The PA AML Campaign, a coalition of more than 30 environmental, conservation and sportsmens’ groups, are inviting other groups to join them in working to support legislation sponsored by U.S. Senator Santorum to restore federal mine reclamation funding.

S. 2616 would deliver $1 billion to Pennsylvania alone over the next sixteen years to clean up abandoned mine lands and fill in mine entries and shafts.

Groups are invited to sign on to this letter—

Dear Senators Santorum and Specter:

On behalf of community leaders and citizen organizations in 46 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, we are writing to thank you for your leadership and to express our support for your legislation, S.2616, which would re-authorize the Abandoned Mine Lands program and help bring economic opportunity and environmental restoration to communities and resources damaged by abandoned coal mines.

As you well know, since 1977 the coal industry has paid a small fee, no more than 35 cents per ton, for all coal mined in the U.S., in order to fund the environmental restoration of lands and waters damaged by the thousands of abandoned coal mines left unreclaimed by the mining industry prior to passage of the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.

While the industry has paid into the Abandoned Mine Lands fund, over the years Congress has not allowed all the money in the fund to be spent by Pennsylvania and other historic production states still dealing with the deaths, injuries and degraded lands and waters harmed by abandoned mines. Although the AML program was set to expire in 2004, Pennsylvania still has more than 3,000 miles of streams and rivers that are biologically dead from pollution caused by abandoned mines, and more than 184,000 acres of unreclaimed AML sites.

Through your hard work with Senate leadership from both parties, the AML program was extended to June 30th of this year – only weeks away -- so Congress could have the opportunity to re-authorize the program and make sure that Pennsylvania and other states damaged by abandoned coal mines can finish the cleanup. Among other priorities, many economically depressed communities in Pennsylvania have little hope of revitalization until their water supplies are made safe and usable again by stopping the pollution that continues to pour from abandoned mines.

The guaranteed funding of your legislation is the best hope for all our communities trying to plan the multi-year job of reclaiming AML sites. The funding assured by S.2616 means that state and community leaders can devise cost-effective strategies for using limited funds to hire contractors to engage in the long, difficult work of reclaiming the sites. And as we all recognize, these are local jobs that can’t be outsourced.

We recognize that you and other Pennsylvania leaders felt pressures from Wyoming and the coal industry that had to be accommodated, or there might be insufficient Congressional support for re-authorizing the AML program. The PA AML Campaign does not agree with any reduction in the fee. We appreciate the fact that the reduction has been phased in for the first five years through your efforts. We still hope that the fees which have not been adjusted for inflation in 29 years, can at minimum, be held at current levels to provide more revenue to the fund. We would also hope that an important environmental tool now eliminated by the bill, the General Welfare provision which is of particular value to some communities trying to deal with waters contaminated by AML sites, could be restored.

To be clear, while in our judgment it would be best to keep the fees at the current levels, and not eliminate any of the AML Program’s environmental provisions, we believe the opportunity for the specific and guaranteed funding of AML cleanup efforts provided in S.2616 may be more difficult to achieve in the future. This means that it is very much in the interest of Pennsylvania and other historic coal production states that your legislation become law as soon as possible. Again, we are deeply grateful for your leadership, and we are in strong support of your efforts to bring help to coalfield communities through S.2616.

With appreciation and respect for your diligence in helping Pennsylvania try to deal with our enormous abandoned mine lands problems, thank you for working so hard on behalf of our lands, waters and communities.

Sincerely, R. John Dawes, Chairman, PA AML Campaign

If you would like to sign on, contact John Dawes by sending email to: rjdawes@aol.com or call 814-669-4847.

NewsClip: Northumberland Commissioners Support AML Fee Renewal

Link: Groups Rally to Support Santorum Bill to Restore Mine Reclamation Funding

7/2/2006