Surface mining before 1950

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National Mining Association estimate

The National Mining Association has published a historical table of bituminous coal mining (including sub-bituminous and lignite production), including share of mining produced by "stripping." According to the table (citing data from the now-defunct U.S. Bureau of Mines), data on surface mining is not available prior to 1914. In 1914, 0.3% of bituminous coal was produced by "stripping." Surface mining reached 1% of bituminous production in 1917, and it first exceeded 10% of production in 1941.

The following table shows the growth of surface mining as a percentage of bituminous (including sub-bituminous and lignite) production, and by total tonnage from 1917-1971. The table does not include anthracite production. (Note: The last column, "Acres," is not provided in the National Mining Association table. It is based on the estimate that approximately 200 acres are disturbed per million tons of coal produced.)

Year	Production	Surface mined	Surface mined	Area disturbed
	(million tons)	(percent)	(million tons)	(acres)
______________	________________	_________________	_________________	________________
1914	423	0.3%	1.3	254
1915	443	0.6%	2.7	532
1916	503	0.8%	4.0	805
1917	552	1.0%	5.5	1,104
1918	579	1.4%	8.1	1,621
1919	466	1.2%	5.6	1,118
1920	569	1.5%	8.5	1,707
1921	416	1.2%	5.0	998
1922	422	2.4%	10.1	2,026
1923	565	2.1%	11.9	2,373
1924	484	2.8%	13.6	2,710
1925	520	3.2%	16.6	3,328
1926	573	3.0%	17.2	3,438
1927	518	3.6%	18.6	3,730
1928	501	4.0%	20.0	4,008
1929	535	3.8%	20.3	4,066
1930	468	4.3%	20.1	4,025
1931	382	5.0%	19.1	3,820
1932	310	6.3%	19.5	3,906
1933	334	5.5%	18.4	3,674
1934	359	5.8%	20.8	4,164
1935	372	6.4%	23.8	4,762
1936	439	6.4%	28.1	5,619
1937	446	7.1%	31.7	6,333
1938	349	8.7%	30.4	6,073
1939	395	9.6%	37.9	7,584
1940	461	9.4%	43.3	8,667
1941	514	10.7%	55.0	11,000
1942	583	11.5%	67.0	13,409
1943	590	13.5%	79.7	15,930
1944	620	16.3%	101.1	20,212
1945	578	19.0%	109.8	21,964
1946	534	21.1%	112.7	22,535
1947	631	22.1%	139.5	27,890
1948	600	23.3%	139.8	27,960
Total	17,034	7.4%	1,266.7	253,344

Catelett/Boehlje estimate

In 1979, Lowell Catlett of New Mexico State University and Michael Boehlje of Iowa State University published estimates of the impact of the new Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. The study reported from 1870 to 1930 more than 1.3 billion tons of coal were mined and roughly 250,000 acres were disturbed. This is a significantly larger amount of land than is implied by the National Mining Association data shown in the table above, which shows most surface mining occurring after 1930. In the period 1930-1971, Catlett and Boehlje state that 3,357,000 acres of land were disturbed by surface mining. The authors do not provide a source for their data.

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Mountaintop removal
• Estimating the amount of land disturbed by coal mining
• Surface mining after 1950