The state has awarded a $1.2 million contract to reclaim abandoned coal mines in central Missouri.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Land Reclamation Commission have awarded the contract to C.L. Richardson Construction Co. of Ashland.
About 75 acres of abandoned coal mine lands will be reclaimed near Harrisburg in Boone and Howard counties.
The land was the site of surface mines in the 1940s and 1950s.
The project is scheduled to be completed in May.
It calls for grading and revegetating the area, which now contains dangerous piles and embankments.
The DNR said in a news release that the reclamation is expected to improve water quality in the area by reducing sediment flows from the site.
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