12/16/24 - 110 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/3ubmzu7a
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DEP Awards More Than $2.5 Million In Mine Reclamation Contracts
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The Department of Environmental Protection announced Wednesday it has awarded $2,252,855 for remediation projects at abandoned mine sites in Butler, Cambria, Clarion, Jefferson and Luzerne counties.
The remediation will reclaim 181 acres to pre-mining conditions by planting tens of thousands of trees, re-grading thousands of cubic yards of steep slopes left by mining, stabilizing old mine pits and shafts, and preventing more than 75,000 gallons a day of acid mine drainage from reaching waterways.
“Coal mining fueled the nation’s economy for many years, but it left Pennsylvania a legacy of sites in need of remediation,” DEP Deputy Secretary for Active and Abandoned Mine Operations John Stefanko said. “Our aggressive program is reclaiming these sites from scarred earth to the condition that they once were.”
The remediation work will take place over the next year and a half at abandoned mining sites across the state.
The contracts were awarded on a competitive basis and are being paid for out of a grant from the federal Office of Surface Mining. The federal fund is supported by a tax on the modern coal industry and is distributed to states as annual grants to reclaim mine sites that were abandoned prior to passage of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.
A list of contracts awarded is available online.
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5/14/2012 |
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