May 29, 2026 By Brad Hundt 3 min read

With downtown Pittsburgh as a backdrop, U.S. Reps. Chris Deluzio and Summer Lee talked about legislation that they say would hold companies accountable for unproductive “zombie mines” during a press conference on Mount Washington.

“The Night of the Living Dead” might lead you to believe that Southwestern Pennsylvania is awash in zombies.

It’s not. But what it does have in abundance are abandoned mines, and some of them have been classified as “zombie mines” – mines that have not been active for years, but have not been officially shuttered by the companies that own them. That means no reclamation work has been done on them. Critics of the mining industry say these zombie mines generate hazards for nearby communities and pollute rivers and streams.

This week, U.S. Reps. Chris Deluzio and Summer Lee introduced legislation they say would make sure land is reclaimed after mining ends, protect waterways and change bonding requirements for companies.

At a press conference earlier this week in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood, which was once known as Coal Hill, Deluzio said, “Western Pennsylvania and other coal companies powered our country for decades, but the industry left behind a lot of dangerous and polluting ‘zombie mines.’ It is time to clean up the mess they left behind.”

Lee said, “For too long, coal companies have been allowed to walk away from the damage they leave behind, harming the health of our communities and leaving taxpayers with the bill.”

Deluzio and Lee have introduced three bills to address zombie mines, along with U.S. Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia. A measure introduced by Lee would mandate companies set aside money for mine reclamation and not “self-bond,” where they essentially guarantee they will be able to cover the costs of cleanup and forego purchasing surety bonds or offering any other kind of collateral. Lee argues that when some coal companies have declared bankruptcy years after self-bonding, taxpayers have ended up on the hook for reclamation.

A corresponding bill, introduced by Deluzio, would mandate that companies put aside a sufficient amount of money for cleanup work, and take inflation, water pollution and the potential cost to taxpayers into account. The third measure, introduced by Beyer, would set deadlines for mine reclamation.

At the Mount Washington press conference, Rebecca Shelton, director of policy for the Whitesburg, Ky.-based Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, said that unproductive and unreclaimed mines “are eyesores and hazards in coal-producing communities. At best, these sites often sit for years in this status. Worse, coal operators abandon these sites and it is subsequently discovered that there is insufficient bond funding to clean up the mine.”

According to a map created by Millersville University, there is a batch of abandoned mines in the northern and eastern parts of Washington County and in a stretch between Washington and Canonsburg. Greene County has a handful, and Fayette County has a concentration of them in its southwestern corner. Allegheny County has many in the swath of land between Interstate 79 and Pittsburgh International Airport, and some in the areas near Penn Hills and Plum.