LONG-TERM RENEWAL OF ABANDONED MINE LAND RECLAMATION FUND
Trout Unlimited Press Conference, National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
Comments by Carol Moore, May 3, 2005

Good morning, my name is Carol Moore.  In my professional life, I am the office manager for Geo/Environmental Associates, a consulting engineering firm to the mining industry.  As a volunteer, I am a founding board member of the Coal Creek Watershed Foundation, a non-profit watershed restoration group in Anderson County, Tennessee, and I was Trout Unlimited’s Volunteer Conservationist of the Year for 2004.

Watershed restoration in the Appalachian coalfields involves much more than just reclaiming abandoned mine land (AML).  Reauthorization of the AML trust fund is needed to help solve some, but not all, of those problems.  Before telling you why we need the trust fund reauthorized, I’m going to tell you where we don’t need it.  

In the past, a child in Coal Creek, Tennessee, was more likely to go to prison than to college.  The community lacked leaders and role models.  That’s why we started our Coal Creek Scholars program to teach children to be proud of their coal-mining heritage and guide them to college so they can become those leaders.  My favorite day of the year is Coal Creek Scholars Day when all the college students we have supported tell the younger kids, “Hey, if I can do it, so can you”.  We don’t need the trust fund reauthorized to get the kids to college.   

Residents along Coal Creek used to live in fear of flooding every time it rained, not from abandoned mine land, but from non-mining related disturbance to the creek.  Using a grant from FEMA for materials, volunteers have completed several flood abatement projects and no flood damage has occurred since then.  One elderly lady called me recently to say, “For the first time in my life I can sleep at night after it starts raining”.  We don’t need the trust fund reauthorized to abate those types of flooding problems.

In fact, a substantial amount of AML reclamation work in Appalachia can be done by coal companies during re-mining activities which produce coal from previously lost or abandoned coal reserves.  Reclamation is done in accordance with strict environmental standards at no cost to taxpayers and money taxed from that coal is then paid into the trust fund. 

So, why do we need the trust fund reauthorized?  Coalfield communities need it reauthorized to reclaim abandoned mine land where re-mining is not feasible.  Those pre-law sites create hazards for people and degrade our streams.  That’s our situation in Coal Creek where coal has been mined for 150 years and re-mining is not economically feasible.  We are building a local mining history tourism industry to bring jobs to the watershed and tourists are turned off by orange water.   

And we’re not alone in our request for reauthorization of the fund.  I’ve surveyed a broad spectrum of the coal industry and all those I surveyed support continuation of the trust fund, but only if it is used for its intended purpose.  Today’s coal industry gets blamed for the sins of past generations despite having already paid enough money into the trust fund to correct most problems associated with pre-law sites.  Yet, they still support reauthorization because they live in the coalfields, too.  Unfortunately, Congress has used a sizeable portion of that money for other purposes. 

One coal company engineer said it best, “I used to catch a bus to school.  An abandoned gob pile was burning on the hillside above where I grew up.  The smog in the mornings would choke you to death!  It was unbearable.  Los Angeles didn’t have a thing on us in that regard.  Anyhow, AML moved in, put the fire out, and reclaimed the site.  That’s what the fund should be used to do.  Wear those politicians out in DC!”

I know Congress will be tempted to reauthorize the fund and use it for other programs.  When tempted to do so, consider the miners who worked in those now abandoned mines over the past 150 years to fuel our economy and make America strong.  Consider their descendants who live in the coalfields today.   

Do the right thing.  Encourage re-mining whenever feasible as a cost-effective way to correct past sins at no cost to taxpayers by including incentives for such mining and reauthorize the AML trust fund.  Use that money to reclaim abandoned mine land where re-mining is not feasible as a legacy to those who worked and died in the mines.  Do it for them, do it for their kids and grandkids.

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