This bill could mean a large boost of funds for Illinois mine clean up. On Thursday, July 2, 2020, the RECLAIM Act (HR 2156) passed the U. S. House of Representatives. It is part of The Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), a bill to address America’s infrastructure needs and to create jobs, in the wake of the economic and health crisis caused by COVID-19.
The RECLAIM Act would invest $1 billion in projects that
- clean up abandoned coal mines and their polluted waters
- catalyze community economic development projects on, or near, reclaimed sites.
These funds would be invested in over 20 states across the Country, including Illinois. In addition to the RECLAIM Act, the Moving Forward Act includes H.R.4248. It will reauthorize the fee supporting the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Reclamation Fund.
This legislation is a critical step for coal community recovery, after the decline of the coal industry and the economic effects of COVID-19. The RECLAIM Act and reauthorization of the Abandoned Mine Reclamation fee was recently endorsed, by over 100 organizations across the United States, in a letter to Congressional leadership.
“Now that the bill has reached the Senate, we look forward to working with Senators [Richard] Durbin and [Tammy] Duckworth, so that this crucial legislation can finally become law….[It will] provide funds that will both erase the environmental scars of abandoned coal mines and provide jobs in those communities, that depended upon coal mining for their economic livelihood,” stated said Dan Fisher, Gillespie, IL, City Treasurer and President of the community’s economic development group, “Grow Gillespie.”
“COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on our social and economic structures. Fold [in] the economic uncertainties that the continued decline of coal mining has wrought, and you can clearly see that coal communities are experiencing a one-two punch to the gut right now. It’s time to pass RECLAIM and provide needed hope to coal country families.”
Background
For more than 140 years, Illinois’s coal mining communities helped power the State and the Nation. While many communities have a proud history of mining and reclamation, thousands of acres of abandoned mined lands still exist throughout Illinois’s coal country. The Office of Surface Mining estimates that Illinois has $153 million in remaining AML liabilities. Under the RECLAIM Act, Illinois would be poised to access $102 million over five years, to complete reclamation and spur economic development. This could create an estimated 1300 jobs in the State.
For years, coal communities and organizations have advocated for these bills as job creation measures, to support coal communities as they faced job loss and economic decline, due to a disappearing coal industry. However, these jobs are even more critical for coalfield communities, as they grapple with further economic decline due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Good News in Illinois
Illinois is one of the Nation’s success stories in terms of redevelopment of reclaimed coal sites. The area around Gillespie, in south central Illinois, is the epicenter of much of this redevelopment. From the early-1900s to the mid-1960s, coal mining was the dominant industry around Gillespie,” said Fisher. “But over the years, all of the mines closed. Beginning in the 1970s the former mine sites were reclaimed, thanks to funds from AML. Within a ten-mile radius of my house there are now soccer fields, a steel tubing plant, a carpet retailer, a vineyard-winery, and a manufacturer of industrial trash containers. All, of whom, are operating on lands that were once abandoned coal mines. These businesses are proof that jobs can be created in former coal communities. Reclamation is a fundamental catalyst for that job creation.”
“Reclamation efforts seek to restore topography and drainage, rectify acidic soils and waters, and return soil to abandoned coal mines that were disturbed prior to a 1977 Federal law that required clean-up,” said Amanda Pankau, Energy Campaign Coordinator with Prairie Rivers Network and member of the Reclaim Working Group. “Illinois has countless examples of economic development projects on reclaimed mined lands, including farms, vineyards, recreational opportunities, businesses, State Parks, and industrial parks.”
“Opportunities to reclaim land with an eye to economic development is especially important in areas where coal economies continue to decline amid a transitioning energy economy. The RECLAIM Act will focus on those areas and also will allow community members to play a role, in determining what areas and projects receive support.”