ADVERTISEMENT
W.Va. Mine Suit Puts Spotlight On Coal Cleanup Funding
Law360 (May 19, 2021, 5:23 PM EDT) A lawsuit seeking to force the Biden administration to fix what environmental groups say is a grossly inadequate program to deal with abandoned West Virginia coal mines highlights brewing issues that will test the president s commitment to cleaning up coal across the country.
On Monday, the Sierra Club and Appalachian-area environmental groups sued the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement alleging it has failed to address the glaring flaws in a West Virginia state program intended to ensure the environmental safety of abandoned coal mines through posted bonds. Environmental advocates say the issue of how to properly fund reclamation.
May 19, 2021
Tennessee has more than 14,000 acres of abandoned coal fields, but the cost of remediation such as replanting trees and improving water quality far outweigh the federal funding available to the state, a new report shows.
Subscribe
The report by the Ohio River Valley Institute, a think tank dedicated to examining Appalachia, concluded that the total cost of reclaiming old coal mines across the country is $26 billion. The federal government s budget: $11 billion.
The vast majority of the nation s abandoned coal mines lie in the seven Appalachia states of Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
The former coal mines can cause a host of environmental problems, including water pollution and acid mine drainage, and present physical dangers to people in nearby communities from rockslides and flooding.
Nonprofit Groups Sue Surface Mining Agency Over Water Pollution lawstreetmedia.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lawstreetmedia.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
W Va Mine Suit Puts Spotlight On Coal Cleanup Funding law360.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from law360.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Appalachia has an abandoned mine land (AML) problem, and it’s much bigger and costlier to clean up than people thought. And the time to do it is running