September 21, 2005
For immediate release | Tom Geoghegan
(202) 208-2838
tgeoghegan@osmre.gov
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OSM's Awards Announced for Colorado, Indiana, and Kentucky
(Bristol, VA) - The Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining last night presented its annual Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Awards at the National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs annual conference. The awards which honor outstanding abandoned mine reclamation were presented to state reclamation programs in Colorado, Indiana and Kentucky.
Kentucky received three awards, each for work at the Spewing Camp Branch Refuse AML
Project:
The Kentucky project required almost two years and a cost of 3.5 million dollars to clean up a refuse pile almost half a mile long,1,000 feet across and up to 165 feet deep. Cover material from adjacent areas and two nearby projects was spread to a depth of two feet. Benches had to be cut into the fill and side drains constructed. The successful completion of this project ended years of overwhelming erosion, downstream flooding and acid mine drainage.
Indiana's Department of Natural Resources, Division of Reclamation was presented with the
Mid - Continent regional award for exemplary reclamation at abandoned mine land site 380, the Sugar Ridge Fish and Wildlife area, Winslow, Indiana. Sugar Ridge includes over 8,000 acres mostly of reclaimed surface mine land. Here coal refuse has been consolidated and buried, drainage was redirected through newly constructed channels and pit bottoms were covered. Passive treatment and wildlife wetlands were built and disturbed areas revegetated.
As a result the land is productive, the water quality improved, and a useful public area created.
The Western Regional award went to the Colorado Inactive Mine Reclamation Project for operations completed with the help of students from Mesa State College. Their work included site inventory, design, and implementation to seal four uranium mine openings. At final closure the historical character of the sites had been maintained and habitat maintained by the installation of three bat gates.
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