A bill providing $6.3 billion to clean up hazardous abandoned coal mines – including $87.4 million to Colorado over the next 18 years – was signed Wednesday by President Bush.
The state currently needs $25.3 million for immediate cleanup of abandoned mines, said Ben Owens, a spokesman for the federal Office of Surface Mining, which oversees mine reclamation.
The allocation, part of a sweeping tax bill, renews the abandoned mines and reclamation program that was created in 1977.
The program is based on a per-ton fee that coal companies pay into a fund.
The bill makes spending for the reclamation program mandatory, which means it would not be controlled through the annual congressional appropriations processes.
The new money will buttress the $31.6 million in cleanup money already credited to Colorado under the program.
Every year, the state will get an amount for the program – $2.4 million next year, $7.2 million in 2008 and $7.1 in 2009. By 2025, the state will have received $87.4 million.
Colorado has a total of 23,000 abandoned coal and mineral mines, according to state figures.
“We had a long history in this country dating back to the 1700s of people mining coal and not falling under any law,” Owens said.
“They lost track of where mines were,” he said. “Suddenly, there are houses on top of these tunnels, and they cave in, or you get acid mine drainage. This money goes to fix mining-related claims.”
The states getting the largest cleanup appropriations are Pennsylvania, $1 billion, and West Virginia $986 million.
New Mexico will receive $40 million in cleanup funds.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
