The funding is considered key to removing toxic metals and returning fish and wildlife to waterways that haven't been vibrant for decades.
The funding is included in President Joe Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure package and is part of an overall plan to spend $11.3 billion in the U.S. abandoned mine lands program over 15 years.
“In community after community, this legacy pollution was left behind by industry, and it poorly impacts our quality of life, from contaminated drinking water systems to playgrounds and schoolyards,” former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, picked by Biden last year to supervise the president’s infrastructure plan, said during a conference call.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said 43 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties are affected by abandoned coal mining. West Virginia, the nation's second-largest coal producer, has such sites scattered across the state. And Illinois has 590 unfunded mine reclamation projects in its inventory with an estimated cost of at least $156 million.
"For too long, our health, our waterways, and our lands have been threatened by the toxic pollution left behind by coal companies,” said Angie Rosser, executive director of West Virginia Rivers Coalition.
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