COAL TOWNSHIP – ‘The Coal Region’ could be making a comeback with the return of good-paying jobs in mining and recreation…That could happen with the bipartisan infrastructure bill headed toward approval and President Biden pushing his American Jobs Plan.
So said, federal and state officials this week, noting that Pennsylvania has received already more than $27 million toward reclaiming and converting abandoned mines through federal grants designed to lessen pollution and save waterways.
Good-paying union jobs may be created locally to convert dangerous pits and water holes, but that process may take some time, “Initially, those jobs would increase in the construction sector, with the contractors that would be doing the reclamation; but a lot has to happen at the federal level before we get to that point.”
Brian Bradley of the state DEP’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation joined several state and national representatives, including US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, during a tour of the Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area in Coal Township this week. The group assessed abandoned mines in and around the area in the hopes of lessening their environmental impact.
“They asked for a cross-section of sites that are unreclaimed or in the process of being reclaimed, and the AOAA has both of those. It just seemed like the site checked a lot of the boxes of what they were looking for,” Bradley said.
The Abandoned Mine Land and Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization federal grant programs fund reclamation projects like the proposed AOAA upgrades, as well as treating acid mine drainage, closing dangerous mine shafts and stabilizing mine slopes.
