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[Mr. Ripley]

Mercer County has many strip mines, and I am sure that these sites are somewhat less than clean, but I have to wonder about this.

Not terribly far from where I live is a prime example of one of these sites. Over time the strip mine fills with water. Trees grow around the mine creating a nice little lake like environment, complete with birds, deer and a variety of woodland creatures. At some point some enterprising individual introduces a few fish into the water and they thrive. I have caught and released a few of these fish, and have enjoyed sitting in my canoe on the calm waters of this mine.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=16137&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.90509,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Mercer,+Pennsylvania+16137&ll=41.170619,-80.176227&spn=0.004167,0.009645&t=h&z=17

All spring and summer I have watched the EPA destroy this area. They came in like gangbusters and cut down the woods and chipped all of the trees into mulch. They set up pumps to pump the water to who knows where and have progressively leveled the nice, hilly area and have actually succeeded in filling in this mine.

A friend of mine who works for the state says that there is some law that there must be a reclamation attempt on these types of sites within X amount of years. I guess it makes sense, it is just that in this case it was so damned unnecessary. The EPA by name is designed to protect the environment, but I can't help but wonder how many environments and ecosystems they eliminated in this place to make a flat lifeless plot of land.

How many Fed tax dollars do you think it would cost to fill in a forty foot deep quarter mile long hole in the earth anyhow?

Had to get that off of my chest.

Mr R

[Amidala]

I thought the mining companies were supposed to do the reclamation...