The United States Department of the Interior plans to distribute funds to coal communities. This will help mitigate environmental damage created by coal mining. Both the state of New Mexico and, separately, the Navajo Nation will receive funding.
In summation, the Department of the Interior is dedicating $725 million from the infrastructure bill funds to different states, with the goal of cleaning up discarded coal mines, according to KRQE.
“This problem is bad," Winnie Stachelberg of the U.S. Department of the Interior said to KRQE. "There are 20,000 – under some counts – of abandoned coal mines that have been left over decades. They’re in communities; they are on neighborhood streets. They are around this county and this money will go to cleaning them up.”
New Mexico will get $2.4 million in funding from the program, and the Navajo Nation will receive $1.6 million. The current plan is for the funds to be gradually distributed over the next 15 years. States will have to apply for funding and demonstrate that they have a need for the money in order to receive the funds.
These funds are a result of the new infrastructure law that was passed last year, according to a report from KRQE.
