Coal-producing states will get $6.3b for cleanup

WASHINGTON -- President Bush signed legislation yesterday that gives billions of dollars to coal-producing states to clean up hazardous abandoned coal mines and pay for health care for retired miners.

His signature ends a long fight that has pitted coal-producing states against one another over the best use of funds collected for the nation's coal mine reclamation program.

Coal-producing states will share an estimated $6.3 billion for abandoned mine cleanup and another $1.6 billion to pay for healthcare for retired miners who worked for coal companies that no longer exist, according to the federal Office of Surface Mining. The money will be distributed from 2007 to 2025.

The bill, part of a sweeping tax bill, renews the abandoned mines land reclamation program that was created in 1977.

Particularly in Eastern coalfields, toxins from abandoned mines pollute streams.