$125M in Federal Grants Announced for Derelict Coal Mine Cleanups
Pictured Above: DCIM100MEDIADJI_0073.JPG
Date Posted: April 30, 2024
Posted In: News,
From ENR: At the site of a former coal mine in Jefferson County, Ohio, the Friendship Highwall Reclamation Project eliminated more than 9,000 linear ft of dangerous exposed cliffs and transformed the area into parkland, native wetlands, forest and prairie, with a a funding award from a U.S. Dept. of the Interior program several years ago.
Now a new round of grant funding from the agency’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, totaling $124.8 million, aims to support more projects to reclaim abandoned U.S. mine land.
The program is focused on eliminating hazards and pollution related to past coal mining. These includes cleaning up traditional and surface mining sites, coal processing and refuse disposal areas.
Funding from the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program will ensure states and tribes “have the resources needed to continue their decades of successful reclamation work on our nation’s abandoned mine land sites,” said Sharon Buccino, program principal deputy director, in an April 16 statement announcing the funding.
Grants from this round of funding were awarded to 24 states and two tribes.