Reclamation in the Bluegrass State

摘要

Since the mid-19~(th) century, Kentucky has been the site of significant coal mining and miners have extracted billions of tonnes of coal from the regions of eastern and western KENTUCKY. Underground mining was the prevailing mining technique until the 1950s, when the availability of large scale excavation and transportation equipment surface mining more productive. This mining revolution brought both boon times and environmental devastations. Where, previously, little reclamation has been required, the introduction of surface mining resulted in flooding, erosion, landslides, water pollution and a general degradation in the quality of life in those communities.