Group pushes for more mine-cleanup funds

Group pushes for more mine-cleanup funds

by A.J. Panian, TRIBUNE REVIEW, Pennsylvania

13th March 2006

Pennsylvania's $21 million share of federal money to clean up abandoned mines is too little to solve a widespread problem, according to a reclamation group. At that rate of spending, it would take about 200 years to erase Pennsylvania's abandoned mine legacy, said Bruce Golden, regional coordinator for the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation.

"That's almost as long as the United States has been a country," said Golden, whose Greensburg, Westmoreland County-based organization is an alliance of 24 county conservation districts and other agencies. "I'm a patient man, but that's ridiculous."

The U.S. Office of Surface Mining estimates Pennsylvania has more than $1 billion worth of unfunded high-priority reclamation problems. That does not include watershed contamination problems that the agency estimates could require as much as $3.6 billion to address.

About 1.4 million Pennsylvanians live within a mile of such sites, and they must urge federal lawmakers to fight for more money, said Bev Braverman, executive director of Mountain Watershed Association, which fights to remedy acid mine discharges in Western Pennsylvania.

Of immediate concern is the June 30 deadline for Congress to reauthorize the fund. The fund requires mine operators nationwide to pay a tax on each ton of coal produced.

Since 2004, Congress has approved two one-year extensions. State officials hope for a longer extension that would provide more money to states.

"We want to be able to know the money is secure well into the future, but we also want a plan that allows usto deal with this problem in years rather than in decades," said Tom Rathbun, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Disagreement between U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyoming, and lawmakers from eastern states has been a major obstacle to passing the legislation. Cubin has been pushing a bill that would reduce the per-ton fee for coal producers.

Wyoming produces more coal than any other state and gets the most money from the fund. Pennsylvania and West Virginia have declining coal production and the most abandoned mine land.

"We want to keep this issue on the front burner," said Ronald J. Rohall, vice chairman of the Westmoreland Conservation District. "We do have the largest amount of abandoned coal mine sites of any state in the nation."

The Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation has compiled a program about abandoned mine sites in the state, said John Dawes, administrator of the Western Pennsylvania Watershed Program.

The "Geographic Systems Inventory" lists sites by their acreage, reclamation status and the priority placed on reclaiming them, Dawes said. It also shows mine drainage, dangerous high walls, water-filled pits, landslides, underground fires, stream impoundment and subsidence.

"The inventory demonstrates visually, rather than just as a listing, the magnitude of the problem here," Dawes said.

Rohall said he'd like to see Congress extend the mine-cleanup program for at least 20 years.

Rathbun said the state must be prepared to find money on its own.

"We're not going to wait around for federal money to continue addressing these problems. We're looking at other options," Rathbun said.