DES MOINES – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey will be attending the Muchakinock Creek Watershed Project field day on Tuesday, June 9 at 11:00 a.m. The event will be held at the site of an abandoned coal mine that has been reclaimed as part of the watershed project. The site is the Westercamp Reclamation Project and is located approximately one mile west of Beacon on 260th St.
The event will recognize the accomplishments of local farmers, landowners and partnering organizations that have helped improve the water quality of Muchakinock Creek Watershed. The watershed is greater that 50,000 acres and transects Mahaska County and includes cropland, pasture and the abandoned mine land.
The Westercamp Reclamation Project is an 80 acre abandoned surface coal mine that hast been reclaimed. Additional sites still needing to be reclaimed will also be visible.
Who: Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture
What: Muchakincock Creek Watershed Project Field Day
When: 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Where: Westercamp Reclamation Project
Approximately 1 mile west of Beacon on 260th St
Rain location is the ISU Extension Office, 212 North I St., Oskaloosa
How: For more information please contact Dustin Vande Hoef with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship at 515-281-3375 or 515-326-1616 (cell).
Iowa has more that 12,000 acres of abandoned coal sites that were mined prior to 1977 and are eligible to be reclaimed under the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. The Department’s Mines and Minerals Bureau receives funding annually from the U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) to reclaim abandoned mining sites that cause environmental problems or create potential hazards to public health and safety.
Currently there are approximately 230 sites, located mostly in the southeastern part of the state, awaiting reclamation.
Reclamation projects eliminate dangerous highwalls, acid mine drainage, clogged streams, and hazardous water bodies. Ridges of acid-forming shale are also graded and vegetated. Priority is given to eliminating health and safety hazards, restoring impacted land and water resources, and eliminating off-site environmental impacts.
Completed projects provide improved water and air quality and reduce sediment deposition and clogging of streams off-site. While sites that have been reclaimed remain fragile, landowners see their property returned to a condition that allows for some economic return or beneficial use. Reclaimed sites can be used for pasture, hayland, recreational areas, wildlife habitat, and wetlands.
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