Second Regular Session
Sixty-first General Assembly
LLS NO. R980786.01 DHG
STATE OF COLORADO
BY REPRESENTATIVES Miller and Taylor;
also SENATOR Wattenberg.
AGR., LIVESTOCK & NATURAL
RESOURCES
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 98-1033
WHEREAS, The United States Congress established the
Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund and State Reclamation Programs
in 1977, through title IV of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation
Act (SMCRA); and
WHEREAS, Congress set a reclamation fee, also known
as an "AML tax", of 35 cents per ton on surfacemined
coal, a fee on underground coal of 15 cents per ton or 10 percent
of the value of the coal at the mine, whichever is less, and a
fee on lignite coal of 10 cents per ton or 2 percent of the value
of the coal at the mine, whichever is less; and
WHEREAS, The SMCRA requires that onehalf of
the reclamation fees collected annually in any State shall be
allocated to that State by the Secretary of the Interior; and
WHEREAS, To date, the federal government has failed
to honor that obligation, and currently owes the Western states
a total of over $280 million under the express terms of the SMCRA;
and
WHEREAS, It is currently estimated that the federal
government will owe the Western states over $500 million in arrearages
by the time the AML tax expires in the year 2004, unless payments
are brought current; and
WHEREAS, There are over 23,000 abandoned mines in
Colorado and, since 1955, there have been 17 deaths and 21 injuries
in Colorado at abandoned mines; and
WHEREAS, The Colorado's mine safeguarding program,
established in 1980, has safeguarded over 4,600 abandoned mines;
and
WHEREAS, The federal government now holds, in the
AML Trust Fund, $13.3 million that rightfully belongs to Colorado
under the SMCRA; and
WHEREAS, Unless the payments due to Colorado are
brought current, the federal government will owe Colorado some
$25 million when collection ends in 2004; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives
of the Sixtyfirst General Assembly of the State of Colorado,
the Senate concurring herein:
That the Colorado General Assembly demands that the Department of the Interior honor the express language of federal law by returning to Colorado its share of the AML taxes already collected as expeditiously as possible, and by immediately beginning to remit Colorado's share annually, as it is collected, rather than depositing it in the AML Trust Fund.