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4~ schemes for surface and underground mining. The legislative history emphasizes that the differences in the nature and consequences of the two types of mining require significant differences in regulatory approach.) Congress had received ample testimony prior to the passage of the Act regarding the differences in J th the nature ar.,d consequences of the two types of coal mining. For instance, Congress was aware risks associated with undergroun significantly different from tho mining. Environmental impacts a unregulated or unreclaimed under and hydrological problems that w not observable at the surface fo Such surface consequences could problems in some cases remained unchangeable because of adverse hydrological conditions. that the types of environmental mining are, for the most part, e associated with surface sociated with (pre-SMCRA) round mines included subsidence re hidden deep underground and an unpredictably long time. e severe and long-lasting. The undamentally inaccessible or ethnological, geological and By contrast, most of the impacts,of unregulated pre-SMCRA surface mining resulted from surface activities that were more immediate and more readily observable, andthe resulting conditions were relatively accessible for reclam<<tion.,~ Congress crafted regulatory prog;l-ams in SMCRA at sections 515 and 516 to deal with the characteristic problems associated with each type of coal mining. Section 51s establishes the regulatory J See SMCRA section 516(a): The Secretary shall promulg~ite rules and regulations directed toward the surfaceleffects of underground coal mining operations.. ]?rovided, however, That in adopting any rules and~regu:lations the Secretary shall consider the distinct diffei_ence between surface coal mining and underground coal mining. ---~D-SJ.~~-§-3266 (a) . See also S1dCRA sections 516 (b) (10) and (d) ; 30 II.S.C. §§ 1266(b)(10) and (d)~. • ~ See, e.a:, H.R. Rep. No.•218,,95th Cong., 1st Sess.•59 _. (1977); S. Rep.•No. 128, 95th Coizg., 2nd Sess. 50 (1977); H.R. Rep. No. 1445, 94th Cong., 2nd•S~ass. 19 (1976),; S. Rep. No. 402, 93rd Cong., 2nd Sess. 83 (1973);;H.R.' Rep. No: 1072, 93rd Conga" 2nd Sess. 57, 108 (1974); H.12. R~~p. No.'-1462, 92nd Cong., 2d Sess. 32 (1972); 123 Cong. Rec.3083, 8154 (1977); 123 Cong. Rec. 7996 (1977); 123 Cong. Rec. 3726 (1977). See H.R. Rep. No. 1445, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 20-22 (1976).