West Virginia Farm Foods LLC will receive a $4 million grant to design, build and operate a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture slaughterhouse that will primarily process cattle from nearly 7,000 farms across three northern West Virginia regions.
The grant was one of 10 announced under the state’s Abandoned Mine Lands Economic Revitalization Program projects that will utilize nearly $30 million in federal grant funding for economic development at abandoned mine land sites across the state.
The awards were announced last week at the Grave Creek Mound Historical Complex in Moundsville.
Grant applications were evaluated by a committee of representatives from the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection, the West Virginia Dept. of Commerce, the West Virginia Dept. of Transportation and the Governor’s Office.
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement must also give final approval of the projects and amounts awarded.
To qualify, the proposed economic development projects must be located on or adjacent to mine sites that ceased operations prior to the signing of the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act on Aug. 3, 1977.
Since 2016, the program has committed more than $205 million in grant funding to assist projects all across the West Virginia coalfields.