Word: rheinbraun
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There is a hitch, however. Under tough companion legislation passed in 1950 by the state government of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinbraun is required to reimburse the displaced residents for the property they have lost and to restore the exploited lands to a reasonable approximation of their original state. In the Triangle, this has meant shifting thousands of acres of fertile soil, constructing networks of drainage pipes to pump out millions of gallons of water from the damp lignite, replanting and landscaping great tracts and helping resettle the people...
...Rheinbraun has apparently been more than equal to the task. As of the end of 1977, it had mined 67 sq. mi., resurfaced two-thirds of this terrain, created 45 lakes and ponds from the excess water, planted 13,500 acres of new forests, reclaimed some 12,000 acres for farming and resettled 20,000 people. The company has also been profitably exporting its know-how to other countries, including...
...recently, a growing concern about the safety of nuclear power. As a result, West Germany, like the U.S., has turned increasingly to coal as its ace in the hole. The nation now relies on brown coal for 30% of its electrical power and 25% of its home heating needs. Rheinbraun alone has already dug seven open-pit mines, including the world's largest: the Fortuna-Garsdorf pit, which measures roughly 1.2 miles across and about 820 ft. deep. In October it began preliminary excavation at the giant 32-sq.-mi. Hambach site, parts of which will be gouged more...
...usual, Rheinbraun's resettlement teams have been at work well in advance of the company's Krupp-built Bagger, monstrous earth removers that are two football fields long, four stories high, and can chew up 200,000 tons of earth in a day. The Hambach pit (named after a nearby village) will mean the loss of four communities with a total population of about 10,000. A number of villagers are vocal about the loss of their homes and what they consider inadequate compensation offers by Rheinbraun. Says Gerhard Heyden, a schoolteacher in the doomed town of Lichsteinstrass...
...than most to be satisfied. Though Kaster is perched atop millions of tons of brown gold, the town won landmark status in the mid-1950s because most of its structures date from the 16th century. Under West German practice, that means Kaster probably need never fear the onslaught of Rheinbraun's omnivorous Bagger...