§1240a Certification

Summary

Lets a State governor or the head of a tribal government with an approved abandoned-mine reclamation program say their State or tribe has finished the priority reclamation work. The Secretary must agree after publishing a Federal Register notice and taking public comments. The Secretary can also make that agreement on their own if the inventory shows all the priority projects are done, again after notice and comment. Once the Secretary agrees, different rules apply for which lands and waters can get annual grant money: they must have been mined or affected by mining and left abandoned or poorly reclaimed before August 3, 1977 (for Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management lands the dates are August 28, 1974, and November 26, 1980). Spending must follow three ordered goals: protect people and property from extreme dangers, protect health and welfare from other mining harms, and restore damaged land and water. Sites covered by the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 or listed under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 are not eligible. Repairing or building utilities and public facilities linked to mining impacts is allowed as part of these priorities, and certified States or tribes may use annual grants for specific public facilities related to coal or minerals if the State or tribe and the Secretary agree. Sections 1237 and 1238 apply here too, except their coal references do not. The law also explains payments. From the funds identified in section 1232(i)(2), the Secretary must pay each State or tribe the “amount due,” meaning any unspent sums that were allocated to them before October 1, 2007. Those payments were to be made in seven equal annual installments starting in fiscal year 2008. By December 10, 2015, for any certified State or tribe whose annual total was limited to $15,000,000 in 2013 and $28,000,000 in 2014, the Secretary had to make two separate payments of $82,700,000 and two separate payments of $38,250,000 as part of those installments. Certified States and tribes may spend these amounts as their legislature or tribal council directs, with priority for addressing mineral development impacts; uncertified ones must follow the uses in section 1233. For allocations made on or after October 1, 2007, certified States and tribes receive those shares. Initial payments to any State or tribe are reduced to 25%, 50%, and 75% for the first three payments, with the amounts held back paid in two equal annual installments starting in fiscal year 2018. Annual amounts that would have gone to a certified State or tribe are reallocated for grants under section 1232(g)(5) and distributed based on coal production before August 3, 1977.