• reimburse states and tribal governments from the fund for the emergency restoration, reclamation, abatement, control, or prevention of adverse effects of coal mining practices;
• extend the authority for Interior to collect reclamation fees through FY2036; and

• increase the minimum amount of funds from $3-$5 million to states and Indian tribes who have an approved abandoned mine reclamation program

The RECLAIM Act (H.R. 2156) passed the U.S. House of Representatives as part of The Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), a bill to address America’s infrastructure needs and create jobs in the wake of the economic and health crisis caused by COVID-19.

The RECLAIM Act would invest $1 billion in projects ($200 million/year for 5 years) that:

• clean up abandoned coal mines
• restore polluted rivers and streams known as watersheds suffering from abandoned mine drainage (AMD); and
• catalyze community economic development projects on or near reclaimed sites that can leverage additional private sector investment that can lead to more jobs and infrastructure development

These funds would be invested in over 20 states across the country. “Congressman Matt Cartwright’s original co-sponsorship of the Reauthorization Amendments and RECLAIM Act bills were instrumental as well as bipartisan support and leadership from Congressman Glenn Thompson (central PA), an early supporter, and Congressman Dan Meuser (eastern PA). Brian Fitzpatrick deserves a special thanks for being the only PA Republican to vote for the final passage of H.R. 2. However, EPCAMR still would like to thank our PA Republicans who co-sponsored HR 4248 and HR 2156,” Hughes emphasized.

Back in April, EPCAMR led a tour of PA Congressmen, Senator John Yudichak, and supporting partners, including the State PA DEP Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, to the Swoyersville Culm Bank Pilot Project in Luzerne County, for a press conference on the need for the continued support and co-sponsorship of the RECLAIM Act and Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act Reauthorization Amendments of 2019. Both are now folded into HR 2, The Moving Forward Act.

For years, EPCAMR has advocated for these bills as job creation measures to support coal communities as we have faced job loss and economic decline due to the disappearing coal industry and the need for additional land reclamation of abandoned mine sites. According to a recent study, in combination, these two bills would create over 13,000 jobs per year restoring abandoned mine lands and waters in Appalachia. These jobs are even more critical for coalfield communities as they grapple with the further economic decline due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The types of jobs that could be created are very similar to the jobs of laid-off mine workers who have operated heavy equipment to move dirt and backfill, revegetate, create ponds, plant trees, run treatment plants, restore waterways, and reclaim mine lands as a part of their mining permits. Abandoned mine land reclamation projects aren’t that different. The transition into these types of jobs could be seamless for operators of heavy equipment like bulldozers, excavators, plows, hydroseeders, water trucks, tree planting machines, surveyors, engineers, and fuel managers.

Here is an example of the construction equipment that are commonly found both on active mining sites as well as on abandoned mine land reclamation projects. They are the same type of jobs that could be created under Hr 2, The Moving Forward Act.

These jobs don’t even include the other potential jobs that are going to be necessary to assess the environmental conditions of the lands and water affected by past mining practices. Water monitors, underground mine pool modelers, land surveyors, plant specialists, field technicians, fishery biologists, stream consultants, GIS technicians and specialists, hydrologists, hydrogeologists, drone operators, foresters, and plant biologists are all jobs that could be supported.

Askam AMD Treatment Facility Maelstrom Oxidizers treating mine water in the Nanticoke Creek Watershed along Dundee Road, Hanover Township, PA, Luzerne County, owned and operated by the Earth Conservancy and monitored by EPCAMR.

                                                                                                                                                                        Infrastructure development could be a big part of the use of these funds as well. “Building an AMD water treatment plant is infrastructure development in my eyes because it is very similar to operating a sewage or municipal water authority treatment plant. It takes capital, concrete, outbuildings, roads, clarifiers, aerators, pipes, augers, screens, grit chambers, metal removal processes, sludge management, and full-time jobs to run the plants. There will always be a need for long-term operation and maintenance. Sounds like job security to me. That’s an investment in the communities that are heavily impacted by AMD!” exclaimed Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director. The bill Invests $40 billion in new wastewater infrastructure to encourage efficiency and affordability and helps communities address stormwater needs, preventing pollution in local rivers, like the Susquehanna. The WVSA and the DAMA are just two authorities that might be able to leverage additional funds in the Wyoming Valley to reduce costs for the ratepayers and municipalities who lay within their sewersheds under their Municipal Stormwater Separation System (MS4) Programs.

“New roads to access these abandoned mine lands will be necessary, culverts and bridges will need to be replaced and enlarged or retrofitted to allow for the passage of new surface water that normally had gone into the underground mine pool complexes leading to the creation of AMD. It is not just to be considered infrastructure from a development standpoint, it can also provide huge environmental benefits in our surrounding watersheds that would allow for the passage of aquatic organisms like various fish species, including wild and native brook trout that we’ve surveyed and have found to be isolated in the headwater streams and tributaries above the mining-impacted areas throughout our Ridges and Valleys in Northeastern PA” Hughes said, who also happens to be a long-time member of the Stanley Cooper Chapter of Trout Unlimited and is the Eastern Region Vice-President of the PA Council of Trout Unlimited. Trout Unlimited’s CEO, Chris Wood has also supported HR 2 this week with a letter to House Leadership and call to the 370,000 members and supporters, of which, in PA alone, there are over 14,000.

EPCAMR and TU Staff and volunteers assessing the native wild brown trout habitat in the Toby Creek Watershed as a part of their completion of the Coldwater Conservation Plan for the Upper Toby Creek Watershed.

“We want to see AMD streams cleaned up and improved habitats for fisheries returned to our region”, desired Hughes. New rules will make it a lot easier for third-party community groups, normally called “Good Samaritans” to take on additional work with a lot less concern for various liability issues in order to improve streams and improve aquatic connections to streams that had been lost and disconnected to due past mining practices.

EPCAMR Executive Director Bobby Hughes teaching students who are interested in becoming volunteers with EPCAMR about the impacts of AMD on the Solomon Creek Watershed in the Wyoming Valley’s Hanover Township location, where the Solomon Creek Boreholes pollute the Creek with iron-laden mine water. They are also collecting iron hydroxide for harvesting, processing, and recycling into iron oxide pigment as a recoverable resource and to demonstrate its use for education purposes with youth in the underserved coalfield communities.

Now that the House has passed The Moving Forward Act, the bills will be sent to the Senate for consideration. “I am cautiously optimistic now that Congress has finally listened to the tens of thousands of coalfield citizens, including myself, who has tried to represent our Northern Appalachian Region of PA’s coalfields and community groups for over 25 years. It has been an ongoing and continuous effort to do justice and speak honestly and candidly in the Halls of Congress during several Hearings with the House Natural Resources Committee and with Staffers of legislators to give examples of potential innovative solutions to reclamation, environmental restoration, workforce development, and job creation and provide each of them with statistics for their own legislative, Congressional and Senatorial Districts on the impacts and inventory they each have a responsibility to ensure that the areas are cleaned up.”

EPCAMR Executive Director, Bobby Hughes, having a few minutes to thank Congressman Cartwright for allowing him to speak on behalf of the coalfield communities of Northeastern and Northcentral PA on Reauthorization, the RECLAIM Act, and Innovative Mine Reclamation solutions following his testimony with the House Natural Resources Committee in Washington DC in 2019.

“I have never forgotten where I was born and raised and am determined like so many others across the country living with AMD and blighted landscapes from past mining to finally have the means and continued funding to help clean up our mining-impacted watersheds and promote opportunities for sustainable economic redevelopment of our mine lands that could market them in a way that solar or geothermal companies and or resource recovery firms could come here and now leverage their investments with these funds under the RECLAIM Act portion of this bill,” a hopeful Hughes stated.

EPCAMR Executive Director, Bobby Hughes surveys the vast 55 acres of abandoned mine lands that are several hundred feet below the location of the waste culm piles and former silt basins in Swoyersville, PA Luzerne County, that are being reclaimed as a part of the PA Abandoned Mine Land Pilot Program to be converted into a community recreational area through a private donation from Pagnotti Enterprises in partnership with the Borough of Swoyersville, the ARIPPA trade association of independent power producers, Keystone Reclamation Fuels Management LLC, PA DEP, PA DEP Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, PA DEP Pottsville District Mining Office, and the Federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation & Enforcement. The surface drainages are divided into both the Abraham Creek and Toby Creek watersheds.

“The RECLAIM Act will focus on those areas and will also allow community members to play a role in determining what areas and projects receive support and I won’t let them forget that the local communities voices and concerns need to be heard in order to ensure transparency and necessary accommodations and compromises that will allow for greater community support on the front end of projects that will ultimately benefit the greater coalfield communities,” Hughes emphasized.

“House passage is great news for PA’s coalfield communities, new investors, developers, and alternative renewable and green energy companies, which are eager to get to work reclaiming abandoned mining sites and working with EPCAMR to assist them with siting areas, evaluating underground mine pools for use, recovery of rare earth elements, and the resource recovery of metals for future projects,” said Michael Hewitt, EPCAMR Program Manager.

“We look forward to working with Senator Manchin (WV), who has been a champion on these issues, to promote Senate passage, Senator Capito (WV), as well as our State Senators, Robert P. Casey Jr. and Pat Toomey to continue to let them know how strong and diverse our support has been. There are reclamation projects that are ‘shovel-ready’, AMD discharges waiting to be treated, willing investors looking to leverage the funds for private sector development, available funding, and all we need now is for the Senate to vote”, stated simply,  Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director.

This legislation is a critical step for coal community recovery after the decline of the coal industry the economic effects of COVID-19, and a transitioning into a new energy economy. The RECLAIM Act and reauthorization of the abandoned mine reclamation fee was recently endorsed by over 100 organizations across the United States in a letter to congressional leadership, including EPCAMR.

The post The Surface Mining Reclamation Control Act Amendments of 2019 authorizes 15-year extension and the RECLAIM Act Passes the House as part of H.R. 2, The Moving Forward Act appeared first on epcamr.org.

Since that time, the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR), a 25 year regional environmental non-profit organization based out of Northeastern PA’s Anthracite Region, has continued to provide feedback and continued support to legislators and potential co-sponsors of the bill. We have been in collaboration with National and State experts in the reclamation and administrative processes that are paramount and essential to strengthen the bill and its effectiveness in seeing to it that reclamation and economic development of our abandoned mine lands get reclaimed.

EPCAMR providing students with a tour of the Old Forge AMD Borehole that pollutes the lower 3 miles of the Lackawanna River since the early 1960s.

There needs to be even broader support for HR 4248 (Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act Amendments of 2019) that needs to be extended to 2036 that was introduced by Congressman Matt Cartwright. It currently has 28 co-sponsors. EPCAMR is a part of a group of organizations in PA that are in the PA Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Campaign that is a no-budget, no-letterhead group of organizations and individuals advocating for policies and programs that benefit the coal-impacted communities of PA and beyond.

EPCAMR would like to see the Abandoned Mine Land mandatory distribution funds be exempt from sequestration under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act and have the funds that have been sequestered during the Fiscal Years 2013-2018 be returned for utilization by States impacted by abandoned mines.

EPCAMR supports the waiver language being added into the Senate version of the RECLAIM Act because it will be key to the successful implementation of its passage. The funds should be allocated to distressed communities as a priority. We support extensions of projects knowing that the permitting process, review process, weather, construction site conditions, market conditions, executing contracting agreements, and grants can take some time to become fully executed. This does not mean that potential projects should become bogged down in bureaucratic and administrative paperwork to slow down the implementation process to get the money on the ground and shovels into the ground. We believe there should be a reasonable amount of time for the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Field Offices to review, vet and approve project proposals so that they don’t overlook details in the permits or put unnecessary pressure on Staff or reduce opportunities for stakeholder involvement.

PA and other States and Tribes will incur costs to implement the RECLAIM Act and the Reauthorization of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which needs to be extended another 15 years, at least, to address our concerns with abandoned mine lands and polluted mine water from abandoned mine drainage (AMD). A portion of these funds is important for our agencies to utilize to plan, design, construct, and administer projects. Contracts that will go out for bid will also create more local jobs for the economies that need the infusion of additional work opportunities in multiple service sectors that will help to reduce unemployment and the loss of even more employment opportunities that we currently are experiencing since the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread in the Spring, not only affecting the health and lives of our communities but their jobs, businesses, and livelihoods as well.

EPCAMR led a tour of PA Congressmen, Senator John Yudichak, and supporting partners, including the State PA DEP Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, Swoyersville Mayor, Keystone Reclamation Fuels Management LLC, Olympus Power, Northampton Generating, and Staff to the Swoyersville Culm Bank Pilot Reclamation and Community Athletic Area Project in Luzerne County, for a press conference and media event on the need for the continued support and co-sponsorship of the RECLAIM Act and Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act Reauthorization Amendments of 2019.

We believe that public meetings are likely not required for every project, however, we do encourage engagement with community stakeholders of a proposed project prior to State agencies submitting proposals to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for approval. This will ensure accountability and oversight on the local level, which includes the ability to request a public hearing and that the public is notified through local newspapers, the internet/agency websites, and through email notification. These methods of communication are important to community stakeholders and residents. The opportunity to submit comments and request a hearing, if necessary, within a reasonable time-frame promotes transparency and accountability.

The Hughes Family out on a hike on a former abandoned mine site that is now a recreational area that has been taken in by many outdoor recreational enthusiasts due to COVID-19 for family time and to reconnect with nature.

More and more people during this pandemic have been escaping to nature to just get away and relieve some stress and to calm themselves down from the anxiety that COVID-19 has created in our communities to where it has led to the point of mental exhaustion. People, like myself, have gone to refuges that were formerly abandoned mine lands that are now green spaces and trails within the lower Wyoming Valley to take my children for walks, to hike, to get back to nature and out of our stay at home orders and somewhat restricted environments of our homes.

Ethan Hughes enjoying the outdoors after hiking along the Penobscot Ridge Mountain Bike Trail constructed by the Earth Conservancy and funds from the Abandoned Mine Land Trust Fund to reclaim the former mine site in Wanamie, Newport Township, Luzerne County, PA.

A photo of a natural area that has grown up around the former AMD Wetlands Treatment System operated by the Earth Conservancy, along Dundee Road in Hanover Township, Luzerne County, PA.

Reclamation of our abandoned mine lands and improvements to restore the water quality of our rivers and streams that have been devastated by the impacts of our past mining legacy can now become destinations and outdoor recreational opportunities while creating jobs at the same time to reclaim and restore them. The time is now to pass these bills and move Appalachia and other coal impacted communities forward across the Country. Place RECLAIM Act and the AML Reauthorization Act in a near term stimulus-related recovery package.  Representatives Matt Cartwright (PA-08), Debbie Dingell (MI-12), Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Alan Lowenthal (CA-47), Deb Haaland (NM-01), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE-At Large) and Ruben Gallego (AZ-07) urged House Leadership to include a “Restoration and Resilience Jobs” program in future economic recovery packages back in May of this year signed by 79 members of Congress. Please get your legislators to co-sponsor both important bills.

Bobby Hughes, Executive Director-EPCAMR

(This letter without photos has been submitted to several newspapers for consideration for publication in their Letter to the Editors digital and print media sections.)

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Solomon Creek AMD Boreholes in South Wilkes-Barre

Dec. 7 — Hope has dimmed for a mine cleanup bill that environmental activists have pushed hard for.

Two factors are dooming the Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More (RECLAIM) Act (H.R. 4456): First, the bill still hasn’t been introduced in the Senate, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) isn’t supporting it.

Second, only seven legislative days remain in the current session of Congress.

The bill would provide $1 billion over five years to mining states for land cleanup. The money would come from the existing Abandoned Mine Land fund, which is paid for by coal producers, and wouldn’t require any new taxes or fees.

McConnell Noncommittal

On Dec. 5 and 6, a coalition of environmentalists delivered a petition with 10,000 signatures in support of the RECLAIM Act to McConnell and his staff, both at his Kentucky and Washington, D.C. offices.

“They never shut down the idea,” said Eric Dixon, coordinator of policy and community engagement at the Appalachian Law Center. “But we’ve also never seen the majority leader make it a priority, despite the fact that many East Kentuckians have made it a priority.”

But McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer told Bloomberg BNA that the senator had “no scheduling announcements beyond this week.” Steurer also noted that only 1,300 of the 10,000 signatures were from Kentucky.

Republicans in House Support Bill

Thom Kay, legislative associate at Appalachian Voices, said McConnell’s lack of support was puzzling, given how many Republicans have supported the bill in the House.

“They’re also conservative, pro-coal Republicans from coal country and throughout Appalachia,” Kay told Bloomberg BNA. “And it’s from [Rep.] Hal Rogers [R-Ky.], and the Republican House Natural Resources Committee has put a lot of time and effort into strengthening the bill as much as possible. So that’s clearly a lot of Republican buy-in.”

Some have speculated that Senate Republicans are steering clear of the RECLAIM Act, because they’re focusing on the Miners Protection Act (S. 1714), a bill that addresses health and pension benefits to miners, and don’t want to expend any more political capital on miners. 

CR Path Closed

Environmental lobbyists also have tried to get the bill attached to the continuing resolution that the House hopes to pass before it adjourns Dec. 9. But that hasn’t happened either, despite Rogers’ efforts, Kay said, and it now appears highly unlikely to be part of the CR.

“The CR path is basically closed,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out what paths there are now, if any.”

The Miner’s Protection Act, S. 1714, also didn’t make it into the CR.

Reintroduction Likely

If the RECLAIM measure dies in the current session of Congress, it will most likely be introduced in the next one.

But that could take months, “especially if people start tinkering with language,” Kay said.

Dixon said the needs for mine cleanup and economic revitalization in coal states are too acute for continued delays.

“I don’t think we can wait another year on this,” Dixon said. “We have to take action right now. Congress needs to make this a priority this week.”

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