Congress enacted the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) on August 3, 1977. One of the primary purposes of SMCRA was to promote the reclamation of mined areas abandoned and left without adequate reclamation prior to August 3, 1977, and which continue, in their unreclaimed condition, to substantially degrade the quality of the environment, prevent or damage the beneficial use of land or water resources, or endanger the health or safety of the public.
Title IV of SMCRA established the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Trust Fund to be used for the reclamation and restoration of areas affected by past mining. The Fund is derived from a reclamation fee on clean coal produced by underground and surface coal mining. Initially, the fees were set at 35 cents per ton for surface-mined coal and 15 cents per ton for coal mined underground.
On December 20, 2006, Public Law 109-432 was signed amending SMCRA and making significant changes to the AML Program, including dramatically increased funding through mandatory spending. The amendments provided opportunities for the states and tribes to reclaim their high priority AML problems because the fee collection provisions of SMCRA were extended until September 30, 2021. The amendments changed the allocation formula, making most of the AML fee collections mandatory distributions to the states and tribes. The amendments required a phase in of mandatory AML funds over the first four years (beginning in FY 2008), such that the amounts that would have otherwise been received are reduced by 50%, 50%, 25% and 25%. This amendment also provided that up to 30% of the grants received from the AML fund may be set aside into states and tribal accounts to be used to address AMD problems.
On November 15, 2021, Public Law 117-58 (known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA) was signed amending SMCRA making significant changes to the AML Program, including dramatically increased funding through an $11.293 billion appropriation to the AML fund to be distributed to states and tribes over 15 years, until November 15, 2036, based on historic coal production. The amendments also allow for states and tribes to reclaim stand-alone Priority 3 AML problems and extended reduced AML fee collections through September 30, 2034. This amendment reduced the reclamation fee by 20% to 22.4 cents per ton for surface mine coal and 9.6 cents per ton for coal produced by underground or deep mining methods.
Since 1980, Pennsylvania has received $2,420,283,752.23 for use in administering Pennsylvania’s Abandoned Mine Land Program and reclaiming abandoned mine sites.
View a year-by-year summary of Pennsylvania's AML Funding (PDF)
Visit OSMRE's website for National Summaries of AML Funding.