The overall goal of the AMD Abatement and Treatment Program (AMDATP) is to restore and maintain restored stream reaches impaired by AMD and, ultimately, to remove these streams from the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP's) Impaired Waters list. This may be accomplished by reclamation of abandoned mine lands to abate AMD and by treating AMD, either passively or actively. Another important goal of this program is to encourage the use of treated AMD for deep well hydrologic fracturing for oil and gas development.
The primary focus of these grants is abatement of AMD and/or treatment of AMD through treatment facility system construction. Grants may also be awarded for treatment system repair, upgrade or operation and maintenance of existing passive and active treatment systems. Priority will be given to projects that treat AMD for use in oil and gas drilling operations.
Funds may be used by the applicant to pay for any of the following project costs:
- Acquisition of land, rights-of-way and easements necessary to construct an eligible project.
- Construction, improvement, expansion, repair, or rehabilitation of new or existing AMD remediation sites. Construction contingencies are limited to 5% of the actual construction costs.
- For construction projects, no more than 10% of the grant award may be used for engineering and construction oversight, inspection and performance monitoring costs (final engineer drawings, along with permit approvals detailing the work planned to be done for the project).
- In-stream monitoring to assess stream restoration status.
- Operating and Maintenance costs for active or semi-active systems. In addition, up to 65% of the grant award may be used to establish trust funds for operations and maintenance.
- Costs to secure land acquisition and right of ways.
- Administrative costs of the applicant necessary to administer the grant. Administrative costs will include advertising, legal, and audit costs as well as documented staff expenses. Administrative costs shall not exceed 2% of the grant.
Examples of eligible projects include:
- Abandoned Mine Land (AML) reclamation projects that will result in abatement and/or reduction of AMD.
- Construction of a new AMD remediation project. This would include passive treatment systems but may also support the construction of select small scale active treatment systems justified as being cost effective and practical over the long term for the given situation.
- Repair of existing AMD remediation project sites.
- Operations and Maintenance costs associated with maintaining a currently operating AMD remediation project and the establishment of a trust fund to ensure ongoing maintenance is achieved.
- Monitoring of water quality to track, or continue to track nonpoint source (NPS) load reductions resulting from AMD remediation projects.
- Projects that use AMD for oil and gas well development.
- Projects that utilize new technology or research methods to study or design new treatment measures to abate and/or reduce AMD.