Governor Glenn Youngkin and Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA-09) announced eight new projects in southwest Virginia that will be recommended for grant funding from the Virginia Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) program. The projects include an outdoor recreation area, a shooting range, industrial sites, and a housing development.
“These projects selected support our goals of immediate job creation and the development of new business-ready sites that will be the fuel that drives new business investment in these southwest Virginia communities,” Youngkin said in a Friday announcement. “There is great innovation in these proposals that will make Virginia the best place to live, work and raise a family.”
“The projects recommended for AMLER funding would provide a variety of benefits to the coalfields region. From outdoor recreation to industrial sites, they would create job opportunities and support economic development,” Griffith said.
Virginia receives federal funds from the AMLER program, which is administered in the commonwealth by Virginia Energy. AMLER is part of a federal effort to regulate and oversee coal mines and reclaim hazardous abandoned mines.
“Prior to the passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977, there was no regulatory oversight of coal operators or what happened to mines after mining stopped. As a result, millions of Americans live less than a mile from an abandoned coal mine,” the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement explains on its site.
With the declining importance of coal, officials look to the AMLER program to help boost economic development in the economically-challenged areas.
“I am very proud of the AMLER Program and of securing Virginia’s place in it in Congress. The program is an important tool as we seek to grow and diversify southwest Virginia’s economy,” Griffith said.
“Launched just over five years ago, this program has generated over 200 jobs. The potential is much greater as these innovative grant recipients foresee over one-thousand jobs created once projects are completed,” Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick said.
The biggest recommended grants include $2.3 million to the Chip Mill Industrial Site in Dickenson County; $2 million to the Big Cherry Reservoir Regional Outdoor Recreation project in Wise and Scott; and $2 million to Project Junction for industrial operations and energy projects.
“AMLER has led to an increased focus on regional development opportunities and through public-private partnerships, is having an impact on new businesses sprouting up in southwest Virginia,” Virginia Energy Director John Warren said. “The opportunity extends across thousands of acres of mine-impacted land and developers are starting to recognize the potential.”
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network.Â
