATION REQUIREMENT

Discusses the income taxation of outlays for environmental restoration( or remediation). Talks about how anticipated reclamation cost will be taxed.

Coal retrieval: Underwriting reclamation costs in the British coalfields

ABSTRACT An assessment of the costs and profits incurred from retrieval of the coal bearing content of tips in the South Wales Coalfield of the United Kingdom is offered as an example of the enterprising coupling of energy profits to reclamation costs. As a necessary element of environmental stewardship, the British government has undertaken an ambitious derelict land reclamation program throughout its coalfields, where a legacy of 200 years of active coal mining has left millions of tons of coal extraction wastes in the form of sterile, obtrusive tips or slag piles. Profits from the sale of small size coal salvaged from these tips are used to underwrite the cost of moving, regrading, and initiating a vegetal cover on the remaining tip discard. Since industrial dereliction is a subject of concern to all industrial societies, this functional approach to insuring landscape costs can apply to reclamation efforts underway in coal mining areas in the United States, Western Europe and elsewhere.

Waste Minimization for Land-Based Drilling Operations

This paper discusses engineering variables that should be addressed to minimize waste-toxicity and generation while drilling land-based wells. Proper balance of these variables provides both operational and environmental benefits.

Simulating costs of flooding under alternative policies for the Sacramento‐San Joaquin River Delta

A computer model is used to simulate floods and associated annual and present value costs for California's Sacramento‐San Joaquin Delta. Empirical probability distributions of stability failure and overtopping floods for 46 islands and tracts, conditioned on water levels, are used to simulate floods. When an island floods, damage and reclamation costs are determined. The cost of levee maintenance in nonflood years is also a random variable. Multiple simulations over 50‐year periods provide means and variances of annual costs of policies of reclaiming all flooded islands or reclaiming only some of them. When discounted, the resulting present value of a future stream of these costs may be compared to costs of alternative flood prevention programs (e.g., new levees). Results show that the present value of costs over 50 years for reclaiming all islands differs little from the comparable cost of reclaiming only 13 islands and leaving other islands flooded. Under both policies the present value of costs is less than the first cost of levee projects presented by the Corps of Engineers in the early 1980s.

SUITABILITY OF COARSE-GRADE GYPSUM FOR SODIC SOIL RECLAMATION

Costs of sodic soil reclamation can be reduced when coarse-grade gypsum is used, as the production and transport prices of this gypsum are much lower than of agricultural-grade gypsum. In a feasibility study laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the leaching water requirements for five gypsum grades with different particle size distributions. Results indicated that the leaching water requirements do not differ significantly for the mixtures studied, provided that the percolation rates are low. The total time of reclamation appears to increase with increasing particle size. Different methods of application of gypsum were tested. The largest efficiency was obtained when an amount equal to the gypsum requirement was partly mixed with the soil and partly applied onto the soil surface.

The practice of “approximate original contour” in the central Appalachians. II. Economic and environmental consequences of an alternative

Coal surface mining has had profound effects on the steeply sloping central Appalachian (U.S.A.) landscape since the early 1950s. The “shoot-and-shove” mining practices of past years resulted in a number of environmental problems. A federal law, The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA), was passed to rectify these problems. A major provision of SMCRA is its requirement that mined lands be returned to “approximate original contour” (AOC). SMCRA has brought vast improvements in reclamation practice to central Appalachia. However, the return of surface mined lands to AOC remains highly controversial, as many criticize the environmental, economic, and land-use effects of AOC. An alternative to conventional contour surface mining (AOC) was investigated at an experimental mining site in Wise County, Virginia. The terrain at this site is the steeply sloping “points and hollows” topography commonly found throughout the central Appalachian coalfields, and the equipment utilized was typical of haul-back mining operations throughout the region. This experimental alternative allowed all highwalls to be covered and all SMCRA performance standards (except AOC) to be met. A detailed investigation of the cost of mining and reclamation indicates that the experimental reclamation method was less costly than conventional AOC reclamation at this site. Additional favorable consequences result from implementation of the alternative method, including an improvement of the post-mining land-use potential and less-injurious environmental effects. Although AOC represents a vast improvement over the reclamation methods which preceded SMCRA, additional improvements are possible; opportunities to improve the economic and environmental consequences of coal surface mining in central Appalachia are not being realized under the prevailing AOC reclamation regime.

THE NEED FOR FEDERAL OVERSIGHT OF ALTERNATIVE BOND SYSTEMS UNDER SMCRA

The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) requires mine operators to post reclamation bonds before mining begins. The Federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) has approved alternative bond systems in seven states. These systems, rather than requiring bond amounts at the full cost of reclamation, require operators t o submit only a flat rate, acreage specific bond. Additional reclamation costs should be covered by a supplemental fund composed generally of permit fees, taxes, or penalties.In many cases, alternative bond systems fail to ensure that funds will be available to reclaim coal mined land in the event of operator default, as required by SMCRA. OSMRE needs to take a more active role in oversight of existing state alternative bond systems to ensure that reclamation occurs.

Characteristics and management of tin mine tailings in Thailand

Summary Soil characteristics of tin mine tailings are generally low fertility and unfavourable physical conditions for supporting plant growth resulting from heavy disturbance during tin mining. Management of the tailings for further uses may be dependent upon the ownership of the tailing land. Attempts to utilize the tailings for agricultural use through experiments and trials have been made by the Tin Mine Spoil Research Station among others. These included forest tree planting, growing of agricultural crops and improvement of the soil by several methods to elevate the fertility status and create a more favourable condition for plant growth. Successful methods consist of chemical fertilizer either used directly or by mixing with manure and other materials that are likely to improve the physical properties of tailings and ameliorate toxic conditions. There is still not large-scale application of the research findings due to difficulties in initial improvement of the topographic condition of the tailings and the economic situation of the owner. Future studies on mine tailings aim at lowering the cost of reclamation by using locally available materials to improve both physical and chemical conditions through the recycling of organic wastes and to improve planting methods so as to gain more plant production.

The use of waste derived fuels for energy supply in underdeveloped areas in south africa

The growing depositories of fine and discard coal, produced as a result of increasing beneficiation practice, as well as the problems associated with the disposal of timber and agricultural residues, have prompted an investigation of their use as briquetted and pelletized fuels for domestic application. More specifically, the viability of introducing such reconstituted fuels into areas of South Africa which have no access to electricity, and rely principally on fuelwood for energy supply, is assessed. The contribution which high calorific value reconstituted fuels could make to national energy supply is estimated at 224 peta joules (PJ) per annum, or roughly 10 per cent of total demand. This is in excess of 80 per cent of current consumption within underdeveloped areas and is equal to total fuelwood consumption. The cost of producing reconstituted fuels, at centralized facilities, is estimated for a number of processes, including coal briquetting with, and without, the addition of binding agents, extrusion of a coal/paper composite, and extrusion of wood waste. Their overall economic viability is assessed for eleven communities which are thought to cover the range of settlement patterns within the underdeveloed sector. If waste coal is made available at a price proportional to the cost of disposal and reclamation, rather than one linked to its inherent energy value, then, in most cases, the minimum ‘as delivered’ price of the waste derived fuel product is less than current energy expenditure. It is felt that the introduction of reconstituted fuels into the underdeveloped sector would be favourably met, particularly where it is seen to offer a clean burning alternative to current practice. Areas which produce high quality discard coal are identified, and its use discussed as part of a strategy for implementing a ‘waste-to-energy’ scheme. It is stressed that energy shortages in underdeveloped areas are largely the result of the existing socio-political order, and that a national energy programme should consider the introduction of reconstituted fuels as only one, short-term, way to ameliorate this situation.

Storage reclamation in object oriented database systems

When providing data management for nontraditional data, database systems encounter storage reclamation problems similar to those encountered by virtual memory managers. The paging behavior of existing automatic storage reclamation schemes as applied to objects stored in a database management system is one indicator of the performance cost of various features of storage reclamation algorithms. The results of modeling the paging behavior suggest that Mark and Sweep causes many more input/output operations than Copy-Compact. A contributing factor to the expense of Mark and Sweep is that it does not recluster memory as does Copy-Compact. If memory is not reclustered, the average cost of accessing data can go up tremendously. Other algorithms that do not recluster memory also suffer performance problems, namely all reference counting schemes. The main advantage of a reference count scheme is that it does not force a running program to pause for a long period of time while reclamation takes place, it amortizes the cost of reclamation across all accesses. The reclustering of Copy-Compact and the cost amortization of Reference Count are combined to great advantage in Baker's algorithm. This algorithm proves to be the least prohibitive for operating on disk-based data.

Economics of Stony Land Reclamation for Crop Production in South-Western Quebec

Linear programming model is used to investigate the economic feasibility of utilizing stony lands for crop production in South-Western Quebec where stoniness is the major constraint. Results for the representative farms indicate that income variations are due to economies of size, differences in crop yields (experimental or farm level) and type of reclamation method used. The market values for stony lands (determined by regression technique) are higher compared with the productive values. Analysis also indicates that crop production is feasible within the parameters defined and that it is more economical to develop unutilized stony land rather than purchase prime agricultural land at current market prices. Parametric programming procedures indicate that the solutions are more sensitive to crop yields and prices than reclamation costs.

Mill Tailings: Reclamation Costs

Mill Tailings: Reclamation Costs

Mill Tailings: Reclamation Costs

Mill Tailings: Reclamation Costs

Mill Tailings: Reclamation Costs

Mill Tailings: Reclamation Costs

The reclamation of derelict land for agriculture: Technical, economic and land-use planning issues

The paper focusses on the reclamation of derelict land for agriculture with particular reference to colliery spoil schemes in North West England. After outlining Government policy on land reclamation, it gives detail of the progress made in reclamation and the after-uses identified on reclaimed land. The paper goes on to discuss the technical problems of reclaiming derelict land and assesses its agricultural potential. It then considers the factors which affect the agricultural management of reclaimed land, including site design, farm structure and urban-fringe problems. Future trends in reclamation are examined, as influenced by recent changes in Government grant schemes and in the nature of derelict land itself (an increase in urban dereliction and a decline in the relative importance of colliery sites). Alternatives to current land uses on reclamation sites and possible changes in the technical approach to reclamation are briefly discussed. The paper concludes that, judged in purely economic terms, the costs of agricultural reclamation are very high in comparison to the output and employment generated by such schemes. However, it is pointed out that most schemes have been designed to achieve an environmental rather than an economic impact. It is considered that the main benefit of reclamation schemes to agriculture is attained not by farming reclaimed land, but by using it for housing, industrial and other “hard” after-uses and so reducing the amount of good-quality farmland lost to development. There are some hopeful signs in this respect.

Y a-t-il une solution à la crise alimentaire soviétique ?

Is there a solution for the Soviet food crisis ? The article examines the costs and effects of the new Soviet land reclamation program announced in October 1984. According to this program, by the year 2000, another 20 million hectares of irrigated land should be added to the current 33 million hectares. As a result, the total reclaimed lands should produce 50 % of the value of all Soviet crops. Since most of the crops produced on these lands are cotton, vegetables, fruits and grapes, all highly priced products, their current output value amounts to 34 % of all Soviet crops. A further increase in output value would not add significantly to the Soviet food and livestock feed problem. The reason is that only 8.7 % of the total Soviet grain production are received from irrigated land and new land addition would not add more than 17 million metric tons of grain per year, while the average domestic shortage has been running to 65 million metric tons per year. Given the costs of reclamation, the returns are assessed to be negative to date and slightly positive by the middle of the next century. At the current reclamation cost of 7,000 rubles per hectare the Soviets could improve their agricultural situation by opting for a simpler program, such as timely harvesting on existing arable lands. As for now, their dependence on imported grain will be increasing and their hard currency situation deteriorating.

The optimization of coal mine production schedules using linear programming: An example that determines the effects of reclamation costs and interest rates

Reclamation expenditure on coal mine properties is now a fundamental business expense for that industry. A mine owner or manager will attempt to keep this expense to a minimum subject to a given level of production. One of the most important variables that can be manipulated to help keep costs down is the production schedule. Production schedules can be shifted forward or backward depending on the current economic situation. A common method of determining optimal production schedules is to utilize a linear-programming model. These models simultaneously take into account all the variables associated with a project so that an optimal production schedule can be derived. This study involves work with a computerized linear-programming model to examine how optimal production schedules will change for a typical small coal mine due to reclamation requirements and a variable discount rate. The purpose of this paper is: (1) to demonstrate how linear programming can be used to incorporate nonlinear relationships in a profit maximization problem involving mining; (2) to show how, through the use of a heuristic model involving reclamation cost requirements, linear programming can contribute worthwhile information to the mine planner; and (3) to examine how interest rates can (a) be used to estimate future uncertainty, and (b) be used as a policy tool to promote conservation.

Coal Surface Mine Land Reclamation Costs

A model consistent with economic principles is developed to estimate the cost of land reclamation associated with large-scale surface mining. Past efforts to determine these costs have been undervalued and inconsistent because of inadequate or questionable data. The mine simulation model used estimates costs at $6500 to $8000 per acre (1980$), which is higher than previous estimates because indirect costs are also included. Factors which affect the cost include taxes and royalties, equipment selection and size, labor, and topsoiling and grading. 28 references, 3 figures, 5 tables.

Implementation of US Surface Mine and Reclamation Act

The US Congress is currently studying various ways through which legislation similar to that of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977— which is concerned mainly with coal, can be applied to all minerals other than coal. This study analyses three US mineral industries—copper, iron ore, and phosphate rock - and identifies a number of areas which Congress and other decision makers ought to consider in arriving at such legislation. The author concludes that reclamation costs may affect the economic and financial performance of each of these industries in a different manner; furthermore, their economic behaviour is significantly different from that of coal. The author's main recommendation is that if surface mining regulations are to be legislated, they should be industry- and commodity-specific rather than umbrella legislation for all non-coal minerals.

Geologic Framework for Development, Production, and Reclamation of Coal Properties: ABSTRACT

Today, geology plays an increasingly important role in the development, production, and reclamation of coal properties. The geologic framework of a property is defined by geologic mapping, drilling, logging samples, downhole geophysics, correlation of lithologic units, and review of laboratory analyses. These activities form a data base which is needed by the mine design engineer, the development and production engineers, and the reclamation specialist. A detailed surface geologic map will be of use throughout the life of a coal mine. This map can best be prepared (after preliminary photogeology) by field mapping, which includes measuring sections and defining structure and stratigraphy. The identification of lithologic units and determination of their engineering characteristics are important because they bear a relation to excavation and slope stability in surface mines, and to roof, pillar, and floor stability in underground mines. A typical drilling program includes rotary, spot-core, and full-core drilling, geophysical logging, and sample logging. Bulk sampling of coal for physical testing can End_Page 727------------------------------ be acquired by open-cut, adit, or test drilling. Core logging is particularly important for determination of the engineering characteristics of rocks. Structure-contour, isopach, overburden, and interburden maps are required in mine design, and ultimately in mine development. Reclamation requires determinations of overburden and interburden chemistry. Cost and time advantages result if hydrologic and soils/rock quality data are collected early, thereby saving time in the permitting process, and reducing the ultimate cost of reclamation. End_of_Article - Last_Page 728------------