by Jon Styf
Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will each receive $28.7 million in funding through the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization plan in fiscal year 2024.
The funding comes through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which put $11.3 billion in funding for the program over 15 years. In total, six states and three tribes will receive a combined $130 million.
The program is aimed at returning legacy coal mining sites to productive uses.
Alabama, Ohio and Virginia will each receive $11 million while the Crow Tribe, Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation will each receive $3.67 million.
The states were determined to have the highest number of unfunded high priority abandoned mine land.
“The AMLER program provides invaluable assistance to communities to help shape a prosperous future. OSMRE is committed to turning available federal dollars into results on the ground in coal communities,” Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Principal Deputy Director Sharon Buccino said in a statement. “This investment will create thousands of good-paying union jobs and revitalize communities that have been left behind for far too long.”
The mine land is determined to pose an immediate threat to health, safety and the welfare of communities, leading to issues such as clogged streams, dangerous piles or embankments, dangerous highwalls, underground mine fires and polluted water.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Abandoned Land Mine” by Lisa Dayley. CC BY-SA 2.0.
