Better rewards for reclaiming
Bill would funnel additional money to Eastern states to clean up old coal mine sites
Knoxville News Sentinel
June 11, 2005

Tennessee would get twice the amount of money it currently receives for reclaiming abandoned coal mines under a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by five Volunteer State members of Congress.

Introduced by U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., the bill would steer more money to Eastern states to clean up old mine sites.

The Abandoned Mine Lands program provides money to clean up old mines dating from before the 1977 passage of the federal surface mining law. Mining companies now are required to reclaim sites as they finish mining.

The Peterson bill would boost the minimum funding Tennessee receives to $3 million each year, up from a maximum $1.5 million the state typically receives.

One of the Tennessee co-sponsors, Democrat Lincoln Davis, helped persuade Peterson to add more funding for Tennessee, which gets less money than many other coal-producing states under the current formula because it doesn't run its own regulatory program.

State officials say they need at least $27 million to clean up Tennessee's abandoned mines.

"The area I represent is where most of the abandoned mines (in Tennessee) are located",Davis said.

Without the reclamation projects funded by the program, Davis continued, "it's going to be a raw sore that's going to be constantly bleeding acid into our streams and harming our environment."

Other members of the Tennessee House delegation who've signed on as sponsors are Republicans Zach Wamp and Marsha Blackburn, and Democrats Bart Gordon and Harold Ford Jr.

The Abandoned Mine Lands program expired last year, though Congress members have twice given it temporary extensions. A fee assessed on active mines funds the program.

Peterson said his proposal would clean up high-priority abandoned mines twice as fast as called for under current law by redirecting money to states, like his own, with a large number of abandoned sites.

"This proposal will greatly improve states' ability to clean up hazardous abandoned mines in a timely manner," Peterson said in a statement. "Families in Pennsylvania and throughout Appalachia have lived for too long with the health, safety and environmental hazards resulting from abandoned coal mines, and this bill will finally refocus the AML program on mine reclamation."

However, many Western lawmakers object to funding going from their states to Appalachia, where the majority of abandoned mines are located.

A competing bill sponsored by Reps. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., and Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., would give Tennessee a smaller boost in reclamation funding, to $2 million a year. The Cubin-Rahall bill also would allow Western states with few or no abandoned mines to keep a larger share of reclamation funds.