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By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ERNEST, Pa. — The humpy, lumpy piles of waste rock and soil on Amerikohl Mining Inc.’s reclaimed, 150-acre Ernest No. 5 surface mine look like big moguls on an otherwise smooth and well-groomed ski slope.

The hillocky 3-acre plot in Indiana County appears rough and unfinished, sitting in the middle of the gently graded grassland. Neighboring rural property owners, accustomed to the smooth landscapes created on surface mine reclamation sites throughout the state since the 1970s, have said the same since the piles were dumped from the back gates of Amerikohl’s 50-ton rock trucks this spring.

But in the tight creases between the 7-foot-tall mounds a new way to reclaim surface mined land is taking root.   full story