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National Organization Protests Federal Cutbacks for Mine Closures Stuart Lieberman, Esq., The National Association of Land Mine Programs has protested the federal government's proposal to earmark next year $136 million for the closure of old mines. The Group proposes a $290 million appropriation from the feds. This isn't a typical case of the money not being there. Rather, its a case of the government collecting the money for the express purpose of using it for mine closures, but not releasing all of the collected money so that it can be used. Every year, the government collects approximately 35 cents per ton of produced coal through a special tax for the purpose of closing mines that were abandoned before 1977 (when federal laws went into effect). Yet, according to several published reports, the federal government actually spends about $100 million less every year that it collects from this tax. The rest, the government uses for non-related purposes.
Mines represent environmental and public health hazards. For example, on April 24 EPA announced that one mine, the Coalinga Mine in California, would be removed from the federal Superfund list. The mine was contaminated with metals and asbestos. Old mines also represent sink hole hazards, "vertical drop" hazards (people fall into abandoned mines), and pose underground fire risks. The federal government has allocated some money. For example, earlier this year Pennsylvania was awarded over $20 million in grant moneys for closure projects. Utah, Indiana, Louisiana and the Navajo Indian Tribe also received funding. While many acknowlege that funding has been made available, they complain that the federal government is not disbursing even close to all of the money that it collects for mine closure projects. And, there is much more work that remains to be done.
The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.
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The collected taxes go into a special fund called the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Trust Fund. According to the National Association of Land Mine Programs, that Fund had a $1.2 billion surplus as of September 1997. Money generated from the surplus alone creates $110 million in income each year. And much of this specially allocated money is being used to balance the federal budget, rather than its intended use of closing old mines.