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Fighting to create jobs in the state's coalfields

Fighting to create jobs in the state's coalfields

Pennsylvania has more scarred, abandoned mine land and dead, iron-orange streams than any other state, but members of its congressional delegation have been slow to support legislation that would make $1 billion available nationwide to fix such problems and create jobs in depressed coalfield communities.

R. John Dawes, executive director of the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, a nonprofit that advocates for mineland reclamation, said the RECLAIM Act would authorize distribution of the money from the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund over the next five years for projects that would employ out-of-work coal miners. Almost $340 million would come to Pennsylvania.

But he said the legislation, introduced in February, could die without the support of Pennsylvania’s congressmen.

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“The Republican leadership is trying to slow walk the RECLAIM Act to death,” Mr. Dawes said. “Pennsylvania has the biggest AML problems so it would get the most money to fix those problems, but our legislators are MIA — missing in action.”

According to the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, there are 5,172 documented abandoned mine sites, affecting more than 250,000 acres and 5,300 miles of streams in 10 of of the state’s 18 congressional districts. Reclaiming all of the mining impaired land and streams would cost more than $5 billion.

Similar mining legacies exist in many states. The federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 created a trust fund to fix the environmental hazards caused by earlier, abandoned mining operations. That trust fund, supported by per-ton royalties paid by mining companies, has a balance of $2.5 billion.

The “RECLAIM Act,” — a loose acronym for Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by leveraging Local Activities and Investing More — was introduced by Rep. Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican and chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Its passage would accelerate payouts at a time when coal communities are facing economic problems due to mine closings and lost jobs, making $200 million a year available each year for five years, to fund mine reclamation and economic development projects in coal communities.

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“Instead of allowing those funds to go unused, now is the time to help our coal producing states reinvest in the coalfields with projects that can create new jobs and reinvigorate our economy," said Mr.Rogers in a release that notes Kentucky has lost 11,000 mining jobs since 2009.

The bipartisan bill has been endorsed by the United Mine Workers of America, Trout Unlimited, the Pennsylvania AML Campaign and the governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky. It has 14 co-sponsors, including Pennsylvania congressmen Matt Cartwright, D-Lackawanna, Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, and Charles Dent, R-Allentown.

“The people in these communities have lost their main source of employment and they’ve been left with nothing but the environmental degradation resulting from decades of mining,” Mr. Doyle said in an email. “They need and deserve our help.”

The 5th congressional district in northwestern Pennsylvania, represented by Glenn Thompson, R-Centre, has the most abandoned mine land in the U.S., Mr. Dawes said, but despite several meetings with the congressman, he remains on the fence. Other congressmen representing Pennsylvania coalfield communities who haven’t signed on as sponsors of the bill include Bill Shuster, R-Bedford; Rep. Tom Marino, R-Lycoming: Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton; Keith Rothfus, R-Sewickley; Mike Kelly, R-Butler; andTim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair.

Mr. Rothfus said he’s not sold on RECLAIM, even though he describes himself as “ a vocal advocate for policies to address these (mining caused) environmental hazards” and touts his sponsorship of the SENSE Act, which enables the continuation of coal refuse to energy production projects.

In his first statement on the proposed legislation, Mr. Thompson said last week that while he supports its “concept,” he continues to look for clarification that the bill as drafted would ensure funds will be used for reclamation and environmental activities,” and won’t be misused.

“There are a finite amount of funds available for mine clean up and we must be good stewards of these dollars,” Mr. Thompson said. “I look forward to refining this bill in committee to ensure that it can meet these goals.”

Mr. Thompson’s position mirrors that of the Interstate Mining Compact Commission, a lobbying organization of 25 mining states that has not taken a position on the proposed legislation but is working with congressional staffers to amend the bill, according to Greg Conrad, its executive director.

“We have some concerns and reservations, especially with RECLAIM’s focus on economic revitalization,” Mr. Conrad said. “To do that it could take on lower priority projects and be competing for limited Abandoned Mine Land Fund dollars.”

He said the IMCC supported a separate $60 million federal appropriation earlier this year for pilot reclamation projects in Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania that also target coal community economic development and job creation.

Federal and state officials will highlight the first of those pilot projects Thursday when they gather northeast of Johnstown in Cambria County to break ground on the Ehrenfeld Refuse Pile Remediation, a $25.5 million project that will eliminate public health and safety concerns by reclaiming more than 160 acres of dangerous highwalls, open pits and unstable, burning, coal refuse piles, some within 100 feet of several occupied homes.

Under a 36-month DEP contract with Rosebud Mining Co., it will employ 40 of the company’s furloughed miners to do heavy construction, trucking and earth moving work.

Aimee Erickson, executive director of the Citizens Coal Council, a grassroots group that advocates for coalfield issues, said Pennsylvania stands to be the biggest winner if RECLAIM is passed, and conversely the biggest loser if the state’s congressmen don’t signal their support.

“The lack of public support from the state’s delegation has been baffling,” said Ms.Erickson “What can they do that will have a bigger impact in providing economic benefits to their districts and out-of-work miners than bringing into the state an additional $66 million a year for abandoned mine land reclamation work?”

Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1983, or on Twitter @donhopey

First Published: August 1, 2016, 5:09 p.m.

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