Congressional Cuts To Abandoned Mine Reclamation Funding Means PA To Lose $169.4 Million, Largest Cut Of Any State, And Our Own PA Members Of Congress Voted For It; Can We Get It Back?

The Ohio River Valley Institute recently reported Congressional cuts to the federal Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program signed into law by the President in January mean mining states will lose over $500 million over the next 11 years of the program.

Pennsylvania, with the largest Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program, is set to lose the most by far-- $169,476,758 or $15,406,978 a year.

There are 5,670 miles of streams in Pennsylvania where the major cause of water quality impairment is abandoned mine drainage.  Read more here.

Combined with growing inflation, this means fewer jobs will be supported cleaning up mines and more hazardous coal mining damage won’t be reclaimed in Appalachia and across the country.

Congress passed the original Abandoned Mine Land funding in 2021 as part of the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which provided $10.9 billion over 15 years for the program.

The Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation had this to say on Facebook  about the cuts--

"PA is going to see a huge reduction in funding for AMD and abandoned mine land reclamation projects due to these actions at the Federal level by Congress. 

"We tried to advocate to stop this from happening, but were unsuccessful unfortunately in keeping the funding from being repurposed. 

"Many groups across Appalachia and the West tried to speak up to prevent the cuts, but a number of our legislative leaders decided to vote the other way for reasons we remain baffled by. 

"Bobby Hughes [EPCAMR Executive Director] has in the past tried to get as much media attention as possible on this subject and action as well as having had reached out to PA legislators and became frustrated when these decisions were made."

Nathan Houtz, DEP Deputy Secretary For Active and Abandoned Mine Operations, told DEP’s Mining and Reclamation Advisory Board in January, “We've been talking with our senators and congressmen and their staff about, though this money disappeared, we'd like to see it come back.

“The best I could say is to keep those lines of communication open with the legislators in DC, that we'd like to see the money come back and we definitely don't want to see this be the opening of a door to take more money from IIJA (federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment Act).”

Visit DEP’s Abandoned Mine Reclamation webpage to learn more about this program.

Visit the PA Abandoned Mine Land Campaign website and the Our Work’s Not Done Abandoned Mine Lands website for more information.

(Photos: Little Conemaugh River before and after mine drainage treatment projects.)

Resource Links:

-- Congress Cut Abandoned Mine Reclamation Funding To PA By $169 Million Canceling Critical Water Quality Restoration Projects [PaEN] 

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[Posted: June 18, 2026]  PA Environment Digest