The Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation has created an interactive, visual tool to help understand how federal Title IV mine reclamation funding might be applied toward Pennsylvania's abandoned mine problems.

This new funding, the result of a 2006 revamp of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, will bring an estimated $1.4 billion over the next 15+ years.

WPCAMR's Title IV Calculator lets its user easily gain an appreciation of how the Title IV funding model works through playing "what if" by clicking buttons to change estimated values of Pennsylvania's:

· P1 & P2 Inventory: the cost to reclaim all Priority 1 and 2 hazards;

· AMD Inventory: the cost needed to fix all Abandoned Mine Drainage problems;

· AMD Set-Aside: the portion of Pennsylvania’s Title IV money that can be used to remediate Abandoned Mine Drainage problems;

· DEP Overhead: the percentage of Title IV money needed by the Dept. of Environmental Protection to administer the program;

· Total Title IV Funding: the total amount Pennsylvania receives from the federal government to address all abandoned mine problems (P1s, P2s, and AMD) and for administrative overhead.

Of particular importance are the results of selecting different percentages of AMD Set-Aside, which shows the trade-offs between the ability to fix P1 & P2 problems versus AMD problems.

Users of the Title IV Calculator can view these interactions visually with pie charts and a table of values representing:

· AMD Left Undone: the cost needed to fix AMD problems not addressed by Title IV funding;

· Clean Water: the amount in dollars applied to fixing AMD problems over the life of Title IV;

· DEP Overhead: the amount used by DEP to administer the program over the life of Title IV;

· Restored P1s & P2s: the amount in dollars applied to fixing Priority 1 and 2 problems over the life of Title IV;

· Remaining P1s & P2s Left Undone: the cost needed to fix Priority 1 and 2 problems not addressed by Title IV funding; and

· Unused Funding: Title IV funding that was potentially available to fix problems, but left unused (if any).

Visit WPCAMR’s Title IV online calculator.

2/23/2007