West Virginia’s Grossly Underfunded Mine Reclamation Program Violates Law, Biden Administration Determines

HUNTINGTON, WV -- Yesterday, responding to continuing pressure from community groups, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement (OSMRE) announced its formal determination that West Virginia is violating the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) by failing to ensure that funds will be available to reclaim coal mines in the state. The agency’s decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. The groups have long claimed that West Virginia’s existing “bond pool” is insufficient to ensure the full costs of reclamation amid the rapid, nationwide decline of the coal industry.

The state’s reclamation bonding and regulatory programs are meant to clean up abandoned mine sites and protect drinking water from pollution. 

Last year, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) admitted to the crisis, and took the unprecedented step of asking a state court to place a failing mine operator into receivership. Among the justifications given to the court by WVDEP was the potential failure of one of the state’s primary surety bond providers and the need to avoid exhausting the state’s emergency “Special Reclamation Fund” for mine cleanup. But West Virginia failed to take any action to shore up the fund or compel mine operators to conduct additional reclamation.

OSMRE’s decision announced today concludes that West Virginia must amend its SMCRA program to ensure the state is accurately assessing reclamation costs and ensuring that adequate funds are available to clean up newly abandoned mines.

The groups whose lawsuit precipitated today’s decision are represented by attorneys with Appalachian Mountain Advocates and Public Justice. View OSMRE’s decision here.

In response to OSMRE’s decision, the groups released the following statements: 

“We applaud OSMRE’s decision to acknowledge the undeniable truth that West Virginia has failed to take appropriate action to protect its residents from the risk of abandoned, unreclaimed coal mines. Although there is more that OSMRE can and should do to address the deficiencies in West Virginia’s program, we hope that West Virginia will respond to this initial determination by requiring prompt reclamation and ensuring that the coal mining industry bears responsibility for cleaning up its own mess.” – Jim Kotcon, Sierra Club’s West Virginia Chapter.

“It was apparent from the get-go in the early 1980s that the alternative bonding system bond pool proposed by West Virginia and approved by OSMRE was potentially fraught with holes. The ensuing 40 years have been a roller coaster ride of citizen legal challenges to the program and equivocal responses by the state resulting in short-sighted audits, numerous insufficient efforts to tweak the bond pool, and an overall political lack of will to do anything substantial to bring the program into full compliance with federal law – leaving the citizens of the state to shoulder the burden of water pollution and unproductive previously mined land.  We pray that this time something more will come of this bold new attitude of the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.” – Cindy Rank, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy

“OSMRE’s determination that West Virginia is violating federal law by failing to guarantee funds for coal mine reclamation is a step forward in the fight to make this dirty industry internalize the cleanup costs it forces onto the public. Public Justice and our regional allies will continue to enforce our nation’s environmental laws to their fullest extent so that coal companies – and those in government who support them – can no longer sustain a failing business model at the expense of clean air and water and a habitable climate.” – Jim Hecker, Environmental Enforcement Project Director for Public Justice.