OSM program enables states to give assistance to small mine operators

(WASHINGTON) - Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced that the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining has awarded Kentucky $733,844 to fund the Small Operators Assistance Program (SOAP).

"The Small Operators Assistance Program Grants enable the States' to contract with qualified laboratories to collect, analyze, and interpret hydrologic and geologic data and produce technical reports for small operators," said Norton. "And because these grants are for a period of three years, States are able to start and complete projects within the same grant period."

The Surface Mining Law enacted in 1977 authorized the use of fees collected for the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund to be used to help qualified small mine operators obtain technical data needed for permit applications. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 added additional technical permitting services to the list of items eligible for funding, including engineering analyses and design necessary for hydrologic impact determination, cross-section maps and plans, geologic drilling, archaeological and historical information, plans required for the protection of fish and wildlife habitat and other environmental values, and pre-blast surveys.

Kentucky's annual coal production is 157.5 million tons.