Powell River Project
Reclamation Guidelines
for Surface-Mined Land in Southwest Virginia

Creation and Management of Productive Mine Soils

Authors: W. Lee Daniels, Associate Professor of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech; and Carl E. Zipper, Assistant Professor, Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, and Director, Powell River Project.

Publication Number 460-121, posted May 1999

Figure 2 Typical highwall-bench-outslope topography generated by surface mining before the enactment of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). Overburden removed from the mining cut was frequently bulldozed over the outslope, generating unstable slope conditions. Sandstones and siltstones dominate the geologic strata in Southwest Virginia, with shallow-lying rocks being oxidized and leached compared to deeper unweathered strata.

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