The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will host the annual Surface Mine Reclamation Workshop on Oct. 5-7 at the Best Western Premier, 1920 Austin’s Colony Parkway, Bryan.
The event is planned by industry reclamation personnel and will be specific to Texas mining conditions related to lignite, uranium, clay and aggregates.
The registration fee is $110, with registration requested by Sept. 19. A $22 late registration fee will be applied after that date. Register at https://tx.ag/SurfaceMineReclamation.
Opening the program will be Jake Mowrer, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension soil nutrient and water resource management specialist and associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, and Dan Hale, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension associate director for agriculture and natural resources.
Speakers will highlight recent reclamation research conducted by universities, government agencies and industry.
According to workshop coordinators, most of the research presented is applied research and should be adapted to field reclamation usage where applicable.
Background on workshop
This workshop came about as a result of the passing of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. Between 1977 and 1980, the industry, along with Texas A&M AgriLife Research and AgriLife Extension personnel who worked with reclamation, brought coal mining and reclamation players together to discuss reclamation processes and their advantages and disadvantages.
The primary mining in Texas is for lignite, a young coal. Depending on the price of natural gas, about 25-45% of electricity in Texas comes from coal. Of that, about 75% comes from Texas lignite and 25% from coal mined from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming.
For more information concerning the workshop, contact Alisa Hairston at 979-845-0884 or alisa.hairston@ag.tamu.edu.
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