Editor's Note:
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE
UNTIL 1 p.m. EST FEBRUARY 1, 1999.      Jerry Childress (202) 208-2719
                                        jchildre@osmre.gov

        FY 2000 0SM BUDGET INCLUDES $25 MILLION INCREASE
                FOR ABANDONED MINE LAND PROGRAM 

     Kathy Karpan, Director of the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining
Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM), announced today that OSM'S budget request of
$305,824,000 for Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 includes an additional $25 million for the agency's
abandoned mine land (AML) program.  This includes an additional $22 million for basic State
AML grants to address environmental problems caused by abandoned coal and other mine sites,
and $3 million more for the Appalachian Clean Streams Initiative. 

     The singular highlight to the FY 2000 President's budget request for OSM is the
Administration's proposal for a multi-year effort to fund the AML program at a level
commensurate to fee receipts collected.  This gradual increase in project funding will result in a
concurrent increase in reclaimed acreage over the next several years and will also provide a
major beneficial impact on the citizens of the coal fields and the lands and waters in their
communities.

     "The surface mining program has already accomplished an impressive amount of
reclamation," Karpan said, "but much still remains to be done.  Although $4 billion has been
spent on abandoned mine reclamation efforts to date, we're facing a backlog of more than
$2 billion in known abandoned coal mine reclamation work that needs to be done.  Obviously,
the additional $22 million requested for State AML grants will be a tremendous boost toward
that effort." 

      "OSM's FY 2000 request upholds President Clinton's commitment to clean water by
providing $3 million in additional funding for our efforts to control and eliminate acid mine
drainage (AMD) in streams through out the nation's coal fields."  Karpan said that $2 million
will be in AML grants to States and $1 million in cooperative agreements for not-for-profit
groups continuing the new program announced in January 1999.

     OSM's FY 2000 budget of $305,824,000 reflects an increase of $27,055,000 from the
FY 1999 enacted level.  The overall amount will enable OSM to fund 24 state regulatory
programs as well as to provide funding for the abandoned mine land (AML) reclamation
programs administered by 23 states and three Indian tribes.  The requested budget will also
enable OSM to continue directly administering federal regulatory and reclamation programs in
states that do not operate their own surface mining programs, and on Federal and Indian lands.

     The FY 2000 budget request for OSM includes:  $94,666,000 for the Regulation &
Technology account (a $1,313,000 increase), plus $211,158,000 for the AML account
($25,742,000 more than the FY 1999 level).

     Regulatory program grants to states are budgeted at $50.6 million in the FY 2000 request,
about the same as the FY 1999 level.   OSM matches dollar for dollar the funds states use to
operate programs for issuing coal mine permits, inspecting surface coal mines, enforcing
environmental standards, and assuring reclamation of surface coal mines.

     State and tribal AML reclamation grants are budgeted at $169.3 million in the FY 2000
request, a $24 million increase above the FY 1999 level.  Through AML grants, OSM pays
100 percent of the costs for reclaiming abandoned coal mine lands that were left unreclaimed or
inadequately reclaimed before the 1977 enactment of SMCRA.

     The AML program is funded by production fees of 35 cents per ton of surface mined coal,
15 cents per ton of coal mined underground, and 10 cents per ton of lignite, which OSM collects
from coal producers.


                              DOI