Kentucky is receiving more than $74 million dollars to help clean up mine sites. The money comes from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will be used to create jobs and clean up hazards left by mining throughout the commonwealth.
Laura Daniel-Davis is the Department of the Interior Acting Deputy Secretary. During a press conference she said legacy pollution is a problem in eastern Kentucky.
“Everyone knows all too well; the effects of legacy pollution continue to be felt really acutely in this region in Appalachia. Too often, companies have not been held accountable for the legacy their activities have left behind, they just moved on.”
She said she was able to tour a work site in eastern Kentucky and see the progress being made.
“Dealing with water and drainage that was really threatening these homes, the folks that live here, it’s going to make such a big difference on the long-term basis going forward.”
Daniel-Davis said the focus of this clean up includes subsidence, slides, open portals, refuse piles and mine seam fires. Kentucky received a similar amount last year.
Those funds were use for projects in Floyd, Whitley, Perry, Pike, Knott, Letcher, Bell, Leslie, Johnson, Boyd, Ohio, Hopkins, Webster, Harlan, and Breathitt counties.
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