Several excavation companies are scrambling to find other work and have laid off employees because a federal funding freeze recently halted 11 mine reclamation projects in Iowa.
"It's a pretty big impact to our employees," said Bill Holland, president of JB Holland Construction, of Decorah. "They want to work, and we want to be working, too."
Holland's company was tasked with rehabilitating about 160 acres in Marion County that had been a coal mine — one of more than 300 sites in Iowa that were mined as early as the 1840s. The last active mine closed in 1994.
The site near Pella that JB Holland has been working since August is the largest mine reclamation project the state has tackled to date with the help of federal funding.
Holland typically has had between 15 and 20 workers there at a time. Some were transferred to other job sites and the rest were laid off, Holland said.
Work at the site near Pella was expected to include the movement of about 1.3 million cubic yards of soil and the addition of about 14 million pounds of lime to neutralize acidic soil.
It's located in the Pella Wildlife Area. Weeds, pit ponds and steep banks had limited public use of the area for decades. About half of the site has been remediated.
"It's all bare dirt now, but you can just look at it and imagine a prairie — something that isn't choked with invasive species," said Todd Gosselink, a wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The project was among seven the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced late last year that were expected to cost about $10 million. Five other reclamation projects were in process at the time, one of which has finished.
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"It's a pretty big impact to our employees," said Bill Holland, president of JB Holland Construction, of Decorah. "They want to work, and we want to be working, too."
Holland's company was tasked with rehabilitating about 160 acres in Marion County that had been a coal mine — one of more than 300 sites in Iowa that were mined as early as the 1840s. The last active mine closed in 1994.
The site near Pella that JB Holland has been working since August is the largest mine reclamation project the state has tackled to date with the help of federal funding.
Holland typically has had between 15 and 20 workers there at a time. Some were transferred to other job sites and the rest were laid off, Holland said.
Work at the site near Pella was expected to include the movement of about 1.3 million cubic yards of soil and the addition of about 14 million pounds of lime to neutralize acidic soil.
It's located in the Pella Wildlife Area. Weeds, pit ponds and steep banks had limited public use of the area for decades. About half of the site has been remediated.
"It's all bare dirt now, but you can just look at it and imagine a prairie — something that isn't choked with invasive species," said Todd Gosselink, a wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The project was among seven the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship announced late last year that were expected to cost about $10 million. Five other reclamation projects were in process at the time, one of which has finished.
Federal funding freeze stalls Iowa's mine restorations
Several excavation companies are scrambling to find other work and have laid off employees because a federal funding freeze recently halted 11 mine reclamation projects.
www.thegazette.com
