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By PAMELA C. TURFA pamt@leader.net
Tuesday, January 25, 2000 Page: 1A
Key lawmaker promises to back Kanjorski’s idea to finance plan with bonds.
SCRANTON – Like a kid taking a prized toy to school, U.S. Rep. Paul
Kanjorski made his proposed cleanup of abandoned mine lands the center of a
Congressional show-and-tell Monday.
First the show: A morning helicopter tour of the region’s culm banks and
deep mine pits for U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska.
Then the telling: An afternoon of testimony by environmentalists,
government representatives and economic development officials before the House
Resources Committee chaired by Young.
Those testifying told Young and his staff that the damage from decades of
mining will take centuries to clean up unless the government spurs action.
“We’re closer to the American Revolution than we are to cleaning up”
abandoned mine lands, Kanjorski said of estimates the cleanup, at the current
rate, will take another 200-400 years.
For Kanjorski, the day ended with a payoff.
Young pledged his support of the Nanticoke Democrat’s plan to sell $1.2
billion in bonds to support a 30-year intensive reclamation of the anthracite
coal fields.
Purchasers of the bonds would receive tax credits in lieu of interest.
The bond proposal “has merit,” Young said afterg almost three hours of
testimony at the University of Scranton’s Redington Hall.
“I’ve committed to (the Pennsylvania delegation). I’ll do everything in my
power to get the bill passed.”
Once legislation to create the bond fund is introduced, Young will meet
with Kanjorski and other members of the Pennsylvania delegation to develop the
proposal, Young said.
“I think we won the chairman’s heart,” Kanjorski said.
He also said he has the backing of the Clinton administration and support
for the concept from U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, both
Pennsylvania Republicans.
He believes the proposed “anthracite reclamation bonds” could be a
demonstration project that could be used as a model for bond funds for other
long-term regional projects.
“Congress is so used to appropriating funds,” but, appropriations are
only for one year, and the needed reclamation work will take 30 years.
Federal intervention is needed because “there’s no incentive for local
communities to tax themselves and assume the burden,” Kanjorski said.
Kanjorski said his proposed bond fund would provide $100 million per year
for 30 years for reclamation and cleanup – almost four times the $26.6 million
Pennsylvania will receive this year from the federal Abandoned Mine Lands
program.
Young, who pointed out that other Congressional committees, including the
House Ways and Means Committee, would have to weigh in on the proposal, asked
whether there is a market for the bonds.
“I believe they are a saleable investment,” said David A. Donlin,
president of the Economic Development Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania,
and executive director of the Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce. Donlin
was one of 12 people to testify.
Much of Monday’s testimony focused on Northeastern Pennsylvania’s
contributions to the nation’s industrial growth at the expense of the region’s
environment.
The effect of mine-scarred lands on the Northeastern Pennsylvania economy
has been a dwindling supply of flat land and clean water, population loss and
unemployment levels that are consistently above state and national levels,
said Alex E. Rogers of the Upper Susquehanna-Lackawanna Watershed American
Heritage Rivers Initiative.
Others touted Kanjorski’s proposal, noting that federal dollars will not be
required.
“It’s intriguing in that it doesn’t require an appropriation,” said Rep.
Don Sherwood, R-Tunkhannock, a member of Young’s committee. “It just requires
the government to agree to forego” taxes.
Call Turfa at 829-7177.