Abandoned Mine Posts

by Bruce Golden, Regional Coordinator

New federal legislation, which will provide much-needed funding for abandoned mine reclamation (AMR), came as good news for Pennsylvania and other historic coal-producing states. The legislation is actually a revamp of the existing Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). The section of SMCRA that pertains to AMR is often referred to as “Title IV.” December’s amendments to Title IV were part of a much larger bill, the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, one of the very last acts passed by the outgoing 109th Congress.

Next week, Abandoned Mine Posts will discuss how this law affects Pennsylvania. Today, we present a synopsis of the revised Title IV legislation with respect to abandoned mine reclamation.

Reclamation Fees & State Funding

Extend but decrease reclamation fees from coal mining

The authority to collect a reclamation fee on each ton of coal mined in the United States was extended another 14 years, but with a two-tiered decrease over the next six years to 80% of the current levels (35¢ → 28¢ per ton of surface-mined coal; 15¢ → 12¢ per ton of deep mined coal). After 14 years (2021), collection of reclamation fees ends, and funding to states will extend to 2022. The 20% reduction and 14-year limit of fees were compromises in getting the law passed.

Mandate full funding from reclamation fees to states

The full amount of money collected from reclamation fees (minus the portion allocated to OSM) will now go to the states, rather than be appropriated by Congress. In past years, Congress was stingy with their appropriations, resulting in an unspent balance of $1.8 billion in the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund. This change was almost a miraculous accomplishment!

Distribute funds according to reclamation need

The formula that determines how much funding goes to each of the various states has changed to generally direct future fees to states based on reclamation need.

Funding ramp-up period

States will receive partial amounts of the reclamation funding due to them during the next five years, allowing them time gear up to the higher grant levels. The money initially withheld will be paid in later years.

Payout to certified states

“Certified states”—those that have completed all Priority 1 & 2 projects—will receive the funds they’ve accumulated in the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund over the next ten years, but they will not receive any reclamation funds collected in the future. Wyoming is the prime example of a certified state. This was a compromise to help pass the law.

Water Quality

Allow 30% set-aside for acid mine drainage

The maximum percentage of a state’s annual grant that can be used to address acid mine drainage has increased from 10% to 30%. As before, a state choose a lesser percentage at its discretion.

Strike the “general welfare” provision from Priority 2

Funding is and has been generally reserved for Priority 1 & 2 projects (dealing with health & safety issues). Striking the “general welfare” provision from Priority 2 projects blocks the ability to fund most water-related projects using Priority 2 criteria. Acid mine drainage (AMD) is usually designated as Priority 3, which now can only be funded by the above set-aside program.

Other Provisions

Allow remining incentives

Federal incentives may be given to industry for remining abandoned mine sites that would not likely be reclaimed by industry without them.

Eliminate RAMP

The law formally eliminated the Rural Abandoned Mine Program (RAMP). Once an important reclamation program, RAMP has not received any appropriations in the past six years and was effectively defunct anyway.

Health insurance for retired coal miners

The law funds health insurance benefits for coal miners (and their families) whose companies have gone bankrupt and are no longer able to provide the benefits.

As most of you know by now, we have won a huge victory — working with the PA AML Campaign — to secure reauthorization of the AML Program after an exhausting, resilient 3½ year legislative campaign in Congress.

Despite great odds against winning this year and against conventional wisdom in Washington that the AML Program would not get reauthorized in the Lameduck session of Congress after the November elections, our AML Campaign succeeded in getting our legislation attached to a giant 500 plus page bill, called “The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006″ in the final hours before Congress adjourned at 4:30 am on Saturday, December 9th.

The AML Reauthorization, which amends the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), extends the AML Program for at least 15 years and will triple AML funds PA receives from reclamation fees collected from every ton of coal produced. PA is expected to receive at least $1.5 billion over the next 15 years to clean up the worst Priority 1 and 2 AML sites. For the first time, there will be guaranteed funding for AML clean-up from fees collected from the coal companies, stopping the practice of Congressional Appropriations Committees creating annual tug-of-wars over AML distribution as well as diversion of AML funds to unrelated Federal projects.

This legislation represents an unprecedented consensus among watershed, conservation and coalfield community groups as well as the United Mine Workers of America, the coal industry, and eastern and western coal producing states.

Pennsylvania has had the most at stake in this long debate with the most AML acreage in the nation (250,000 acres), 44 out of 67 PA counties blighted and 4,600 miles of biologically dead streams and rivers. DEP has estimated the total PA AML clean-up price tag at $15 billion.

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With a sizable increase in federal mine reclamation funding, Christmas came early for coalfield communities throughout the country who have long suffered the aftermath of a century of unregulated coal mining. As one of the 109th Congress’s final acts before adjourning, both the House and Senate passed legislation extending and revamping a federal law that mandates a reclamation fee on each ton of coal produced in the country. The new law will do a much better job of directing reclamation fees to abandoned mine lands (AML) problem areas, where funding is needed the most.

Pennsylvania will see somewhere between a doubling and tripling of AML funding over the next fifteen years, or roughly one billion dollars. Bruce Golden, Regional Coordinator of WPCAMR, proclaimed, “This is huge! Finally, thankfully, we now have common sense legislation that will go a very long way to fixing the long-standing problems of abandoned mine lands and waters in our country, and particularly in Pennsylvania, where the scope of the problem is most severe.”

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As Congress reconvenes this month, the Pennsylvania AML Campaign is calling on the House and Senate to reauthorize funding for cleanup of abandoned mine lands. The program that funds reclamation of abandoned mine sites is scheduled to expire next year, unless Congress passes S.2616, a bill with astonishing support from mine workers, environmentalists, coal companies, and hunting and fishing groups.

• AML Coalition Tells Congress: Your Job’s Not Done – Reauthorize, This Year, Legislation to Clean Up Dangerous Abandoned Mine Land (Business Wire)

A recent newspaper article from the Altoona Mirror spotlights the role that AML Fund Reauthorization would have in cleaning up abandoned mine sites in Blair County, Pennsylvania.

• Abandoned mine sites endangering Blair (Altoona Mirror)