PA Environment Digest

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The Daily Item Guest Essay: Potential Cuts To Federal Funding For Abandoned Mine Cleanup

By Sophia Evans, Dickinson College Student

This guest essay first appeared in The Daily Item on December 19, 2024--

Pennsylvania has 86,000 miles of streams and rivers, second only to Alaska. Living in Pennsylvania means that you are never far from moving water.

We use these waterways for fishing, boating, swimming and even drinking. However, the quality of our streams is under threat.

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, more than 30 percent of Pennsylvania’s streams are impaired.

One of the main causes of stream impairment is a leftover from our legacy of coal mining.

Acid mine drainage or abandoned mine drainage occurs when abandoned mines are flooded with water that picks up pollutants and carries them back into streams.

Thanks to Pennsylvania’s long history of coal mining and massive number of streams, acid mine drainage is a significant problem throughout Pennsylvania.

Streams affected by acid mine drainage (AMD) have a signature red or orange tinge. The stream floors are blanketed with a layer of heavy metals deposited by the affected water.

The water itself can be very acidic and ultimately, these streams are unsuitable for habitation by most aquatic life including Pennsylvania’s favorite fish, trout.

Currently, more than 5,500 miles of streams and rivers are impacted by AMD. That’s more than 6 percent of Pennsylvania’s streams.

Beyond being an eyesore, AMD also takes an economic toll on affected communities.

Fishing and its related tourism are important to Pennsylvania’s economy, but AMD threatens the quality of our streams and reduces the economic gains from them.

According to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the loss from angler-generated income alone could be as high as $29 million a year.

Abandoned mines pose many other hazards to health and property for nearby communities.

Structures built, often unknowingly, above abandoned mines are on unstable ground and at risk of subsidence, meaning the ground sinks gradually or suddenly.

This can potentially cause unknowing homeowners thousands. Additionally, pollution of air and groundwater could pose many health risks.

Abandoned mines can leach heavy metals, like lead, and other toxic chemicals into sources of drinking water.

This is obviously detrimental to human health and safety, especially for children.

According to Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, “Pennsylvania communities like my hometown of McKeesport helped to build and power America, but today they are paying the price for their industrial past.”

Pennsylvania’s government first began to address these issues in 1968 with the Land and Water Conservation and Reclamation Act, which allotted $200 million toward the reclamation of abandoned mines and abatement of AMD.

This project was known as Operation Scarlift. Operation Scarlift funded more than 500 projects abating the environmental effects of surface mines, particularly stream pollution, and remained in place until 1981.

Much progress has been made since Operation Scarlift, but reclaiming abandoned mines and cleaning up affected waters is an expensive undertaking.

According to the governor’s office, cleaning up the remaining abandoned mines and affected areas could cost as much as $5 billion.

Currently, most funding for these clean-up efforts comes from the federal government, which could be changing very soon.

Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation received $244 million dollars from the Federal Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act.

The DEP will use this money to reclaim abandoned mines and clean up affected areas.

With the new Trump administration, which has been promoting federal spending cuts, coming into office in a few weeks, it seems likely that this type of funding will come less and less.

Without it, efforts to reclaim abandoned mines and rehabilitate affected areas will undoubtedly slow, leaving many Pennsylvanian towns still at risk of the detrimental effects of AMD on health and economies.

In the coming years, we must all make it clear to our elected officials what issues are important to us. If healthy waterways and the economic growth that they support are important to you, please write to your representative.

You can find your representative online.

Sophia Evans, a Lewisburg native, is a student at Dickinson College in Carlisle.

Resource Links:

-- DEP Awards $19.6 Million To Support 8 Local Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Projects In 6 Counties [PaEN]

-- Scranton Times: Nearly $7 Million In Federal Funds Awarded To Reclaim Mine Land In Dickson City, Blakely

-- WNEP: DEP Crews Working To Fill Mine Subsidence Sinkhole In Schuylkill County That Swallowed Swimming Pool

-- Republican Herald: Sinkhole In Mahanoy Twp., Schuylkill County Linked To Abandoned Mines

-- The Daily Item Guest Essay: Potential Cuts To Federal Funding For Abandoned Mine Cleanup - By Sophia Evans, Dickinson College Student [PDF of article]

Related Articles This Week:

-- Chesapeake Bay Journal: Veteran Reporter Ad Crable Wraps Up 4 Decades Of Environmental Journalism [PaEN]

-- DEP Awards $19.6 Million To Support 8 Local Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Projects In 6 Counties [PaEN]

-- PA State Conservation Commission Wins Natural Resource Education Champion Award [PaEN]