West Virginia officials Thursday announced the names of the recipients they are recommending for millions of dollars in federal funding to help clean up abandoned coal mines.
The West Virginia Department of Environment Protection is recommending 12 projects in the Mountain State receive $27 million in Abandoned Mine Land Pilot program funding.
“They are great projects for West Virginia that will spur economic development,” said Gov. Jim Justice, speaking at a virtual press conference Thursday.
The AML Pilot program was created by Congress in 2015 to provide additional federal funding to the six Appalachian states with the most abandoned coal mines, including West Virginia.
The program provides funding to clean up abandoned mines and boost the economic and development goals of local communities. Project recipients ran the gamut, although all are required to be on or adjacent to mine sites that ceased operation prior to the passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.
About half of the projects recommended for funding this year will expand outdoor recreation opportunities and lodging options along the Hatfield-McCoy Trail system in southern West Virginia. Development along the Cheat River and Blackwater River also received funding.
More than half of the funding will go to projects expanding access to clean water in communities, including some in Raleigh, Summers and Fayette counties.
The group Reconnecting McDowell was recommended to receive $1 million to help finance the construction of the Renaissance Village in Welch, which will offer rental apartments to teachers and others in McDowell County.
Federal regulators with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement must still give final approval to recommended projects and funding amounts.
Here is a list of the recommended recipients:
Indian Creek ATV Resort Project $3,378,000
Building the Indian Creek ATV Resort to serve as an anchor development for the newest Hatfield-McCoy Trail system in Boone County. Project includes construction of 20 cabins, 15 RV Sites, and will be the location of the new Coal River Trail System.
Oak Hill Sanitary Board – Minden Sanitary Sewer System Rehabilitation $1,500,000
Upgrading existing sewer lines, pumping stations, and sanitary collection system.
Claudia L. Workman Wildlife Education Center $959,613
Building an educational and wildlife viewing center within the Forks of Coal State Natural Area, located on Corridor G, just south of Charleston.
Renaissance Village in McDowell County $1,000,000
Aiding in the construction of a housing facility for teachers. The proposed facility will also have space available for commercial use.
Twin Hollow Campgrounds and Cabins Expansion Project $2,699,422
Expanding the Twin Hollow Campgrounds and Cabins Resort in Mingo County to an even larger, more prominent destination that will bring in thousands of Hatfield-McCoy Trail Riders annually and facilitate a private sector investment of $3,970,230 over the next five years.
Reclaiming the Cheat River as an Economic Asset through Trail Investment and Nurturing Greenspace (RECREATING) $1,000,000
Improving trail and river access by building a destination trailhead at the Preston site.
Harper Eccles Sewer Extension Project $7,647,398
Providing approximately three miles of public sewer to residents along Route 3 in Raleigh County.
Rhodell Water Service Upgrade Project $2,125,000
Constructing approximately three miles of public water service to residents along Route 33 in Raleigh County.
White Oak Waterline Extension Project $1,319,050
Providing approximately 19,750 linear feet of public water service to residents along the border of Raleigh and Summers counties.
The Blackwater River Loop Project: Hiking, Biking and Heritage Tourism $818,000
Constructing a water treatment system to improve water quality of the north fork of the Blackwater River and make the site a visitor-friendly education project. This project will also create a scenic trail between the towns of Thomas and Davis and restore the Davis Coal and Coke Company engineering building for use.
Fleming – An Old Mining Town Transformation to Rustic Ravines $250,000
Building a lodge and wedding/conference venue, cabins, cottages, pods, RV and ATV parks, tennis amenities, basketball amenities, walking/hiking trails, ATV trails, an Alpine Coaster, a disc golf course, a miniature golf course, and an indoor driving range to increase tourism.
Brenton and Baileysville Waterline Extension Project$4,500,000
Providing water service to 254 customers, Baileysville Elementary and Middle School, along with a potential expansion of the Hatfield-McCoy Trail.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Thursday filed a lawsuit against coal operator ERP Environmental Fund, Inc. alleging the company has racked up hundreds of violations, laid off employees, and walked away from its mining operations, leaving environmental obligations unfulfilled.
According to documents filed with the Kanawha Circuit Court on March 26, ERP holds more than 100 permits at numerous mine sites across West Virginia. With the exception of one permit, all were acquired in 2015 from Patriot Coal Corporation during the company’s second bankruptcy.
DEP says it has issued 160 notices of violations and 118 failure to abate cessation orders to the struggling company. It argues ERP’s failure to comply with surface mining and water pollution laws poses “existing and ongoing threats to the public health and safety and the environment.”
High Stakes
Of greatest concern, the agency says, is the Tygart River Mine complex located in Marion County. The abandoned underground mine, often known as the Martinka mine, requires constant water pumping and treatment, which costs $900,000 annually.
Without it, water will rise in the mine. If a blowout occurs, DEP says water would contaminate the Tygart River, a source of drinking water for thousands of West Virginians.
“The situation at Martinka represents the proverbial canary in the coal mine and signals the serious issues involved in the Defendant’s cessation of operations,” the motion states. “Without immediate funding and effective management oversight of its environmental liabilities and operations, any one or all of the Defendant’s mine sites in West Virginia could soon become the next Martinka, placing the environment and the health and safety of many thousands of West Virginians at significant risk on a much broader scale.”
Clarke Enterprise
ERP is associated with the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund, a nonprofit operated by Virginia businessman Tom Clarke. Clarke, whose background is in healthcare, has faced scrutiny from conservation groups for his plans to reduce the environmental impacts of coal mining by planting trees on reclaimed mines. In addition to the Patriot mines, Clarke has purchased coal mines including from Cleveland Cliffs, Walter Energy and Alpha Natural Resources. In some cases his attempts were rebuffed.
According to the West Virginia Secretary of State, ERP’s president is former Patriot mining engineer Matt Cook. Clarke is listed as the company’s treasurer.
A representative for Clarke did not respond to a request for comment.
Erin Savage, central Appalachian senior program manager, with Appalachian Voices, said she was not surprised to see state regulators take this step.
“Tom Clarke had put together a scheme that we’ve seen other companies do as well, that they take on a lot of struggling mines out of bankruptcies and they have some plan that seems not fully thought out that will somehow allow them to succeed when the previous company did not,” she said. “I’ve been skeptical of Tom Clarke’s ability to clean up these mines and fund reclamation for years now.”
Receivership Compromise
During the years after the purchase, DEP officials say ERP received little funding and struggled to keep up with its required environmental obligations. It asked the agency for access to money set aside for reclamation work, which the agency did not grant. DEP did allow ERP access to $1 million earmarked for water treatment at former Patriot mine sites.
By late 2019 or early 2020, the documents state, ERP was out of cash. Officials say the company has performed only limited essential activities since February, and as of March 19, laid off all employees and ceased operating.
But the DEP also stated it doesn’t have the resources to revoke all of ERP’s permits and do the reclamation by itself.
The agency says transferring more than 100 permits to the state’s Special Reclamation Fund “would overwhelm the fund both financially and administratively, with the result that the actual reclamation and remediation of the ERP mining sites could be delayed.”
ERP has $115 million in surety bonds, which would be forfeited if the agency revokes the company’s permits. DEP says instead of taking that “drastic” step it has been in communication with the surety bond issuer, Indemnity National Insurance Company.
“To put the matter bluntly, neither DEP nor the surety is willing to permit the Defendant to continue its operations and attempt environmental compliance under its current organization and management structure,” the motion states. “Each is willing, on the other hand, to fund and facilitate the Defendant’s compliance with its environmental obligation under the supervision and control of a qualified and capable receiver.”
Savage, with Appalachian Voices, said this situation highlights the systemic challenges with how regulators allow coal operators to bond their mines.
“Having pool bonds and bond amounts that are potentially not sufficient to cover actual reclamation costs, having a single surety company cover so many permits — these are all red flags that could have been dealt with years ago, but as this point it’s hard to change the bonding structure,” she said.
The agency is seeking a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction compelling ERP to do its environmental remediation. DEP is also asking for the appointment of a special receiver to take control of ERP’s mines and assets.
The receiver, Doss Special Receiver, LLC, would take control of ERP’s mines and carry out its reclamation requirements. In a press release issued Friday, the agency said Imdenmity has agreed to provide $1 million in funding to Doss to fund its operations for an initial period of 90 days.
A new report by a group of regional advocacy organizations argues reclaiming abandoned mine lands could be a key factor in Appalachia’s transition from coal.
In its second annual report, released Thursday, the Reclaiming Appalachia Coalition, highlighted 19 reclamation projects in West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky. They run the gamut from installing solar on abandoned mine lands to boosting outdoor recreation opportunities like biking and hiking trails.
“Although funding streams may change, the idea and the need for a restoration economy is not going away,” said Joey James, with Downstream Strategies. “We’re excited to work within a growing community of practice to accelerate the adoption of innovative approaches to land restoration and redevelopment that contribute meaningfully to the region’s economy.”
The group’s goal is to support and promote innovative reclamation projects — projects that can be replicated, involve local communities, and are financially viable after grant funding runs out.
“We see this limited pot of money is available for innovative land reuse, and we want to ensure those dollars are efficiently and effectively spent,” James said.
The new report, “A New Horizon: Innovative Reclamation for a Just Transition,” includes both new projects and projects that recently were awarded state and federal funding, including a combined $15.8 million in federal Abandoned Mine Land Pilot program funding.
In West Virginia, one new project slated to be built near old mine lands would turn food waste from West Virginia University into compost. The facility would employ those in recovery from substance use addiction. The project is slated to cost more than $3 million, but developers estimate would bring more than $7 million in economic impact — $2.4 million in payroll alone — and employ 54 people across multiple sectors.
The group said reauthorization of the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) program, administered by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, is critical to continue this work. It also advocates for more oversight of projects.
“As the first AML Pilot projects move from these big check moments, to construction and then on to operation, we across the region need to objectively assess the effectiveness of projects that are receiving this very limited funding and intervene where necessary, both within individual projects and organizations that are receiving money,” James said.
The group expects to begin collecting data on economic impact of some funded projects beginning next year.
The coalition’s members include Appalachian Voices in Virginia, Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center in Kentucky, Coalfield Development Corporation in West Virginia, Rural Action in Ohio, and Downstream Strategies, based in West Virginia.
Standing at an overlook on the top of Black Mountain — the tallest point in Kentucky — the wooded Appalachian mountains stretch on like a sea of green for miles.
For many, this mountain is synonymous with the coal industry. It straddles the state line separating Harlan County, Kentucky and Wise County, Virginia, two communities that have long relied on mining the black gold contained in its depths.
Among the lush forests, barren, brown spots dot the landscape, a testament to this history. These are coal mines, created when the tops of these mountains were removed. From the top of Black Mountain, one sprawling mine and its towering high wall dominate the view.
“So, we are looking currently looking at Looney Ridge surface mine number one,” says Matt Hepler, an environmental scientist with the advocacy group Appalachian Voices.
Hepler has for years been following action, or lack thereof, at the Looney Ridge mine, which is operated by A&G Coal, a coal company run by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Matt Hepler of the advocacy group Appalachian Voices.
Coal has not been produced here since at least 2013 when A&G Coal asked Virginia regulators to place the mine in what is called temporary cessation. The permit status allows mining to pause, giving mining companies flexibility on requirements for land reclamation until it becomes more economically feasible to begin extracting coal again. And, as the name implies, this idling of mines is supposed to be temporary.
An analysis of mine permit data conducted by the Center for Public Integrity finds Central Appalachia is home to about half of all idled coal mines in the country. CPI found more than 200 mines are idled across West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. About half have been that way for three or more years. Warehousing mines using this permit status throws workers and nearby communities into limbo all while crucial environmental cleanup is delayed.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
The analysis shows that the Justice companies are the nation’s most frequent users of coal mine idling. Thirty-three mines and a coal preparation plant owned by the Justice family’s companies were idled as of mid-August. Fifteen of those have been in that status for at least three years, according to CPI’s analysis. In West Virginia, one Justice mine in McDowell County has been idled for almost a decade.
That number doesn’t include the Looney Ridge mine or others nearby in Virginia where coal also hasn’t been mined for years. That’s because in early 2014, state mining regulators entered into a compliance agreement with the Justices to force them to reclaim the site.
Hepler, with Appalachian Voices, said that agreement has not resulted in much actual reclamation. The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy has amended the compliance agreement multiple times.
“It’s looked like this for as long as I’ve been coming up here,” he said, pointing to the same broken-down bulldozer that has been there for years.
Tarah Kesterson, a spokesperson with the Virginia DMME, said the agency is pushing the Justices to clean up the site and is actively monitoring the situation as well as conducting inspections.
“We are doing everything within our enforcement authority to ensure that this gets done,” she said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Justice companies defended the reclamation work and said idling permits is a standard practice across the industry.
But as the nation shifts away from coal toward more economic options for power generation, such as natural gas and renewable energy, some fear the use of mine idling can be used as a stepping stone to abandon mines, passing the responsibility for cleanup to the government and taxpayers.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Unreclaimed mine land on Looney Ridge, near the KY/VA border.
Community Impact
Idle mines, especially those left untouched for years at a time, can negatively affect the economy, health, and environment of nearby communities.
“When mines become inactive or idle, they starve a local community, and they deprive the community of the coal mining jobs and other related jobs,” said Joe Pizarchik, former head of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the federal agency in charge of regulating surface coal mines, during the Obama administration.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
When mines enter temporary cessation employment plummets. CPI’s analysis found coal operations that have been idled for at least three years had 85 percent fewer full-time employees after switching into idle status than they did a year before.
“It also puts that land in a totally non-productive state,” Pizarchik said. “It’s not making money on anything for anybody for the community, and it can be a potential pollution source.”
In addition to being unsightly, there are health and safety risks associated with leaving mines unreclaimed, said Emily Bernhardt an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist and professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Mines left idled can expose residents to coal and silica dust. They can also pose a risk for landslides and flooding. During surface coal mining, operators pile tons of rock and liquid behind earthen dams. When left idle, those impoundments face a greater likelihood of failing.
“You can’t actually make any improvements when you’re just sort of on hold,” Bernhardt said.
Who Pays?
Federal regulators have made two attempts since the 1990s to reform the way temporary cessation is used, according to public records obtained by CPI. Both have stalled. That’s despite a 2010 survey of state regulators that showed most states believed there should be limits on how long mines could be idled.
Federal law only requires that mining companies notify regulators when a permit will be in temporary cessation longer than 30 days.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Black Mtn. holds both natural beauty and scars of resource extraction
State regulators can reject applications to change mines to an idled status if they find noncompliance or ongoing pollution. Kesterson with the Virginia DMME said before an operator can apply for temporary cessation, reclamation must be up to date. In Kentucky and Virginia, inspections continue while a mine is idled, and operators are fined if violations are found.
While in the past, mine operators may have used idling to pause production to allow coal prices to rebound, Pizarchik worries the nation’s shift away from coal means the chances of idled mines being cleaned up are shrinking.
“I believe it’s extremely unlikely that those mines will ever be activated again because the price of coal is never going to go up,” he said. “The demand is only going to continue to shrink.”
If operators walk away from idled mines, states could face challenges with mine reclamation depending on how coal mine bonds are regulated, and that could leave taxpayers on the hook for paying for reclamation.
While Virginia is moving away from allowing coal operators to “self-bond” — or not put up a cash bond or buy a bond from an insurance firm if a company is deemed to be in good financial health — some A&G Coal permits remain self-bonded, Kesterson said. That means if the company were to go under, the state would get none of the money required for cleanup.
The state has in the past allowed coal companies to pay only partial bond amounts into a shared pool. The bond pool is meant to supplement cleanup for more than 150 permits, but the pool has less than $10 million cash.
“The reclamation would cost more than what we have in a pool bond,” Kesterson said of liabilities owed by A&G Coal. “So that’s why we’re trying to work with them, to get them to pay for the reclamation.”
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Not all states are concerned. John Mura, spokesperson for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, said in an email that only 10 percent of Kentucky’s coal mines, or 150 permits, are in temporary cessation.
CPI’s analysis examined federal MSHA data on idled mining permits and is likely an undercount of idled mines because state and federal data are incomplete and often not comparable.
Mura said that following an order in 2011 by OSMRE to reform the state bonding program, base bond amounts have increased by about 60 percent.
“Kentucky has made great strides to ensure that reclamation bonds are adequate to complete reclamation in the event of bond forfeiture,” he said.
As the industry contracts, more bankruptcies are likely, which can open the door for companies to walk away from mines where buyers can’t be found.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
A truck enters a mine belonging to the now-bankrupt Revelation Energy.
That’s one concern currently playing out with the Blackjewel LLC bankruptcy, which has left more than 1,000 miners in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia without their last paychecks.
CPI’s analysis found Blackjewel and other subsidiaries owned by former CEO Jeff Hoops had 21 coal mines and related facilities temporarily idled as of mid-August, according to Mine Safety and Health Administration data, and seven of those had been paused for at least three years. Many of those mines have not been purchased since Blackjewel’s bankruptcy.
At least 16 additional operations owned by other companies in bankruptcy sit in idle status, all of them in Central Appalachia, according to federal data.
“Raped Out Mountains”
Retired coal miner and mine inspector Larry Bush knows firsthand how idle mines can impact the environment.
Bush lives below two Justice mines — one that is active and Looney Ridge. Sitting under a covered gazebo at a park in the town of Appalachia, Virginia, where he has lived almost his whole life, Bush said he sees the environmental toll unreclaimed mines can have on the environment.
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Former miner Larry Bush lives near two large coal mines in Virginia.
“There’s a little stream that’s pretty much filled up with silt,” he said. “Nothing can live in it. I mean, there’s nothing, I don’t think.”
The 70-year-old Vietnam veteran is soft-spoken and sports a pair of reflective aviator glasses.
Bush wants to see this region rebound as the coal industry declines, but he struggles to see how that can happen with idled mines marking the landscape.
“If they’re not actively employing people, or actively working the site, they should be forced to do their reclamation work instead of just leaving raped out mountains,” he says.
This story was produced in partnership withHigh Country News and theCenter for Public Integrity. CPI’s Mark Olalde contributed reporting and Joe Yerardi produced CPI’s data analysis.
From solar farms in Virginia to a green energy subdivision in Kentucky, anew report by a group of regional advocacy organizations highlights 20 ready-made projects across the Ohio Valley that could give abandoned mining operations that were never cleaned up a second life, and create new economic opportunity across the region.
In the report, released Tuesday, the Reclaiming Appalachia Coalition, which advocates for high-impact mine reclamation projects throughout Central Appalachia, says innovative mine reclamation “could be Appalachia’s new Deal.”
“This report marks an important step as Appalachia citizens continue to re-imagine and work toward a future of sustainable and healthy local economies, where young people can find meaningful work and stay to raise their own families,” Adam Wells, regional director of community and economic Development with Appalachian Voices, said in a statement.
Virginia-based Appalachian Voices is one of the members of the coalition. Other organizations include Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center in Kentucky, Coalfield Development Corporation in West Virginia, Rural Action in Ohio, and Downstream Strategies in West Virginia.
Projects highlighted in the report run the gamut and include proposals to use acid mine drainage in Perry County, Ohio to create paint and a proposal by a West Virginia wholesaler to build a livestock processing facility in Kanawha County.
The region has struggled to cleanup and repurpose thousands of abandoned coal sites since the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) fund was created in 1976. State and local governments have sometimes struggled with how to repurpose abandoned coal mine sites, and some high-profile projects have fizzled.
In the report, the authors argue well-thought out reclamation projects can spur economic development, but offer best practices for how they should be proposed. They include selecting appropriate locations near infrastructure and ensuring redevelopment projects are environmentally sustainable and financially viable over the long term.
In recent years, Congress has boosted resources available for that effort. Beginning in 2017, more than $100 million was appropriated for the Abandoned Mine Land Pilot Program. Many of the projects highlighted in the report have applied for funding through the AML Pilot Program.
But another federal effort, the Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More” Act, or RECLAIM Act, which would accelerate reclamation of abandoned mine land by dispersing $1 billion of Abandoned Mine Land funds over a 5-year period with an eye toward economic development, has not been passed by Congress.
Combined, the report’s authors say the 20 projects would require about $38 million of investment and bring $83.5 million in economic activity as well about 540 jobs to the region.
