Partners
The AML Portal is a partnership that spans federal, state and local efforts to reduce the environmental and health risks of abandoned land mines through increased awareness, education and action. Visit our parnters’ websites to lean what they’re doing to reclaim these lands
Federal
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
The BLM works in partnerships with EPA, state agencies, tribes, private parties, and other groups to accelerate the rate of cleanup of watersheds affected by abandoned hard rock mines.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The EPA AML Program is coordinated through the Agency’s National Mining Team (NMT) and Abandoned Mine Lands Team (AMLT). These teams provide an EPA headquarters and Regional core of expertise on issues at abandoned mine sites.
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)
The mission of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is to administer the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act), as amended by the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act), and to enforce compliance with mandatory safety and health standards as a means to eliminate fatal accidents; to reduce the frequency and severity of nonfatal accidents; to minimize health hazards; and to promote improved safety and health conditions in the Nation’s mines.
National Park Service (NPS)
As part of NPS’s Disturbed Lands Restoration Program, the Abandoned Mineral Land Restoration Program encourages the full restoration of lands affected by mining activities, addresses environmental concerns (metals contamination, acid mine drainage), safety hazards (vertical mine openings, unstable slopes), and the sustainability of bat species, which may rely on mine shafts for habitat.
Office of Surface Mining (OSM)
The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) was created to reclaim abandoned coal mines and regulate active coal mines by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). Title IV of SMCRA provides for the restoration of lands mined and abandoned or left inadequately restored before August 3, 1977 with priority given to projects that alleviate dangers to public health and safety. A fee assessed on annual coal production funds the costs of reclamation projects. The majority of the over $9 billion OSM has collected since 1977 has been distributed to states and Tribes with approved abandoned mine land programs to accomplish the land reclamation and environmental restoration.
U.S Geological Survey (USGS)
The USGS is providing a wide range of scientific expertise to help land managers minimize and, where possible, eliminate the adverse environmental effects of AML’s. USGS ecologists, geologists, water quality experts, hydrologists, geochemists, and mapping and digital data collection experts are collaborating to provide the scientific knowledge needed for an effective cleanup of AML’s.
Forest Service
The mission of the Forest Service Minerals & Geology Management (MGM) Program is to provide for the sustainable use and enjoyment of mineral and geologic resources on the National Forests. An important part of that mission is the restoration of land disturbed by historic mining activities.
Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
The RAMS Program utilizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers environmental authorities to provide technical, planning, and design assistance to Federal and non-Federal interests in carrying out projects to address water quality problems caused by drainage and related activities from abandoned and inactive non-coal mines.