$11.5 Billion In Infrastructure Bill #1 Will Pay For Mine/Stream Cleanup Over Next 15 Years

[hatrack]

Thousands of abandoned coal mines in the U.S. have been polluting rivers and streams for decades, in some cases harming fish and contaminating drinking water. Now efforts to finally clean up the sites could soon get a big boost. Tucked into the Senate-passed infrastructure bill is $11.3 billion for the cleanup of defunct coal mines to be distributed over 15 years — money experts say would go a long way toward rehabilitating the sites that date back to before 1977. Cleanup efforts are currently funded by fees from coal mining companies, but that money has fallen far short of what’s needed to fix the problems. “The next 15 years — if this passes — is literally a historic advancement in mine reclamation,” said Eric Dixon, a research fellow at the Ohio River Valley Institute.

In the past 40 years, only about a quarter of the damage has been cleaned up, he said. Abandoned coal mines are concentrated along the Appalachian Mountains, with clusters also dotting the Midwest and Rocky Mountains. The sites can clog rivers with debris or pollute streams with harmful discharges caused by minerals exposed from mining, reducing fish populations and turning water brick red. Safety is another issue since people can topple into mineshafts and debris can fall from the mine’s high walls.

Fees from companies to clean up the sites are collected under the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1977, which sought to remedy the history of unregulated coal production that left abandoned mines around the country. Companies are now regulated so that sites are cleaned up once mining stops. Among the states that need significant funding for mine cleanups are Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, according to the Interior Department. Pennsylvania — which needs the most funding in the country — has 5,500 miles of streams with impaired water quality due to runoff from abandoned mines, according to state officials.

The problem has persisted for so long that some Pennsylvania residents are surprised when red streams in their backyard are finally cleaned up and change color, said John Stefanko of the Office of Active and Abandoned Mine Operations in Pennsylvania. “These are streams that you wouldn’t want to walk through,” he said, noting that the sediment from the mine runoff can come off on people.

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https://apnews.com/article/business-mountains-environment-and-nature-bills-bef72619fbd977e22c887df63143b17e

[Botany]

1. In S.E. Ohio under Obama I saw streams and creeks that had been running dirty for years ...

... starting to get cleaned up. Trump got rid of those programs.

A.M.D. Acid Mine Drainage

[OnDoutside]

2. You would think that Joe Manchin would like this ?