The state yesterday announced $55.6 million in funding for at least 150 abandoned coal mine reclamation projects across the commonwealth.
Locally, the grants from the federal government’s 2018 Abandoned Mine Land Grant Fund include money to construct a treatment plant in Buffington Township. The plant will treat mine drainage from three underground mine pools which feed into Blacklick Creek and the Kiski-Conemaugh Watershed. There is also money to control mine subsidence in Bradenville, in Derry Township, Westmoreland County, to stabilize and prevent future subsidence for more than 100 homes.
Pennsylvania has one-third of the nation’s abandoned mines. The projects approved in this round of funding will remove dangerous highwalls, correct sinkholes and troughs caused by the collapse of underground mines, extinguish underground fires, reforest and re-vegetate some land, and remove acid mine drainage.
The Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation distributes the funds.
