(Radio Iowa) - Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says his department is beginning work to restore seven abandoned coal strip mine sites in south-central and southeast Iowa.
Naig says there is debris that's left over, rock piles and often times they've dug out an area the last place that they mined coal leaving a large hole that fills with water. Naig says this is NOT the same as cleaning up a superfund toxic waste site as it is more about moving dirt and rock to restoring the landscape, and then restore the soil health. The program is spending 10 million dollars for these seven projects that will take around one year to complete.
Here are the projects: Pella North and Pella South (Dutch Hollow), Marion County: 162 acres; Kuiper, Marion County: 81.2 acres; Bos, Wapello County: 34.6 acres; Eden, Van Buren County:14 acres; Pedrick, Van Buren County: 14 acres; Vanderzyl, Marion County: 57 acres; Vanderzyl East, Marion County: 29.5 acres.