On Wednesday, Feb. 21, Debbie Phillips, Rural Action’s CEO, participated in a roundtable discussion with the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland. Haaland visited Ohio to announce an additional $46 million for Ohio for Abandoned Mineland reclamation. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, this additional funding will be used to “address dangerous and polluting abandoned mines and to create good-paying jobs and catalyze economic opportunity in Ohio.”
After the roundtable, Secretary Haaland, Tim Burga, President of the Ohio American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and Debbie Phillips spoke at the press conference.
Secretary Haaland mentioned the importance of these resources in tackling legacy pollution: “These new resources are creating jobs, catalyzing economic opportunity, and revitalizing coal communities as we work to clean up toxic sites and build healthier communities,” Haaland said.
In her speech, Phillips celebrated this investment due to the benefits that it brings, such as the reduction of greenhouse emissions and job creation in the communities hardest hit by the nation’s energy transition.
Phillips shared some background on Rural Action’s decades of work to address Acid Mine Drainage (AMD), and our partnerships with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), the Office of Surface Mining (OSMRE) and in historic focus areas of Monday Creek, Sunday Creek, Huff Run, Mud Run, and the expansion to new watersheds including Rush Creek and Little Storms Creek.
Another example of Rural Action’s work can be seen through the social enterprise True Pigments and its innovative Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) project.
“This project will treat the worst AMD discharge in the state, and also collect iron oxide to produce a marketable pigment commodity to fund ongoing treatment,” Phillips said.
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Categories: Ohio, Government & Policy, Rural Lifestyle