It was years in the making – but about 175 acres of land used for coal mining at the Falkirk mine near Underwood will be released from reclamation bonding requirements.
Two tracts of land southwest of Underwood are involved. They were mined in the early 1980s.
Public Service Commissioner Randy Christmann says it shows that reclamation takes time – and it should take time.
"They reclaim this land, get subsoil back and on the farmland that's going to be cropped, they actually first plant alfalfa for hay for a number of years, the break that up and go into crop production," said Christmann. "There's years of crop production records."
Christmann says to neighbors, it seems like it has taken a long time to get to this point.
"Yet, it's an important part of the process that we have all the data necessary to show that the land is, in fact, good productive land again before we release the bond," said Christmann.
The PSC’s action means Falkirk’s reclamation bond will be released in January.