1/3 Of West Virginia Residents Live w/i 1 Mile Of Abandoned Mines; Cleanup Could Mean 7,000 Jobs
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Congress created the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) program in 1977 to clean up the damage by the coal industry. According to another ORVI report released this week, nearly $8 billion worth of damage on 978,000 acres has been cleaned up.
The report, “Repairing the Damage: Cleaning up the land, air, and water damaged by the coal industry before 1977,” found that 27 percent (using 2020 costs) of all AML damage has been repaired, and identified 850,000 acres of remaining unreclaimed coal sites nationwide. It found that the seven Appalachian states (Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia) bear more than 80 percent of the unreclaimed acres and costs.
The pollution is concentrated in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, which, according to the report, are home to roughly half the unreclaimed acres, and two-thirds of the costs. “There are a number of different problems that are caused by AML damage,” said author Eric Dixon. It can “threaten the injury and death of residents, deter development, harm local ecosystems, and contribute to climate change.” In Appalachia, 5.5 million people live within one mile of an AML site, including one in three West Virginians.
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Cleaning up those sites could create thousands of jobs, in fields like construction and engineering. “If we were to repair half of the remaining damage over the next decade, then we would create about 7,000 direct jobs, and 17,000 indirect jobs,” Dixon said. OVRI is encouraging workforce training, to ensure that a portion of these jobs goes to people in local communities. The ORVI is pushing for $13 billion in federal funding to reclaim abandoned mine land.
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https://www.alleghenyfront.org/new-reports-cleaning-up-coal-site-and-plugging-gas-wells-could-create-thousands-of-jobs/
= new reply since forum marked as read
the coal billionaires so they can keep their profits.
It makes me feel all warm inside.
