INTRODUCTION

The federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was signed into law on August 3,1977 to regulate surface coal mining and reclamation nationwide. The law provided states the opportunity to develop State coal programs and assume primacy over the coal program from the federal government. Alaska chose to administer the program and the Alaska Surface Coal Mining Control and Reclamation Act was approved on May 2,1983 with the Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources being granted jurisdiction over surface coal mining and reclamation operations in the state. In addition to regulating the coal industry the State and federal laws created the Abandoned Mine Lands Program for the purpose of reclaiming abandoned historic mines of any type.

Land and water eligible for reclamation are those that were mined or affected by mining and abandoned or left in an inadequate reclamation status before August 3, 1977, and for which there is no continuing reclamation responsibility under State or federal law. AML funds can be spent on coal and non-coal abandoned historic mines. State, private, native and federal lands are eligible. Original sunset for the collection of AML funds was in 2004, set by federal law. The fee collection that provides the funds which the federal government distributes to the various states and tribal entities has been extended essentially on a year-by-year basis since that date. Several congressional efforts to date have failed to provide a long-term solution to the funding issue. While some State view the AML Program as an ongoing source of revenue, Alaska manages the funding with an eye towards getting as many safety issues mitigated as possible in the shortest time practicable given the funding level provided. There are no State General Fund dollars used in the AML Program.

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FUNDING SOURCE AND LEVELS

The AML Program is funded 100 percent by the AML Trust Fund administered by the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE). AML funds are collected from a fee assessed on today’s coal industry for every ton of coal produced and used to correct past deficiencies on now-defunct mine sites. The fee is 35 cents/ton for surface mines and 15 cents/ton for underground mines.

The State is entitled to receive 50% of the fees collected from coal production in the State, the historic production amount and emergency funds. Alaska's funding level has historically been less than $200,000 using this award formula. If a State's reclamation needs exceed $2,000,000 they can request Minimum Program Status and receive $1,500,000 plus emergency funds annually until the work remaining on the inventory drops below the $2,000,000 level. Alaska has received the Minimum Program funding level of grant amounts since 1994 (Figure 1).

Alaska has received $23.5 million since FFY 1983 (Figure 2). Funding should remain stable at $1,500,000 annually based upon the current AML inventory of coal and non-coal projects. The Minimum Program Coalition has requested OSMRE to raise the funding level for minimum program states to $2,000,000 as provided for in the federal law. Alaska could use the higher level of funding. Some congressional initiatives would have the grants for minimum programs such as Alaska’s increase to $3.0 million per year and completely stop after an additional 15 years of activity.

The majority of the AML funds ($1,195,000) are awarded to Alaskan contractors (Figure 3). The cost of administering the program is only $305,000 a year. The construction funds in each grant are available for three years. The administrative and emergency funds are single year funds. Any balances at the end of a grant cycle are rolled over to another grant.

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INVENTORY AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Coal and non-coal abandoned historic mines were broadly inventoried. Coal mining in Alaska has been well documented and every mine of significance has been identified. The coal inventory was completed in 1983 and 340 sites were identified.  At present we are working to refine that inventory to identify specific features and plan for mitigating each of them.  A literature search of known non-coal mines was compiled in 1991 and 432 sites were identified. The non-coal inventory remains incomplete for state, private and native lands.

Every inventoried site was evaluated to determine if it qualified for AML funding. Federal policy requires that priority one and two coal projects (the most likely to cause death or severe injury to site visitors) be completed first. Priority three coal projects (environmental issues) can be completed in conjunction with priority one and two projects or after all priority one and two projects have been completed. Only priority one non-coal projects can be reclaimed. Priority one non-coal sites can be worked on simultaneously with coal sites if they have been requested by the Governor. Because of the subjective nature of the criteria priority two non-coal sites were identified for further evaluation. The three reclamation priorities are:

1. Protection of public health, safety, general welfare and property from extreme danger resulting from the adverse effects of past coal mining practices.

2. Protection of public health, safety and general welfare from adverse effects of past coal mining practices, which do not constitute an extreme danger.

3. Restoration of eligible lands and waters and the environment previously degraded by adverse effects of past coal mining practices, including measures for the conservation and development for soil, water (excluding channelization), woodland, fish and wildlife, recreation resources, and agricultural productivity.

Utilizing these general priorities it was determined that there were some 70 coal projects areas and up to 60 known non-coal projects that still need to be reclaimed (Figure 4).

In the initial inventories it was estimated that reclamation of the coal projects would cost $52,000,000 and the non-coal projects would cost $2,700,000. To date 45 AML projects have been completed at a cost of $13.7 million (Figure 5). In some cases a site contains a single mining hazard and in other cases a multitude of mining hazards exists on a single site. The majority of the remaining coal related hazards are dangerous highwalls (12,500 feet) and the majority of the non-coal hazards are open portals and vertical openings (49).

The goals of the AML Program will be to complete as many coal and non-coal projects as funding will allow. We will be using periods of time when most funds are committed to single large projects to define and design mitigation plans for the remaining features requiring work in order to have the projects “on the shelf” as funds become available in the future.  Funding for non-coal projects is limited to the state share ($140,070) and historic coal share ($20,407).

It is apparent that all of the sites requiring reclamation cannot be completed before the AML Funds cease to be available in the future. The Division will continue to re-evaluate the inventories and concentrate on the highest priority coal and non-coal projects that have been identified. The AML Program will attempt to find other sources of finding such as shared cost projects with the mining industry, utilizing the RAMS Program through the US Army Corps of Engineers, and leveraging project participation by the various federal land managing agencies.

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For more information contact:

Division of Mining, Land & Water
550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 900D
Anchorage, AK 99501-3577
(907) 269-8630

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