As the world experiences a summer sizzle like no other, the Biden Administration continues its efforts to get rid of dangerous pollutants to combat climate change.
National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland visited Pennsylvania July 13 to discuss federal efforts to take back abandoned mine lands to assist areas in eliminating toxic legacy pollution while creating union jobs, according to a release from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
"President Biden is committed to providing federal leadership in partnership with coal, oil and gas and power plant communities – to create good-paying jobs, spur economic revitalization, remediate environmental degradation and support energy workers," McCarthy said, according to the DOI press release. "Pennsylvania is showing how strategic investments in place-based approaches to environmental remediation can grow the industries of the future while maintaining and creating good-paying jobs and reducing pollution."
McCarthy and Haaland toured abandoned land mines with Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn, representatives of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, as well as Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation.
According to the press release, "Lands included areas that have been reclaimed and converted into a public-use recreational park, as well as an ongoing stream restoration project of the Donaldson Culm Bank in Tremont, Pennsylvania."
The DOI stated that over $260 million has been invested in state and tribal efforts to reclaim abandoned mines.
According to the U.S. Natural Resources Committee, there are approximately 500,000 abandoned hardrock mines in America, all reportedly responsible for millions of gallons of toxic acid mine drainage every year.
“Hardworking communities like coal miners in Pennsylvania helped power our country," Secretary Haaland said. "With critical investments to reclaim abandoned mine lands and plug orphan wells, the Department of the Interior is wholly committed to helping working families who face hazardous pollution, toxic water levels, and land subsidence both during mining and long after coal companies have moved on."
