Monthly Grants Review
October 5, 2005
For immediate release | Tom Geoghegan
(202) 208-2838
tgeoghegan@osmre.gov |
UPDATE: OSM Awards First Watershed Cooperative Agreement Grant in Kansas
(Cherokee County, Kansas) -Recently The Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining joined with SEE-Kan Resource Conservation and Development Project, Inc. to clean up an environmental problem at Mine 19 Slurry Containment Project. SEE-Kan and its partners are contributing $50,000 in funds and in-kind-services. OSM is providing an additional $100,000 for this grant which will run from September 1, 2005 through September 1, 2007.
See-Kan is also partnered in this work with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and Watco Companies, Inc. SEE-Kan is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization and this is the first time OSM has partnered with a non profit for work in Kansas.
In announcing the grant OSM Director Jeff Jarrett said "The President and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton have directed us to work toward a new environmentalism built on partnerships, cooperative conservation and citizen stewards. It is our hope that through cooperative grants like this we can give citizens the ability to take charge of improving their environments. We also think this is putting our dollars to work where they'll do the most good - in communities that care."
The project is located on Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks land in Cherokee County, Kansas, that was acquired from P & M Coal, Co. in 1981. The company had operated a coal preparation facility at the site, which shut down in 1974, leaving large amounts of coarse and fine coal refuse. Breaches in the old slurry containment system have resulted in significant amounts of coal fines entering Deer Creek, causing environmental degradation.
Currently most of the impacts are on a public recreation area. The existing slurry containment system is so rapidly deteriorating that without intervention it will send large slugs of coal fines further down Deer Creek and beyond.
In addition to Watershed Cooperative Grants, OSM makes grants to states for administration and enforcement of state regulatory programs, to small operators so that they can meet permit requirements, grants to states deal with emergency problems, and grants to states to reclaim abandoned mine land. Funding comes from the AML Program fee on coal.
For additional information on OSM Grant Programs please visit www.osmre.gov .
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