§555 Conditions Precedent for Aid to Non-federal Lands

Summary

Federal help to fight coal fires on land the United States does not own can be given only if the Secretary of the Interior gets certain steps first. The Secretary can require states or local governments to pass laws to control outcrop and underground coal fires and to cooperate. The Secretary can also require written agreements that promise to do the work and to keep it maintained. These requirements do not apply when the work is needed to protect land or property owned or controlled by the United States. For projects to stop fires in inactive coal mines on nonfederal land, the Secretary must require the state or landowner to pay half the cost (50%) as a match. If they can’t make that match and show they are unable, they must pay 50% to the government later on a schedule the Secretary sets. At least 75% of the funds spent in any fiscal year for such projects (when not done to protect U.S. land) must go to projects where the state or owner provided the 50% match.