1. United States
2. W.V.
3. Letter

I urge you to oppose the appropriations bill that would withdraw $500 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding designated for cleaning up abandoned coal mine lands. The Senate is scheduled to take up this bill this week, making immediate action critical. This funding cut directly threatens watershed protection across West Virginia and other coal states. West Virginia has extensive abandoned mine pollution affecting hundreds of miles of waterways throughout the state. Reducing the allocated funding moves us backward on this essential environmental and public health challenge that impacts communities across our state. The Infrastructure Act authorized more than $11 billion over 15 years specifically to reclaim lands and waterways damaged by abandoned coal mines. Organizations like Friends of the Cheat in West Virginia use this funding to build and maintain treatment systems that clean up acid mine drainage, which harms aquatic wildlife and contaminates drinking water supplies. As Amanda Pitzer, their executive director, noted, less money means less reclamation work at a time when communities desperately need more. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 established fees on coal production specifically to help clean up past mining damage. This funding represents a promise to communities that bear the environmental legacy of coal extraction. Redirecting these resources to wildland fire management and Forest Service operations breaks that promise to West Virginia. Unremediated mine lands cannot be used for development, costing local economies jobs and tourism revenue. Joe Pizarchik, former head of the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, noted that regions are losing huge amounts of tourism revenue because waterways are too impaired for fishing or recreation. These reclamation projects provide jobs in historically depressed areas while protecting public health and watersheds that West Virginians depend on. I ask that you vote against this appropriations bill and protect the full funding allocated for abandoned mine land reclamation.