PA Environment Digest Blog: PA Abandoned Mine Land Campaign Urges Action To Extend Expiring Federal Mine Reclamation Fee

The Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation sent out this action alert Monday as part of the PA Abandoned Mine Land Campaign to watershed groups, local governments and counties asking them to urge Congress to act now to extend the expiring federal mine reclamation fee--

Funding for abandoned mine reclamation activities across the nation is derived from a collection fee on every ton of coal mined in the U.S. since 1977. Those fees are placed into an account known as the Abandoned Mine Land Fund (AMLF).

Reclamation fees will be collected through 2021, then cease. Action by Congress is needed to extend the collection fee and address several other issues prioritized by national and local groups to allow reclamation work to continue across the nation.

County Conservation Districts, County Commissioners, watershed groups, municipalities, and townships are encouraged to pass resolutions supporting an amendment to SMCRA as outlined below.

Additionally, we encourage support letters from businesses who participate in reclamation and landowners who have benefited from reclamation.

Sample resolutions and support letters can be found online. Information on the national impact of the AMLF can be found at the Our Works Not Done website.

Prior to 1977, mining activities throughout the U.S. were not federally regulated, thus creating a legacy of scarred lands, open pits, and degraded waterways. That changed with the passage of SMCRA in 1977, which set-forth federal guidelines intended to regulate (permit) mining activities, by setting enforceable standards, and created the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) as the agency to oversee the program.

Over the years, SMCRA has been amended several times, most recently in December 2006, where a number of changes accelerated reclamation of mine-scarred lands and waters in the coal regions of the U.S.

Title IV is the section of SMCRA that contains the funding mechanism to reclaim land and water that was degraded by mining prior to SMCRA’s passage.

Now through 2022, funding for AML reclamation will be distributed to states and tribes as annual grants. The money comes from the reclamation fees in the AMLF having been collected during the prior year. These grants for reclamation are called Title IV funding.

Only states and tribes impacted by past coal mining receive Title IV funding. A complex formula that considers a state’s or tribe’s current coal production level and the historic production level is used in determining each state’s or tribe’s annual grant.

According to OSMRE, Pennsylvania’s annual grants from 2007 to 2019 plus projected grants from 2020 through 2022 will total $722 Million. Due to inflation, sequestration, declining coal production, increasing AML inventory, and other factors, annual grants to states and tribes have been much lower than expected and do not go as far as 2006 projections expected.

Thus reclamation efforts will not be complete when the fee collection is set to expire in 2021.

WPCAMR is part of the Pennsylvania Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Campaign, a no-budget, no-letterhead group of organizations and individuals advocating for policies and programs that benefit the coal-impacted communities of Pennsylvania and beyond.

The primary focus of the PA AML Campaign is the reauthorization of the collection fees that feed the AML Fund.

We are advised by state and national agencies, associations, and commissions such as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation (PA DEP BAMR), National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs, and Interstate Mining Compact Commission.

The PA AML Campaign supports the following key points for any forthcoming legislation:

-- Reauthorization of the AMLF Fee collection until year 2036. Based on requested funding levels, projected future production, and estimated costs of cleaning up inventoried sites, it will take decades to address most of the abandoned mine problems.

-- Restoring of the Fees. Since the enactment of SMCRA in 1977, the per ton reclamation fees have never accounted for inflation while the cost of reclamation continues to rise. As a result of the 2006 Amendments to SMCRA, the fees were reduced. We propose restoring the fees to the 1977 levels so that progress may be made.

-- Increasing Minimum Program State Funding to $5 Million Annually. Since 2006, this funding has been set at $3 million. In recent years, minimum program states and tribes have received significantly less due to sequestration. Additionally, in recent years, OSMRE has discontinued support to states and tribes with AML emergencies forcing states and tribes to use their annual allotment to mitigate AML emergencies.

Increasing this amount would help make up for past under-funding and ensure that states and tribes with significant AML problems but low production would be able to continue running effective programs. This potentially affects ten states.

-- Exempting of SMCRA Title IV Grants from Sequestration. Funds in the AMLF collected through SMCRA Title IV are not taxpayer funds, they are dedicated funds which can only be used for AML reclamation, and thus will not accomplish deficit reduction. The only way to exempt these funds from sequestration is to include it in legislation.

If AMLF grants continue to be subject to sequestration, states and tribes will lose upwards of $188 Million and Pennsylvania alone stands to lose upwards of $37 million over the remaining years of the current AML program.

The SMCRA Title IV grants should be exempt from sequestration and all Title IV sequestered funds should be given back to the states and tribes, retroactive to FY 2013.

-- Establishment of a Direct Line Item in OSMRE Budget for Emergency Projects. Section 410 of SMCRA requires OSMRE to fund the emergency AML program using OSMRE’s “discretionary share” under Section (402)(g)(3)(B), which is entirely separate from state and tribal non-emergency AML grant funding under Sections (402)(g)(1), (g)(2), and (g)(5).

In FY 2011, OSMRE issued guidance to the states that the agency “will no longer declare emergencies.” OSMRE has shifted responsibility for emergencies to the states and tribes with the expectation that they will utilize non-emergency AML funding to address them.

No additional funding is provided for emergency projects.

The result of this shift is that states and tribes must utilize a portion of their P1/P2 AML funding to address emergency projects.

Pennsylvania has spent an average of $4 Million annually since 2012 on emergency projects.

We urge Congress to restore emergency funding and allow states and tribes to use their limited resources to address their existing inventories.

-- Maintaining the Current Priority Ranking Criteria of Priorities 1, 2, and 3. States and tribes have the discretion to use their allocations from the AMLF for projects falling into any of the three priorities.

-- Maintaining Mandatory Distributions. With the 2006 amendments to SMCRA, distributions to the states and tribes were no longer subject to Congressional appropriation and the distributions were made mandatory. Mandatory distribution should continue so Pennsylvania can receive the most funding possible in a given year.

-- Maintaining the 30 Percent Set-Aside Option for states and tribes. Pennsylvania has taken advantage of this provision to construct and maintain AMD treatment systems. It is important to maintain the 30% Set-Aside provision to maintain flexibility for use of funds.

-- Maintaining a Transfer of Interest to the Combined Benefit Fund (CBF). Interest generated on the AMLF is currently transferred to the CBF to defray health care costs for retired miners and their dependents whose companies have gone bankrupt or are no longer in business.

The CBF pays for health care expenses remaining after Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and pays for prescription drugs. There are approximately 60,000 beneficiaries, whose average age is 78 years old.

Please forward resolutions and support letters to your local member of Congress and to Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senators. Please also provide copies to WPCAMR by sending email to: andy@wpcamr.org or anne@wpcamr.org.