skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

White House inadvertently texted top-secret Yemen war plans to journalist; MS egg prices stay high amid industry consolidation; NM native, others remembered on National Medal of Honor Day; IN inches closer to lifesaving law change.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

President Trump credits tariffs for a Hyundai Steel investment in Louisiana, but residents say the governor is betraying them over health concerns there; and other states double down on climate change as the Trump administration rolls back environmental regulations.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Cuts to Medicaid and frozen funding for broadband are both likely to have a negative impact on rural healthcare, which is already struggling. Plus, lawsuits over the mass firing of federal workers have huge implications for public lands.

Abandoned Mine Land program frozen as Appalachia faces severe flooding

play audio
Play

Monday, February 17, 2025   

The Trump administration has frozen funds used for abandoned mine land cleanup.

Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Congress invested around $11 billion into a trust fund to help address the backlog of sites needing reclamation but the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement has stopped releasing the money.

Chelsea Barnes, director of government affairs and strategy for the advocacy group Appalachian Voices, said with ongoing flooding in eastern Kentucky, heavy rainfall can worsen problems on abandoned mine sites, triggering erosion, landslides and "blowout" events, leading to property damage.

"There's a buildup of water and then it all of a sudden, releases really fast," Barnes explained. "That can go downstream, down a mountainside and crash into homes, businesses, destroy roads."

In addition to tackling environmental hazards, research shows cleanup projects also create jobs. One analysis by the Sierra Club found investing in reclamation will create nearly 3,000 jobs and billions in economic growth in a handful of Appalachian states.

While some states have decided to operate business as usual, assuming federal funds will be unlocked soon, Barnes noted for others, the freeze has halted projects.

"Maybe they have enough money on hand to kind of keep things rolling for a little bit," Barnes acknowledged. "But the longer this goes on, the worse it's going to get."

She emphasized water polluted with metals and chemicals from mining can seep into waterways and kill fish and other aquatic life, and contaminate drinking water. She added federal funds are often used for acid mine drainage cleanup.

"A cleanup project for that might look like a water treatment facility to clean up an old acid mine drainage site," Barnes observed.

There are 12,000 acres of disturbed former mine land in eastern Kentucky which could be reclaimed to reduce environmental and safety hazards, according to a 2024 report by the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The Trump administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a ruling ordering the rehiring of thousands of federal workers, including in the Environmental Protection Agency. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Nearly 100 probationary workers for the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago have had their jobs cut and then reinstated in the last month…


play sound

As oil and gas well sites pop up next to more Colorado neighborhoods, residents are gathering evidence to hold operators accountable for toxic …

Social Issues

play sound

By Nina B. Elkadi for Sentient.Broadcast version by Trimmel Gomes for Mississippi News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service …


In 2010, the passage of Oregon's Unlawful Trade Practices Act was extended to include banks. (PheelingsMedia/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New legislation would bring the insurance industry under Oregon's Unlawful Trade Practices Act. Supporters said the change would protect consumers …

Social Issues

play sound

Kansas City transit riders and workers are fighting proposed cuts, warning of a looming public transit crisis. Hundreds of advocates of the Kansas …

Social Issues

play sound

Tuesday is National Medal of Honor Day, celebrating the thousands of service members since 1861 who have been awarded the country's highest military …

Social Issues

play sound

As today begins National Farmworker Awareness Week, North Carolina boasts the sixth-largest number of farmworkers of any state. More than 150,000 …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021