DES MOINES – There are over 300 abandoned coal mines in Iowa, and the effort to clean up these sites covering more than 13,000 acres is four decades in the making – and counting.

While years of work lie ahead before the task is complete, state officials say, a recent increase in federal funding has allowed the state to accelerate its work.

Iowa’s Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Project has been operating since 1983. The program is funded by the federal government, through a program of the United States Department of the Interior which was created in 1977 and is funded by fees paid by today’s coal mining companies.

Of those more than 300 sites in the state, 120 have been reclaimed, said Susan Kozak, director of the Division of Soil Conservation and Water Quality for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

Mike Naig, Iowa’s secretary of agriculture, said the state’s coal mine land reclamation projects are improving water quality and soil health and making the land productive again. He said the program is part of “a much larger effort to continually improve our water quality and to protect our valuable soil in Iowa.”

“Even as we take on more abandoned mine land projects, we are also accelerating the construction of water quality wetlands, installing hundreds of bioreactors and saturated buffers with partners through our innovative batch-and-build model, setting records for cover crop use and working within cities to install best practices for urban water quality and much more,” Naig said in a statement to The Gazette.

“There is undoubtedly much more to be done across the state, but we are building momentum, making progress, and we always welcome more partners and Iowans willing to say ‘yes’ to conservation,” Naig said.

How does the state clean up old coal mines?

Under the program, state officials identify abandoned coal mines and then work with landowners who wish to rehabilitate the land. That decision is up to the landowners, and some are declining, Kozak said. If the landowners decide to participate, the reclamation project is fully funded by the federal government.

When a reclamation project is to proceed, the state conducts an assessment to determine if the work would disturb any endangered species or archaeological features. When the state is clear about these issues, the state consults with an engineering firm. Once a plan is drawn up, construction begins.

The entire process can take about a year for each project, Kozak said. There are nine employees in the division handling mine land reclamation projects.

Materials removed from coal mines are often hazardous. Kozak said she likes to tell the story of an intern who retrieved from a site a water sample that was so acidic that her nail polish was gone when she returned to the office.

The goal is to clear the land of any harmful materials or waste and restore the land so that it no longer shows any visible signs of use. Because the soil remains fragile even after reclamation, Kozak said, it likely cannot be farmed. But the projects are designed to help the land return to a state where grass and other vegetation can grow.

Kozak said some landowners plan pollinating plants, and sometimes livestock can graze on the land.

“We like to say they’re pretty fragile after recycling,” Kozak said. “When you move all the piles around, there tend to be these big spoil piles, is what we call them. All the material that the mining company just dumped behind them when they went after the coal, all that stuff is just sitting there and it’s been there for over 50 years. It is usually very acidic so nothing grows on it, or very little grows on it. So they are bare, mounds of destruction that look like the moon. …

“So we’re coming up with ways to balance it by moving it around and making it blend in with the natural surroundings. We want someone to be able to drive by these places when they’re done and not even realize that we did a recycling project or that it was a coal mine, that it just blends in with everything else.”

Kozak said another favorite experience is when she talked to a farmer whose small cows, after a coal mine land reclamation project was completed on her land, started drinking again from a stream they had refused to drink from for decades.

“She was probably in her 80s and she had never seen it before,” Kozak said. “She was just so excited that they were making a difference for the environment.”

Iowa’s abandoned mine land reclamation project has received national recognition three times: in 2018, 2021 and 2023, a state Department of Agriculture spokesman said.

How big and expensive are these projects?

The scale of mine land reclamation projects varies considerably. Some are as small as a couple of hectares, while others span more than 100 hectares.

A project now under construction, Kozak saidcovering 162 hectares near Pella. The largest project remaining on the state’s list covers 192 acres, also in Marion County.

A typical project is about 30 to 50 acres and costs roughly $500,000 to $800,000 to complete, Kozak said. Larger projects can cost well over $1 million; the project in Pella currently underway is estimated to cost nearly $4 million, according to the state.

“It’s very expensive to do this kind of work, so we really appreciate the federal funds from the Department of the Interior,” Kozak said.

Those funds were recently boosted, Kozak said, by the 2021 federal infrastructure law.

Kozak said that in a typical year, the program received $3 million in funding from the federal government. Since the 2021 infrastructure bill went into effect, annual funding has tripled to $9 million, Kozak said.

Before that funding infusion, Kozak said the state would typically tackle two or three projects a year. With the federal funding boost, the state announced in October its plans to tackle seven projects.

“Now we have an increased budget, so that’s exciting,” Kozak said.

Coal Mining History of Iowa

Coal mining began in Iowa as early as the 1840s, and production peaked in the early 20th century, according to the state’s Department of Agriculture. With advances in technology, coal mining shifted from underground mines to surface mines, Kozak said. Surface mining peaked between the 1930s and 50s, she said.

Iowa’s coal mines were located primarily in south-central and southeastern Iowa. Most were in Davis, Mahaska, Marion, Monroe, Van Buren and Wapello counties, according to the state Department of Agriculture.

The last surface coal mine in Iowa closed in 1994, Kozak said.

The federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 requires companies to remove hazards and stabilize coal mines when they are no longer in use. That legislation paved the way for Iowa’s Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Project, which started in 1983, according to the state.

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