This spring Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan demanded that Peabody Energy prove it has the funds necessary to reclaim coal mines if it shuts down, rekindling public concern over abandoned mines and the responsibility for cleaning them up.

In her letter to the St. Louis-based coal company, Madigan asked Peabody to show it has the finances to meet its obligations since in March the corporation told federal regulators it might “not have sufficient liquidity to sustain operations.”

Peabody has no working or abandoned mines in greater Peoria, but there are 35 Priority 1 or 2 sites “posing a threat to health, safety and general welfare of people,” according to the U.S. Department of Interior’s Abandoned Mine Land (AML) inventory. (See map, which shows only mines confirmed as abandoned and cataloged by the federal government; other small operations or inactive facilities may also exist.)

“Abandoned” doesn’t mean there’s been no reclamation. For example, Wildlife Prairie Park is listed, although the 2,000-acre property is a functional zoological park. Instead, the list pertains to situations where the original “mining company has reneged on their responsibility for reclamation,” says David Manthos of Skytruth, a non-governmental organization that tracks resource extraction and pollution through satellite and aerial imaging and GIS mapping analysis.

Although there’s no apparent imminent danger, the dozens of sites make up a huge unknown.

The federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) is the main law regulating the environmental effects of coal mining. Made up of two programs – one for active coal mines and another for reclaiming abandoned mines – the latter maintains an AML fund through Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. However, states are expected to lead in the efforts. Although Illinois passed laws regulating strip mining in 1943, the state started taking responsibility for the AML Emergency Program in 1984. Illinois operates its AML program through the Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).

There are 48,529 abandoned coal mines in the United States thought to pose some sort of threat to the public or the environment, and the total number of abandoned and inactive metal mines (from gold and lead to zinc and coal) could be as high as 500,000, says Manthos, who adds after last year’s Animas River disaster – a Colorado gold mine abandoned in 1923 spilled millions of gallons of toxic mine waste into the Animas River – Skytruth decided to map some 65,000 inactive metal sites using the most extensive federal data available.

Peabody, the largest U.S. coal operator, declared bankruptcy in April, following similar filings by Arch Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, and other corporations. Reporting assets of $11 billion and liabilities of $10 billion, Peabody “has more than $2 billion in mine cleanup liabilities, nearly $1.5 billion of which are unfunded,” says Mary Anne Hitt of Ecowatch. “Peabody has a history of spinning off its responsibilities, leaving taxpayers holding the bag.”

Its bankruptcy is expected to start a fight among creditors for its assets, including operations in southern Illinois, Wyoming and Australia.

The Peoria area has mostly older mines.

“Mines permitted under the federal act of 1977 and then abandoned can be reclaimed under the bond for that abandoned mine,” says Anna Johnson, a Knox County resident who’s been active in coal-mining issues since 1979. “For mines permitted before the enactment of the act and then abandoned, these mines can be reclaimed under the Abandoned Mine Act, which is funded by a tax on mined coal.”

Joyce Blumenshine of the Heart of Illinois Group Sierra Club agrees, adding that the “Abandoned Mine Lands program gives mining states millions every year from a fund current coal mines pay into.”

Dr. Joseph Davis, director of the Watchdog Project of the Society of Environmental Journalists, says, “The U.S. is dotted with many abandoned mines that are polluting streams, and Congress has yet to pass any law making anyone responsible for cleaning them up.”

Blumenshine – who since the 1990s has worked on coal-mine issues from the Banner Strip Mine and North Canton Mine to the Deer Run Mint and Viper Mine – says, “The recent coal company bankruptcies continue the long history of boom-and-bust cycles with coal mining that so many communities across our state and the nation have experienced. We know the true costs of coal on public health and the environment have never been paid by the coal industries.

“Coal company executives get their millions in bankruptcy dispersals but the workers suffer greatly because their jobs, health care and retirement are often cut in spite of company responsibilities,” she continues. “Coal mines must not be allowed to escape paying for the damages they have caused but the big problem is they have never really paid. Across Illinois, coal mining has raped and polluted prime farmland, streams and groundwater for the one-time taking of coal, and most of the public has no idea of the damages that have been done – and are still happening.”

The AML’s cost summary identifies $246,392,670.06 in needed reclamation projects nationwide, with $114,262,132.06 completed and $25,141,307 funded to proceed. That leaves $106,989,231 in unfunded reclamation needs.

“No one is tallying the real costs of coal mining in the thousands of acres of farmland taken out of production forever and the contamination left for current and future generations,” Blumenshine says. “The so-called mining ‘reclamation’ may be delayed for years.”

In Illinois, IDNR estimates that more than 7,780 acres of eligible lands and waters containing significant problem features remain in need of reclamation.