Cleanup Funds for Old Mines Sought
Tennessee Lawmakers Say They Will Continue to Push for Changes in Federal Law.
By Andy Sher
Chattanooga Times/Free Press Washington Bureau
November 29, 2003

WASHINGTON — Several Tennessee lawmakers are vowing to carry on their fight next year for more federal money to clean up the state’s abandoned coal mines.

"We haven’t been able to accomplish this year what we’ve been seeking to do, but we will continue until we do," said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn.

Rep. Davis said at current federal funding levels of $1 million to $1.5 million a year, it will take a quarter of a century to clean up the state’s abandoned mines.

"If we can get at least two or three times that amount, say $4 million, then we could clean it up much quicker," said Rep. Davis, whose 4 th Congressional District comprises Cumberland Plateau counties including Sequatchie, Grundy and Campbell.

Most of the mines are on the Cumberland Plateau, officials said.

The state has identified 283 abandoned mine "problem areas" with some areas containing as many as 15 abandoned mines, said Tim Eagle, who heads the state’s Land Reclamation Section of the Division of Water Pollution Control.
Officials estimate it would take $33 million to clean up the Te nnessee sites. The cost of cleaning up the problem nationwide is estimated at $6 billion.

Abandoned mines have poisoned streams, silted lakes, caused landslides and flooding, wrecked farmers’ fields and more, according to Rep. Davis and others.

Problems exist even in Hamilton County, which has 12 of the identified problem areas, according to the state’s Land Reclamation Section. Problems include an estimated 10,000 feet of dangerous highwalls in the county where strip miners sheared off the sides of mountains.

"They (abandoned mines) are a big problem," said Barbara Levi, who lives on Flat Top Mountain in Hamilton County. Mrs. Levi, a former president of the grass-roots environmental group Save Our Cumberland Mountains, recalled how strip mine operations, many of them illegal, popped up all over the state in the 1970s and early 1980s. One strip mine operated close to property Mrs. Levi and her husband own, she said.

"They essentially just took off the top of the plateau and dumped it into the creek," Mrs. Levi said.

To get more federal money for Tennessee, Rep. Davis and others want to change the funding formula in the federal

Abandoned Mine Land Program. The program cleans up eligible land that was mined and abandoned or inadequately restored before passage of the 1977 Surface Mining Law. The Abandoned Mine Land Program, funded through a tax on mined coal, is set to expire next year unless it is reauthorized. Efforts to reauthorize the program were blocked in this year’s energy bill.

Proponents are looking at a stand-alone bill next year, Rep. Davis said.

Mr. Eagle said Tennessee could use some additional money for cleanup. "There was just a lot of illegal mine operations out there," Mr. Eagle said. Moreover, Mr. Eagle said, federal officials will fund only "highpriority projects" in which there is some immediate health and safety concern.

U.S. Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., a member of the House Resources Committee, will be among Tennessee lawmakers working next year to boost funding when the program’s reauthorization comes through his committee, spokesman Rob Haralson said.

"We’re going to do our best to help out any way we can through the Resources Committee," Mr. Haralson said.

The Citizens Coal Council, a national coalition advocating cleanup, estimates that 42,000 Tennesseans, many of them in East Tennessee, live within a mile of an abandoned mine site. Citing federal Office of Surface Mining figures, the council estimates it would cost nearly $1.9 million to clean up abandoned coal mine sites just in Hamilton County.

Nearly all the members of the state’s congressional delegation this year began backing the funding formula change after getting a letter from Gov. Phil Bredesen. In their own letter outlining their position to House Resource Committee leaders, state congressmen noted Tennessee was in a "unique position."

Tennessee has "significant abandoned mine damage," the lawmakers noted. But it is considered a "nonprimacy" state in terms of federal funding because there is no state regulatory program, the congressmen said. The state gave up inspecting mines in the mid-1980s.

As a result, Tennessee receives less money than most other states.
"Because it is a nonprimacy state with no surface mining office, the feds have done everything in Tennessee on an emergency basis," said Meg Moore, a spokeswoman for the Citizens Coal Council.

She said the council backs Tennessee efforts to get into an Abandoned Land Mine Program "minimum" category. Six other states including Arkansas are in that category and receive $2 million a year.

Ms. Moore said coal-cleanup advocates hope to increase funding for the "minimum" states to $4 million in next year’s reauthorization.

Federal officials estimate it will take about $5 million to clean up abandoned coal mines in Hamilton and surrounding counties.