After a long year of multiple tragedies in the nation's coalfields, there is finally a mining story with a happy ending.

	Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette An abandoned coal-washing plant sits on the site of the Maude Mine in South Fayette, where a $329,500 project is set to begin in the spring. Click photo for larger image.

With polluted Millers Run gurgling behind them, federal, state and local officials gathered yesterday in the parking lot at the South Fayette Municipal Building to cheer last month's passage of abandoned mine lands reclamation legislation that will bring Pennsylvania more than $1.36 billion, guaranteed, over the next 15 years.

The federal legislation also contains more than $120 million to fund health care coverage for so-called "orphan miners" and their families for the next 15 years. Those miners -- about 52,000 in the nation and 11,000 in Pennsylvania -- worked for companies that are bankrupt or out of business and have no company-paid coverage.

"This is phenomenal for Pennsylvania," said U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, who, along with former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, introduced the legislation that was passed on the final day of the 109th Congress.

"This will greatly impact the 1.6 million state residents who live in close proximity to abandoned mines," Mr. Specter, R-Pa., said. "It puts mine reclamation on solid footing for a long time."

The bulk of the money will be used at 5,100 of the most dangerous abandoned mine sites in the state to reclaim cliff-like "highwalls" at old strip mines, douse underground mine fires, plug open deep mine entrances, remove coal waste and slag piles that pollute streams with their runoff, and build mine drainage treatment projects.

"Streams that are dead today will become fisheries. Places where people have died, that's going to go away," said U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Venango, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, who worked to secure passage of the bill.

"This is life-saving legislation," said John Dawes, chairman of the state's abandoned mine land campaign, which helped push passage of the bill and praised the "unprecedented alignment" of support from industry, the miners' union and environmental groups.

"More people have died at abandoned mine sites in recent years by drowning, falling or in ATV accidents than in active underground mines," said Mr. Dawes, noting that 25 to 35 people nationwide die at such sites each year.

Mr. Dawes said one of the highest funding priorities should be dousing the 30 underground mine fires burning across the state, the most famous of which is in Centralia, Columbia County, and has been burning since 1962.

Pennsylvania, which has a long mining history and 184,000 acres of abandoned mine land -- more than any other state -- will get more cleanup money than any other state under the new legislation. That wasn't happening before.

Abandoned mine land problems or polluted mine runoffs affect 44 of the state's 67 counties. In Allegheny County, there are 263 identified abandoned mine sites affecting 4,514 acres.

The state's annual share of the U.S. Abandoned Mine Lands Fund money, collected from the mining industry through a per-ton royalty on mined coal, will increase to $32 million in 2008, $35 million in 2009, $60 million in 2010 and $90 million by 2018. This year, Pennsylvania will get $24 million, the same as in 2006.

"This funding is unprecedented," said Bruce Golden, regional coordinator for the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation. "The state has a 100-year-old problem and this will cut 100 years off of efforts to solve it."

The legislation also triples the state's potential share of the abandoned mine land funds that could be spent on stream cleanup, Mr. Golden said.

Scott Roberts, deputy secretary for mineral resources management for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the department will hold a series of roundtable meetings with watershed organizations and citizens groups to determine how to manage the increased funding.

"Our priorities are abandoned mine sites where there have been accidents or where we determine there is a high probability of accidents," Mr. Roberts said. "A lot of people want to see the streams cleaned up, but a lot of that work is interrelated with the site cleanups. We'll work with the groups to find the appropriate balance."

An example is the $329,500 project to clean up the Maude Mine in South Fayette. That work, which is to begin this spring, will focus on filling the dangerous mine highwalls, closing the mine entrance and removing rusting coal mine structures, which should also greatly reduce the pollution reaching Millers Run.