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A Resolution of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, urging the reauthorization of the collection of fees for the Abandoned Mine Reclamation (AMR) Fund for a period of twenty (20) years, the increase of the amounts of these fees, and the allocation of interest generated from the AMR fund to defray the health care costs for certain retired miners and their dependents.
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WHEREAS, over 10 billion tons of bituminous coal have been mined in Western Pennsylvania since mining began around 1760 near Pittsburgh, a figure which accounts for roughly one quarter of all coal ever mined in the United States and which has made the industry one of the most significant employers of our citizens; and
WHEREAS, Abandoned mines pose hazards in Pennsylvania consisting primarily of dangerous mineshafts, over 250,000 acres of abandoned surface mines with dangerous highwalls and water filled pits, large quantities of black waste, scarred landscapes, acidic drainages polluting about 2,400 miles of streams to the point that they do not meet water quality standards, uncounted households without adequate water supply due to past mining practices, and mine fires and subsidence; and
WHEREAS, forty-five of Pennsylvania's 67 counties are affected by abandoned coal mines, with at least 1.4 million Pennsylvanian's living within one mile of abandoned mine lands; and
WHEREAS, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection estimates that the cost of remediation of all of the pollution from these mines would exceed $15 billion; and
WHEREAS, abandoned mines and abandoned mine lands create negative impacts on local economies by destroying recreational opportunities, lowering land values, leaving desolate communities once the mines are exhausted and ruining sites for further residential, forestry, commercial or agricultural uses, and threaten the human health and safety of people living in our coal field communities; and
WHEREAS, recl...
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