Mine pollution cleanup project shelved
August 16, 2012 ·
A mine pollution cleanup project in northern West Virginia has been shelved and its federal funding given to another project.
The U.S. Natural
Resources Conservation Service had allocated $2.9 million to pay for building
of an acid mine treatment plant at the abandoned Richard Mine along Deckers
Creek.
The agency told media outlets this week that it reallocated the funding
to another project because there's no local sponsor.
Also, the funding
from the Small Watershed Program would cover only the construction costs. The
agency doesn't have funding to pay for the plant's design.
Morgantown had offered to be
the local sponsor. But the federal agency says the city's plan didn't meet the
federal law's requirements for local sponsors.