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Thomas A. Colbert Page 9 <br /> ever more demanding requirements for regulatory compliance. But more than a few <br /> such requirements have ironically been the result of innovations developed from <br /> within the industry—examples of the"now that they can do it we can require it" <br /> regulatory syndrome. <br /> The old argument that the government could never require the industry to spend <br /> thousands of dollars per acre to reclaim land that was worth only hundreds of <br /> dollars per acre is little remembered. That argument was mainstream thinking at the <br /> time the mining industry was dragged into the Age of Environmental Regulation in <br /> the 1970s. Now it is necessary for the industry to prepare itself for a new wave of <br /> regulatory requirements in the form of more stringent ground and surface water <br /> quality performance standards(including testing of discharge waters for biological <br /> toxicity), and the regulation of mining wastes under something akin to Strawman <br /> II. <br /> Under Strawman H,the control of acid forming materials will become much more <br /> critical in reclaiming mined areas. In general,treatments which are being tried at <br /> various projects such as lime,fly ash,kiln dust,calcareous sludges and the like <br /> represent temporary fixes at least. Unless the process of acid formation is halted, <br /> permanent control cannot be achieved At this point the ProMac technology of <br /> BFGoodrich appears to be the most promising method to achieve this kind of <br /> control. <br />