Published: March 12, 2021 |

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U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Lackawanna, said Wednesday he is introducing federal, bipartisan legislation to extend the Abandoned Mine Land Trust Fund, which provides money to clean up and reclaim abandoned mine land and toxic, mine-tainted water throughout Appalachia and Western mining states.

He also is sponsoring the RECLAIM Act of 2021, which would accelerate the release of $1 billion from the existing trust fund to assist the revitalization of coal communities impacted by abandoned mine lands and the recent decline in coal mining.

The trust fund, established in 1977, will expire on Sept. 30 unless Congress reauthorizes it. Mr. Cartwright’s bill would extend the trust fund and its assessment of 28 cents a ton for surface mined coal and 12 cents a ton for deep mined coal another 15 years, until 2036.

Mr. Cartwright said reauthorizing the fund will help accelerate the pace of mining restoration work that has eliminated more than 46,000 open deep mine portals and 1,000 miles of steep and dangerous high walls at abandoned surface mines, while creating jobs and economic opportunities in mining communities.

The fund currently has a $2.2 billion balance, but it’s estimated that it will cost more than $10 billion to restore the land and water resources damaged by coal mining in the U.S.

Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Centre, the lead Republican sponsor of the legislation and the grandson of a surface miner, said his district has more abandoned mine sites than any other congressional district in the country and reauthorization of the fund will provide urgently needed resources to continue mine and economic reclamation work.

“We’ve made progress. Life is returning to our streams ... but the need remains. There are many scars still there,” Thompson said.

The mine land and water restoration work can produce much needed economic benefits to depressed, mining legacy communities, said Mr Thompson and Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor and environmental organizations.

For example, Mr. Walsh said, reclamation has turned a former strip mine site in Luzerne County into an office park with 39 companies that employ 4,500 people.

“We need to make sure that no workers or communities are left behind. By investing in redevelopment, good jobs and cleaner lands and waters, for communities that have been on the hurting end of our changing economy,” said Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance.

Payouts from the trust fund continue. On March 1, the Biden administration announced it will distribute more than $260 million from the trust fund to 25 states and three tribes. Pennsylvania got more than $52 million, West Virginia received nearly $44 million and Ohio got $30 million for abandoned mine land cleanup and economic development.

Mr. Thompson said abandoned mine land reclamation isn’t a partisan issue, but there remains a political divide between the congressional representatives from Eastern mining states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, and Western states, including Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado, where mining companies are making the bulk of the mining royalty payments but have fewer abandoned mine lands.

Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso has introduced competing legislation to reduce the per ton mining fees that support the trust fund and reauthorize it for seven instead of 15 years.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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