(a) The Alabama Legislature has found and determined the following:
- (1) A 1991 United States Department of the Interior audit report warned that the Non-Fuel Minerals Mining Law of Alabama is outdated and that mine operators are deliberately laying waste to mined land rather than restoring it.
- (2) The standards for coal mining reclamation have improved dramatically over the last 25 years.
- (3) The citizens of Alabama are endangered by unreclaimed highwalls, water impoundments, and open pits.
- (b) In view of these findings, the Legislature deems it necessary to deny the issuance of surface mine permits to operators who have demonstrated a pattern of willfully violating the mining law, and to improve environmental controls by requiring that highwalls be backfilled after mining.
(Act 99-579, p. 1307, §1.)