Hundreds of abandoned coal mines dot the Kentucky countryside, leaving scars on the land and the people who worked in them but with an influx of federal infrastructure money, mine remediation projects are restoring the countryside and putting Kentuckians to work.
A study by the Ohio River Valley Institute showed Kentucky will receive more than $1 billion over 15 years under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Eric Dixon, senior researcher at the institute and the report's author, said Kentucky has some of the nation’s highest levels of unreclaimed mine damage.
"A lot of damage accumulated over decades and in fact, over a century of coal mining," Dixon explained. "This program, the Federal Abandoned Mine Land program, is focused on reclaiming those sites that were abandoned a long time ago that caused historic damage and were never cleaned up."
Contracting has surged most visibly in eastern Kentucky, where many sites are concentrated, while the western part of the state has also grown from a smaller base. Dixon pointed out the average contract is $27 million and 90% of the work went to Kentucky-based firms.
Dixon noted his research found current spending levels support an estimated 450 to 550 jobs statewide, including public-sector design and oversight and private construction. He added local firms have benefited, as four out of five projects went to firms based in counties with abandoned mine land damage.
"We found that a lot more mine reclamation happened, and that overwhelmingly, that reclamation was done by construction firms based in Kentucky and based in counties that have AML damage," Dixon outlined.
He said the boom in abandoned mine remediation is a win-win for Kentucky communities and workers seeking jobs.
"The building trades, construction jobs, reclaiming abandoned mine lands don't require a college degree and can be accessed through apprenticeship training opportunities," Dixon emphasized. "They're more accessible to people in eastern and western Kentucky."