Environmentalists seek legislation extension
SALTLICK TWP. – The U.S. Congress is being called upon by local environmentalists to extend 25-year-old legislation and revise funding procedures for the restoration of abandoned mine sites and water quality in communities that have provided the natural resource for nearly two centuries. “At the rate Pennsylvania is currently receiving abandoned mine funds, it will take over 105 years just to clean up the sites that directly endanger residents’ health and safety,” said Beverly Braverman, executive director of the Mountain Watershed Association (MWA). “We don’t have 105 years. The supply of clean, reliable water is growing critical with population growth and the tax provide the fund is due to expire in 2004.”
The MWA, along with Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers (POWR), Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation hosted a press conference on Monday to convey the need to congressional representatives for the extension of the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund and a change in how it is distributed to states needing reclamation work.
A simultaneous press conference with other organizations also took place in the eastern portion of the state.
The local conference was held on a previously mined property where federal funding is being used to divert water from an abandoned deep mine to newly constructed ponds.
The first phase of the project will alleviate basement flooding incurred by several homes in the area that has been caused by the mine pool water. The second phase will be the installation of a treatment facility for acid mine discharges in the area.
The U.S. Department of the Interior oversees the reclamation fund that was established in 1977 to assist in reclaiming land and waterways to their pre-mining conditions.
Income to the fund is derived from active mining operations. The 1977 legislation requires coal operators to pay 35 cents per ton of coal that is extracted while deep mining production is charged 10 cents per ton.
Collection to the fund is set to expire in September 2004, leaving many communities that depend on the federal dollars to wonder how they will be able to clean up the abandoned sites.
“These dangerous sites are often located in the most economically depressed areas of our nation,” said Michael Murphy, MWA president. “Cities and towns thrived during the mining heyday, but often became abandoned ghost towns or impoverished communities when mining activities slowed or were halted.”
To date, estimates Murphy, only 40 percent of the abandoned mine sites across the U.S. have been reclaimed.
With the clock ticking on the existence of the reclamation fund, much of the work left to do will not be completed.
“If this trend continues, our nation will be left with thousands of acres of abandoned coal mine lands when the (reclamation act) expires in 2004,” said Murphy.
The current balance in the federal fund, according to the organization, stands at $1.4 billion. When the reclamation act expires, any remaining reclamation money will be funneled in to the general fund balance.
Tom Grote, POWR board member, said congressional action is vital to Pennsylvania and the East Coast states as they have incurred the most impact over the past century.
“In 1977, when the federal (Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act) was passed, I thought we have 25 years (to its expiration), we’re going to be able to get it done,” said Grote. “It’s now 25 years later and it’s not done.”
Congress is looking at several legislative measures to extend the reclamation act and how the funding is expended, said Brad Clemenson, communications director for U.S. Rep. John Murtha, but to date, nothing has garnered full congressional support.
Grote, meanwhile, said the organizations would strive to work with legislators to change the in-place regulation.
For information about the ongoing initiative, contact the MWA at 724-455-4200 or online at www.mtwatershed.com