EPCAMR To Present at 2013 PA EnviroThon at Juniata College and Conduct AMD Tie-Dye Workshop for Students

PA EnviroThon

Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR), a non-profit organization, established in 1996 to encourage the reclamation and remediation of land and water impacted by past mining practices on abandoned mine lands in Eastern Pennsylvania Coalfields will be joining students at the 2013 PA Envirothon to increase their awareness of abandoned mine drainage and innovative, cutting edge 3D modeling of the underground mines throughout Pennsylvania.
The remnants of coal and non-coal mining are evident in our environment throughout the Commonwealth. In fact, the largest contributor of nonpoint source pollution in our state is Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD) with over 5,000 miles of streams impacted throughout PA.
Through partnerships with conservation districts; watershed groups; schools and colleges; other non-profit and cooperative grassroots efforts; active industry and local, state, and federal government, EPCAMR efficiently uses our resources, collaborative technical treatment, and remediation technologies, and is at the forefront of developing 3D models that reflect the underground mines, geology, and mine pools beneath our abandoned mine lands to assist in restoring Pennsylvania’s vital watersheds and communities impacted by abandoned mine lands.

At this year’s State Envirothon’s Tuesday evening program, we are going to be a small part in helping to restore our streams by carrying EPCAMR’s workload on our backs, literally. EPCAMR will utilize iron oxide it has recovered, harvested, dried, and processed into a recycled powder from mine drainage that impacted streams in Northeastern PA to create AMD Tie-Dye T-shirts. EPCAMR has tie-dyed over 15,000 T-shirts in the last 10 years alone with students, the general public, conference attendees, campers, and at environmental fairs and workshops throughout NE and NC PA.

This year, EPCAMR is going to make shirts with state Envirothon participants using the 2013 Pennsylvania Envirothon T-shirts. Every shirt that we make removes a small amount of iron oxide from our rivers and streams to help restore them and to showcase the potential use of iron oxide as a pigment product that has value on the clothing market. EPCAMR worked with PA EnviroThon Program Coordinator Lorelle Steach to write an article on our participation in this year’s PA EnviroThon Event at Juniata College on May 21st and May 22, 2013; See the publication at http://www.envirothonpa.org/documents/2013WinterUPDATES.pdf