June 10, 2005
For immediate release | Contact: Tom Geoghegan
(202) 208-2838
tgeoghegan@osmre.gov |
New Mexico Awarded $1,637,421 in AML Program Funds
(Washington DC) - Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced that the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining has awarded New Mexico $1,637,421 in funding to continue the state's reclamation of abandoned mined lands.
High-priority AML problems threaten public health and safety and could cause substantial physical harm to persons or property. These include clogged streams and stream lands, dangerous highwalls, impoundments, piles, embankments and slides, hazardous or explosive gasses, hazardous water bodies, underground mine fires, surface burning, portals and vertical openings, subsidence and polluted drinking water.
"The Abandoned Mine Land program has made thousands of Americans living in the coalfields safer. The grant we've just awarded will give New Mexico's reclamation program some of what it needs to continue working on this serious problem," Norton said.
The Office of Surface Mining(OSM) collects fees on current coal mining to fund reclamation of coal mine sites abandoned before 1977, when the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act was passed.
New Mexico produces 17 million tons of coal a year.
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