Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcem : OSMRE Announces More Than $180 Million in Funding Availability for States and Tribes for Abandoned Coal Mine Reclamation

January 6, 2017	Contact:	Christopher Holmes
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OSMRE Announces More Than $180 Million in Funding Availability for States and Tribes for Abandoned Coal Mine Reclamation

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement(OSMRE) today announced the availability of the Fiscal Year2017 Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Reclamation fund grants, which will provide nearly $181 million to states and tribes to reclaim abandoned coal mines. The total distribution is about $13 million less than what the states and tribes would have received without sequestered funding.

Abandoned Mine Land (AML) grants are funded in part by a fee collected on all coal produced in the United States to help eliminate dangerous conditions and pollution caused by past coal mining. Past AML-funded projects have closed dangerous mine shafts, reclaimed unstable slopes, treated acid mine drainage, and restored water supplies damaged by mining.

"We still have much work to do" said OSMRE Director Joe Pizarchik. "We continue to discover threats from left-behind mine pits, dangerous highwalls, acid mine drainage that pollutes our water supplies, and hazardous mine openings. AML money could have, and can, help provide jobs to people in need throughout coal country."

OSMRE, and its state and tribal partners, have worked for more than 39 years to address the ongoing threats from lands that were mined and then abandoned before 1977, when the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act took effect. Even with that work completed, more than $7 billion of problems remain in the latest inventory of critical items known as Priority 1 threats.

OSMRE provides AML grants to 28 coal-producing states and tribes according to a congressionally mandated formula based on their past and current coal production. During 2017, eligible states and tribes will apply for annual reclamation grants to access money in their allocations. After OSMRE has evaluated and verified the requests, the bureau will make the award amounts available.

Among the states with the largest allocations are Wyoming ($39.4 million); Pennsylvania ($33.6 million); West Virginia ($ 23.3 million); Kentucky ($12.7 million) and Illinois ($12.3 million).

The AML Reclamation Fund is slated to come to a conclusion in 2021 unless it is reauthorized by Congress, as it was in 2006. The FY 2017 funding available to states and tribes is as follows:

State/Tribe	Total Mandatory Distribution	Reduction Due to Sequestration FY 2017	Cumulative Reduction Due to Sequestration FYs 2013-2017
Alabama Alaska Arkansas Colorado Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Mississippi Missouri Montana New Mexico North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia West Virginia Wyoming Crow Tribe Hopi Tribe Navajo Nation National Total	$3,258,630 2,793,000 2,793,000 2,793,000 12,315,001 5,860,428 2,793,000 2,793,000 12,649,694 115,020 2,793,000 113,334 2,793,000 3,275,039 2,793,000 2,793,000 6,823,691 2,793,000 33,555,249 2,793,000 1,582,341 2,479,301 3,809,523 23,250,487 39,365,671 521,673 270,329 995,462 $180,963,873	-$241,510 -207,000 -207,000 -207,000 -912,712 -434,339 -207,000 -207,000 -937,517 -8,525 -207,000 -8,399 -207,000 -242,726 -207,000 -207,000 -505,730 -207,000 -2,486,910 -207,000 -117,273 -183,750 -282,338 -1,723,184 -2,917,542 -38,663 -20,035 -73,778 -$13,411,930	-$1,962,340 -999,000 -999,000 -1,695,783 -6,048,522 -3,446,264 -999,000 -999,001 -8,738,482 -73,517 -999,000 -69,297 -999,000 -2,457,631 -1,251,782 -1,091,969 -3,707,611 -999,000 -16,470,138 -999,000 -986,292 -956,685 -2,255,945 -13,565,223 -9,713,373 -383,956 -223,070 -1,158,808 -$84,248,686

To watch videos featuring award-winning AML projects, please visit OSMRE's YouTube Channel.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) carries out the requirements of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 in cooperation with states and tribes. OSMRE's objectives are to ensure that coal mining activities are conducted in a manner that protects citizens and the environment during mining, to ensure that the land is restored to beneficial use after mining, and to mitigate the effects of past mining by aggressively pursuing reclamation of abandoned coal mines. For instant updates on OSMRE, follow the bureau's Twitter feed @OSMRE.