Discarded vehicle tires. Construction debris. Fast food bags. Plastic drinks. Aluminum cans. Did we mention that these are mostly recyclable products? Old mattresses and other household junk. Ugh!

Getting rid of the messes – whether strewn on a grassy stream bank or across abandoned mine lands – should be a high priority, because the debris can lead to many problems, including water and soil contamination, diseases that harm people, even environmental catastrophes. Illegal dumping, for example, has been blamed for sparking or contributing to certain underground coal mine fires, like Centralia.

That’s why the nonprofit organization where I serve as Executive Director gets so involved in organizing cleanups and advocating for changes, not only in attitudes and behaviors, but also to state laws.

For 30 years, the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR) near Wilkes-Barre has consistently teamed with project partners and volunteers in the region’s coal communities to improve landscapes and lives. This year is no different.

During April – recognized as Earth Month – EPCAMR was especially active in bringing increased attention to illegal dumping and its harms. Here’s a bit of what did.

EPCAMR organized a community forum titled “Illegal Dumping: Let’s Talk Trash and Tires,” featuring guest speakers from dozens of organizations including Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, the Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau and the North Branch Land Trust. The event on April 11 at Luzerne County Community College allowed for a great exchange of information about illegal dumping enforcement and prevention initiatives.

Bobby providing an overview of the EPCAMR Regional Community Assessment on Illegal Dumping of Tires and Trash at LCCC for the Illegal Dumping: Let’s Talk Trash & Tires Educational Forum on April 11 coordinated by EPCAMR and hosted by LCCC.

Presentations that were made are included here for you to download and see what was discussed and talked about in great detail with a tremendous amount of positive energy and questions and answers from our speakers as well as our audience in attendance.

EPCAMR x KPB Community Assessment.pptx

Hanover_PD_Lets Talk Trash & TIRES.pptx

Columbia_County_Recycling_4-11-26 .pptx

Illegal Dumping Sierra Club Pre_ByMuncie

MDC EPCAMR Forum Presentation_4.11.26 v2.pptx

Open Your Eyes to Litter presentation.pptx

Illegal dumping_NEPAPAC.pptx

Bloomsburg_Community_Creek_Cleanup

PennEnviroScreen and illegal dumping.pptx

KPB_epcamr.pptx.pdf

EPCAMR and its partners scheduled several trash cleanups, the first of which was held on April 18 along Tomhicken Road in Black Creek Township. 35 EPCAMR volunteers and volunteers from the Friends of the Nescopeck Creek watershed association, successfully removed an estimated 175 bags of garbage (4.375 T), 150 diet iced tea gallon jugs (last year there were 53 jugs), and 60 vehicle tires from the watershed.

Ice T jugs being counted before being disposed of and emptied.

Ethan Hughes, Bobby’s son, did a little dance after picking up the last of the 150 Iced T jugs.

What a great day we had today along the Black Creek in lower Luzerne County with our partners on our Tomhicken Road Roadside Cleanup.

Special thanks to Marie Welsh, a 50 year community volunteer from Sugarloaf Township, who reached out to us to help her continue the cleanup efforts in her community. She’s into her 70s now, and her mobility isn’t what it used to be since her surgery. * made her an honorary EPCAMR volunteer and provided her with a VOLUNTEER safety EPCAMR T-shirt today! She even donated towards the pizza and hoagie lunch today along with the Maylath’s Farm.

Bobby providing Marie Welsh with an Honorary EPCAMR Volunteer T-shirt for her 50 years of service in cleaning up her community in the Sugarloaf Township and Black Creek Township areas.

Black Creek Twp. Supervisors and Road Department and Sugarloaf Township were willing to pick up the trash. Mumaw’s Garage picked up all the trash and centrally located it at the Black Creek Township Municipal Building.

Mumaw’s Garage out of Nuremburg donated the use of their flatbed to pick up all of the trash, scrap and tires for the event.

Thanks to Clint for making the pizzas and the hoagies!

Friends of the Nescopeck volunteers showed up as well and helped with the coordination.

Friends of the Nescopeck Creek watershed volunteers picking up some roadside litter along Tomhicken Road.

Luzerne County Community Action Coalition-LCCAC assisted too!

Bobby and Annie from the LCCAC, getting the job done along Tomhicken Road.

Keystone job corps did a great job in helping out as well.

Keystone Job Center Volunteer Crew walking along the guardrail below the Coal Mine Road on the bend near Yamulla’s property.

Many previous EPCAMR volunteers joined us as well and we welcomed many new ones today who recieved a free EPCAMR VOLUNTEER safety T-shirt for joining us.

Chris O’Rourke, long-time EPCAMR Volunteer brought his neighbor and friend Lucas Warman to the cleanup who is excited about future cleanups now.

There are a few stretches remaining that have very thin road shoulders that remain to be cleaned up that had limited parking just south of the village of Tomhicken. That section will have to wait for another day. However, anyone driving the entire length of this road should see a very recognizable difference along the roadside and along the Black Creek.

After the cleanup, the majority of the 10 miles of Tomhicken Road looked this clean and green!

Additional cleanups are planned later this year in Hanover Township, Ashley, Pittston, the headwaters of Nanticoke Creek off Holly Street, Columbia County in the Catawissa Creek watershed, and along Snake Road, and possibly other communities. Volunteers are welcomed. For details on upcoming events, watch EPCAMR’s Facebook page.

EPCAMR Volunteers graphic

During April, EPCAMR officially became an affiliate of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful – the state’s top antilittering organization. Our organization had long been a supporter of this program, promoting its activities and helpful resources as well as reporting the results of our cleanups (such as the number of vehicle tires collected and pounds of other trash removed) for its database. Our new status as an affiliate will strengthen that relationship and increase EPCAMR’s ability to support cleanup activities in these four counties: Carbon, Columbia, Northumberland and Sullivan.

EPCAMR will continue to collaborate with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’s other affiliates across the region, including the Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s NE regional office in Luzerne County, to hold cleanup events and spruce up public spaces.

To be clear, EPCAMR was not established as a nonprofit for the purpose of organizing and conducting litter cleanups. Instead, EPCAMR was founded to promote the reclamation of the region’s abandoned mine lands and to prevent the polluted water that pours out of old coal mines from spoiling our creeks and rivers. However, our EPCAMR employees often discover while performing their clean-water projects in the field that abandoned mine lands and sensitive watershed areas are being abused by dumpers. So, our organization takes on the additional responsibility of combatting litter.

We rely on financial support to pay for related costs such as trash receptable rentals and tire recycling fees. The Amazon Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Fund and the Greenlight Project are two grant-making entities that recently provided funding to support some of our 2026 cleanup projects.

Businesses and individuals like you can help to expand EPCAMR’s cleanup efforts by donating items such as bottled water, pizza and snacks to fuel our event volunteers. Or send a financial contribution.

Collectively, we can rid our local landscapes of illegal dumps and other eyesores that detract from the natural beauty of Northeast Pennsylvania’s forests, fields and streamsides.

The post EPCAMR Takes Aim at Litter, Illegal Dumping in Coal Region Watersheds and Becomes A Keep PA Beautiful Affilliate! appeared first on epcamr.org.

5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
────
Sand Springs
10 Clubhouse Dr., Drums, PA 18222

The former Harry E. Breaker Waste Coal Site converted into greenspace for extension of youth ballfields in Swoyersville, PA.

Join the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR) in celebrating its 30th anniversary!

EPCAMR staff, members, and the public are invited to attend a banquet highlighting the organization’s accomplishments over the years. Dinner and a cash bar will be provided.

Registration is OPEN at the EPCAMR Online Store

$50 for regular registration and $30 for Nonprofit/Government/Students.

Registration will close 1 week prior to the event. Please plan accordingly.  

Sponsorships are Welcome at the EPCAMR Online Store

Several levels are suggested: Iron, Manganese, Pyrite, Aluminum, and Copper, with different perks to show our appreciation of our sponsors’ support.

If you would like to sponsor at another level than the ones suggested, please see our Sponsorship Letter.

We hope to see you there!

The post EPCAMR 30th Anniversary Celebration appeared first on epcamr.org.

CBWS allows eligible College and University students to use their Federal Work Study award to work off campus, at a local non-profit. Students earn their wages while supporting meaningful community work and gaining real world experiences and assisting non-profits with their impacts withing the communities that they serve by providing some additional organizational capacity to the organizations.

CBWS is designed for students who want their work to matter by contributing locally to the communities that surround their Colleges and Universities. They can gain hands‑on experience in real nonprofit settings, build skills that translate directly to future careers, explore fields like education, social services, history, environmental work, and community outreach. On top of the soft skills and opportunities for applied science, they can also earn certificates that they can add to their resumes and make a positive impact while getting paid. EPCAMR encourages students can contact their Financial Aid or Community Engagement office to learn more about eligibility and placements. Students at King’s College should inquire if they have questions or need more assistance on the process, by stopping by Kelly Gibbons’ office at the Shoval Center or book an appointment with her (in person is preferable)  Book time to meet with me

She has a passion for science, art, and nature, and especially enjoys engaging in her many creative hobbies and spending time outdoors. She will be graduating from King’s College with a Bachelor of Environmental Science in Spring of 2029.  

Carolyn Phillips is EPCAMR’s latest Community Based Work Study student intern from King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Carolyn’s interest in science began early in her life, but she had no way to pursue it until she first participated in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) competition in seventh grade. The process of designing a scientific experiment and then presenting her findings to a panel of judges was the perfect outlet for her ideas, and she fell in love with the competition, continuing to participate every year up to her senior year of high school. Her hard work and dedication to the program earned her a first award at the regional level all six years of her participation, three of the years having a perfect score, and five first awards at the state level. In her final year of participation, she was also awarded the Senior Excellence Award in Botany, which is presented to the participant with the highest score in the category, as well as a six-year Perseverance Award and a King’s College Scholarship. This year, she became a judge at the regional level of the competition and hopes to continue her involvement with PJAS so that young students’ interests in science may be nurtured and expanded upon, just as she experienced when she was younger.  

Carolyn has lived in Shickshinny, PA for her whole life, and has seen firsthand the scars that the anthracite mining operations have left on the landscape. She recalls frequently seeing the blocked-off coal mine entrances with mine drainage flowing from them, the foundations of old mine offices, the massive culm banks, and sites of major land subsidence while hiking in the local mountains on State Game Lands 260.

At the young age of 10, Carolyn chose to make a diorama of the Knox Mine Disaster, which devastated the Wyoming Valley community back in 1959, for a history project in middle school. Having seen the effects of this industry, Carolyn wishes to aid EPCAMR in remediating the negative local effects of coal mining and increasing outreach to the community to get young minds interested in science. 

Carolyn Phillips created a diorama of the Knox Mine Disaster in 2017, little did she know she’d be working with EPCAMR that developed maps for a feature documentary on the Knox Mine Disaster years later.

Carolyn’s environmental science lectures and labs at King’s have broadened her ambitions to new horizons as she learned about the local wildlife and the environmental issues plaguing the area, many of which result from the anthracite mining industry. She was first introduced to EPCAMR through a trip for her environmental science lab with Dr. Tara Mangan, when the class visited to learn about EPCAMR’s projects and impacts on the environment, as well as educational outreach for the community. After this initial meeting, Carolyn immediately began reaching out to King’s faculty and EPCAMR staff to determine how she could get involved with EPCAMR to make a difference in the community and local environment.  

Carolyn Phillips explores one of the sealed mine entrances and bat caves along Dogtown Road on State Game Lands 260, near Shickshinny where EPCAMR is currently conducting a Coldwater Conservation Watershed Assessment in her hometown. This is one of many sites where the water was sampled for AMD impacts suspected of reaching Rocky Run. (2021) 

Carolyn connected with Kelly Gibbons from the King’s College Shoval Center, which focuses on community engagement and learning, as well as volunteer opportunities, to help her begin working with EPCAMR. Kelly Gibbons worked with Carolyn, as well as Bobby Hughes, the Executive Director of EPCAMR, to arrange a Community-based Federal Work Study position with EPCAMR.  

Carolyn mentioned, “I’m grateful that my classes led me to EPCAMR, and even more grateful that I’ve been able to become involved with EPCAMR so quickly. The process of getting involved was far easier than I thought. I’ve been welcomed with open arms, and I’m very excited to begin working with EPCAMR in time for their 30th Anniversary, which is such a momentous occasion for the organization. I’m also looking forward to earning my Aquatic Organism Protocol free training certification to become a NAACC lead observer to analyze road-stream crossings and learn more about my local watershed after getting 20 of them surveyed under my belt later this year in my hometown watershed.” 

“I’m glad that Carolyn was so interested in seeing if she could find a way to get some hours with EPCAMR through the Federal Community Based Work Study Program at King’s. It’s a program I constantly am informing college students about how they can work directly in the community with area non-profits and get paid at the same time through the program. Since we don’t often have funds to be able to pay the students, unless they are a part of an AmeriCorps VISTA Program and are able to commit to a much longer length of time with more hours involved, this route is a viable alternative. This program allows both the students and EPCAMR to have the flexibility to see that they are getting to class, going to a part-time job oftentimes, and are spending a limited amount of hours directly in their field of interest helping to make a difference in their community outside the college campus and academic environment they are in for the time they are in college.” explained Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director.

Besides working with EPCAMR through her Community-based Federal Work Study position, Carolyn also intends to volunteer with EPCAMR for various events, such as cleanups. After first hearing back from Bobby Hughes, Carolyn quickly filled out EPCAMR’s Volunteer Registration Form to get further involved with the organization. 

Carolyn tells us, “These days, it’s so easy to get caught up in your own little world. There aren’t constant reminders of what we’ve done to the environment, only problems which often can only be seen when they’re sought out. Most people would like to ignore things that don’t affect them directly, but what they might not realize is that if we don’t do anything to remediate problems in the environment now, they can snowball into even larger problems that will still need to be fixed in the future. These issues can and will affect the futures of our children and grandchildren, affecting not only the physical world they will live in but also their quality of life.” 

“I’m glad that Carolyn is from the Shickshinny area too! She may know some of the families in the area that we may need to get in touch with later in the Spring and Summer as we continue to macro surveys and bridge and culvert assessments who may live along some of the creeks and streams that we would like to just take measurements of for aquatic passage of fish and macroinvertebrates as a part of our Coldwater Conservation Planning Grant with the PA Council of Trout Unlimited for Shickshinny Creek, Paddy Run, and Rocky Run.” Bobby hopefully exclaimed. “She’s only been here for less than a day so far, and has already completed her NAACC Aquatic Organism Protocol Certificate Training, so I’m sure she’s ready to get her feet wet in her hometown waters around the Shickshinny area.” Bobby joked.

Carolyn will be coming into the EPCAMR Office twice a week on Mondays and Fridays, when she doesn’t have classes, so there is no conflict with her on campus education, and providing us with 6.5 hours a week for 8 weeks. Her activities are outlined in the following Volunteer Activity Description (VAD) entitled, EPCAMR WatershedOutreachGrantResearchSpecialist_Job Description.

The post EPCAMR Brings on Carolyn Phillips as a Community-based Federal Work Study student intern from King’s College as our Watershed Outreach Grant Research Specialist appeared first on epcamr.org.

Our readers can look back at a previous news article from the Summer of 2025 when she joined us as a Summer Watershed GIS Outreach/Education Intern.

EPCAMR Welcomes Kingston native, Maria Gereda as a Summer Watershed GIS Outreach/Education Intern

Her service term led her to discover and pursue an education in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Maria completed her online GIS certification through Austin Community College (ACC) where she presented her final capstone project to students and staff at the end of last year. Her project applied GIS tools to evaluate the spatial distribution of past tire and trash dumpsites remediated by EPCAMR staff and volunteers over the last 20 years. She will be adding additional cleanups that she’s researching in past reports by EPCAMR from it’s first decade of existence once she can retrieve the reports from EPCAMR archived folders. By examining the sites’ proximity to sensitive environmental features as well as their potential impacts on surrounding communities, the analysis provided a clearer picture of the risks associated with tire dumping.

This project was an effort to bring attention to EPCAMR’s mission and achievements as well as highlight the environmental issues that burden communities in Northeastern and North Central PA. Her work will be highlighted later in the year, around Earth Week in April at a 1 Day Educational Forum that the Executive Director is planning called, “Illegal Dumping: Let’s Talk Trash! Tired of Seeing Tossed Tires, Yet?” Planning for the event is underway and more details will be available as soon as we secure our venue in the Wyoming Valley. 

Bobby and Maria dropping off discarded Tires at The Tires Guys Shop following the Dundee Road and Nanticoke Creek Cleanup in the Fall of 2025.

Maria’s time spent studying GIS and working under the guidance of EPCAMR’s esteemed staff that have an abundance of knowledge and years of experience in surface and underground mine mapping as well as mine pool modeling in 3D. Their transfer of knowledge and training has equipped her with the necessary tools to start her next chapter as a GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist with EPCAMR spending the majority of her time on the workload for the PA DEP Mine Subsidence Insurance Program. She started right before the Christmas Holidays in 2025.

Photo of Surface, Underground, and Cross Section Map

Maria originally joined EPCAMR part-time in April 2025. After a few months, she was given the opportunity to intern full-time through Conservation Legacy’s Stewards Individual Placement Program as an AmeriCorps VISTA for 6 months. 

During her six month internship, Maria assisted staff with water quality monitoring, advanced to a North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC) Level 1 Coordinator just like her Supervisor, Bobby Hughes has completed and a former AmeriCorps VISTA Morgan Romanowski had achieved, attended multiple networking events and conferences, helped manage volunteers, assisted in coordinating cleanup events, and much more. She is incredibly grateful for the guidance and knowledge she has received during her time at EPCAMR and could not be happier to continue serving her community with them.

Maria and Sarah taking measurements of culverts for Aquatic Organism Passage (AOP) in the Bowman Creek watershed.

She stated, “I’ve learned more about my hometown by working alongside EPCAMR than I have in all the years I’ve lived here. Through their mentorship, Mike, Bobby, Frank, Shawnese, and Mark, have given me the tools to make an impact on the places and causes, I care about so deeply.” In her new role, Maria will give her assistance in the MSI program by scanning, cataloging, digitizing, georeferencing, and mosaicking mine maps. 

Maria and Kayla out with Bobby performing macroinvertebrate surveys in the Bowman Creek watershed with our partners, including the Stanley Cooper Chapter Trout Unlimited.

Although her online schooling has ended, Maria is already planning what courses she will take next to become a greater asset to the EPCAMR team. She plans to gain her FAA Part 107 remote drone pilot license in the near future while continuing to build her GIS skillset.

Bobby stated, “Maria has been a tremendous asset to EPCAMR since she got here as an intern and then again as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer, where she committed herself to 6 months of community service to our non-profit and our coalfield communities up through the Winter of 2025. She’s learned a great deal along the way and picked up on everything from monitoring, water sampling, flow monitoring, culvert and bridge assessments, mine mapping, and helping with volunteer recruitment, which she has had plenty of experience doing in her previous earlier positions in Texas. I’m glad she’s back home in the Wyoming Valley contributing to her hometown Valley and the surrounding coalfield communities.”

Bobby laughed and said, “She’s very funny and laughs at all my jokes and we’ve had a great time out in the field on so many occasions. She has had to keep me from straying off the beaten paths on a number of occasions too far from the group when we are sampling because I like to wander and take photos to document our days in the field. I joke that she has had to pick up where Morgan Romanowski left off when she would do the same thing to make sure I wasn’t getting lost for too long on our field excursions and watershed assessments. She always has a smile on her face when helping others in the community. I tell her she gets it from her father, Popi Rod Gereda, who has been a long-time friend of colleague of mine since Maria was a teenager. I’m sure he would agree!”

The post EPCAMR Brings on former Intern and AmeriCorps VISTA Maria Gereda, as another Full-Time, GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist to Work on Mine Subsidence Insurance Mine Mapping Project appeared first on epcamr.org.

Stanley A. Shimko

CBWS allows eligible College and University students to use their Federal Work Study award to work off campus, at a local non-profit. Students earn their wages while supporting meaningful community work and gaining real world experiences and assisting non-profits with their impacts withing the communities that they serve by providing some additional organizational capacity to the organizations.

CBWS is designed for students who want their work to matter by contributing locally to the communities that surround their Colleges and Universities. They can gain hands‑on experience in real nonprofit settings, build skills that translate directly to future careers, explore fields like education, social services, history, environmental work, and community outreach. On top of the soft skills and opportunities for applied science, they can also earn certificates that they can add to their resumes and make a positive impact while getting paid. EPCAMR encourages students can contact their Financial Aid or Community Engagement office to learn more about eligibility and placements. Students at King’s College should inquire if they have questions or need more assistance on the process, by stopping by Kelly Gibbons’ office at the Shoval Center or book an appointment with her (in person is preferable)  Book time to meet with me

Stanley shares deep familial ties with the coal region, and intends that the lands in which he was raised, may be healed from the long history and scars of past  anthracite mining. He comes from a lineage of generational coal miners in Eastern Europe around Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. He expressed interest in working (after graduation) in a field related to anthracite mining. To this end, he expressed his gratefulness and his interest in the opportunity to participate  EPCAMR’s Work Study internship program. Stanley will use his historical insight from his education at King’s to aid in EPCAMR’s preparation for its 30th Anniversary in the Fall, during his work study and for research into anthracite mining history topics that will become a part of several of our reports and watershed assessments that we are currently working on.

Stanley expressed his desire to share EPCAMR’s history at the 30th Anniversary Reception, as bringing EPCAMR’s history and past projects to the forefront of local conciseness would bring forth a greater sense of awareness to the type of work and activities involved in EPCAMR’s abandoned mine reclamation, which directly benefits the regional population centers impacted by abandoned mines in Northeastern and Northcentral PA.

Stanley tells us, “My generation does not have the constant visual reminder of anthracite
history which past generations had. I mean coal breakers, colliery buildings, washeries, shafts, slopes, and tipples which were scatted across the Wyoming Valley have been by and large, torn down. So I have noticed that my generation has begun to forget about the long, painful and oppressive history of anthracite mining, entirely”. He later said, “Despite there being little reminders of the deep mining on the surface, there are still endless catacombs of coal veins and water-filled gangways and rooms, with their pillars removed, beneath our feet that remind of of their existence when they open up occasionally during mine subsidence emergencies in our communities, revealing with that geological hazard that comes along with living in the Coal Region, the long unforgettable history of Anthracite.”

Bobby Hughes, Executive Director mentioned, ” We’re glad to have Stanley with us through the CBWS Program at King’s College, which is an invaluable program that supports non-profits like ourselves that don’t often have the funds to financially support paid internships, but have the space and can host the positions. We also are providing some valuable experiences for the students that they can get outside of the classroom and the opportunity to network and have professional mentors in the workforce that can educate them and give them firsthand chances to engage with the surrounding local communities that they are a part of while attending College or a local University. ”

Bobby joked, “As Stan and I were talking on his first day, he recalled attending a PA American Water Wonderful World of Water Camp at The Lands at Hillside Farms when he was very young and he remembered making an AMD Tie-Dye T-shirt and was first introduced to EPCAMR in his early youth. That was rewarding to hear, since I had conducted that educational event and led the workshop to create those t-shirts for the campers, which is an Environmental Education Program that we have been doing for decades with Susan Turcmanovich, External Affairs Manager, from PA American Water, both at The Lands at Hillside Farms over the years, when the Educational Center building was first constructed up on the hill, and yearly at the Valley Library, along the Lackawanna River, in Peckville.”

Stanley will be coming in to the Office twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when he doesn’t have classes, so there is no conflict with his on campus education, and providing us with 10 hours a week for 10 weeks. His Activities are outlined in the following Volunteer Activity Description (VAD) entitled, EPCAMR Coal Region History Researcher and Archivist_Job Description

He will also spend time archiving and scanning our 30 years history of news articles, projects, photos, into a digital archive for EPCAMR. We hope to have it complete to reveal at the 30th Anniversary Reception in September 2026.

Another assignment will be to research the history of coal mining towns and communities where coal breakers were once prominent as we develop our watershed assessments for a number of watersheds in the region. In particular, he will be looking at the E.S. Stackhouse Colliery and Greater Shickshinny Area as we continue to develop our Coldwater Conservation Plan for the Shickshinny Creek Watershed and both the Paddy Run and Rocky Run Valleys, along the southern tip of the Northern Anthracite Coalfields, along State Route 11, in Shickshinny and Salem Township.

E.S. Stackhouse portrait from 1886.

The majority of the colliery history is located in State Game Lands 260. He’ll be looking for maps and history on the people, landmarks, and local communities that influenced the mining industry in those areas that EPCAMR always includes in our watershed assessments and Coldwater Conservation Plans.

A transparency over a historic mining map showing the E.S. Stackhouse Colliery Breaker original location along State Route 11 just outside of Shickshinny.

He will be helping our former AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer Dennis Dukinas, continue to build on our new Story Map on the Anthracite Region’s Historic Coal Mines, Breakers, and Washeries, in the Northern, Middle (Eastern), Western Middle, and Southern Anthracite Coal Fields, Geographic Information System (GIS), online, interactive map.

Screen shot of the online Story Map and Interactive Historical Coal Mines, Collieries, Breakers, and Washeries in the EPCAMR Region’s Anthracite Coal Fields

He expressed his interest in attending the EPCAMR 30th Anniversary Reception with his fiancée, and wishes for you to be in attendance as well, on September 19th, 2026 from 5-9PM, at the Sand Springs Country Club, in Drums. More details on the planning of this pivotal occasion will be forthcoming, so please SAVE THE DATE! We will be highlighting our accomplishments over the last three decades. Dinner and a Cash Bar will be provided. Registration will open soon and sponsorships will be sought from our regional partners across our 16-county region.

We look forward to his contributions to our organization over the next 10 weeks! Welcome aboard Stanley! Join us in welcoming him to this great opportunity for the both of us.

The post EPCAMR Brings on Stanley A. Shimko as a Community-based Federal Work Study student intern from King’s College as Our Coal Region History Researcher & Archivist appeared first on epcamr.org.

LRCA has initiated a collaboration with the PA Anthracite Heritage Museum (PHMC), EPCAMR and the Lackawanna Historical Society (LHS) to conduct historical research and develop information about the cessation of underground mining and pumping operations in the Lackawanna Basin of the Northern Anthracite Field in 1961, the subsequent inundation of the mine void system causing a public safety emergency, and the construction of the Old Forge Borehole to stabilize the mine pool flooding in 1962.

The Old Forge AMD Borehole seen looking north from the Union Street Bridge in Old Forge as it enters the Lackawanna River polluting the lower 3 miles of the watershed before entering the N. Branch of the Susquehanna River.

Tara Jones, Executive Director, stated excitedly, in her application that “We will produce a White Paper that will serve as a primary document to inform the establishment of an exhibit kiosk to be installed in the Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton, as well as a summary poster to be available for onsite installation at the Borehole location at the Union Street Bridge in Old Forge, PA.”

LRCA will conduct historical research in local and state archives, newspaper records, and conduct key person interviews related to the cessation of mine water pumping in the Lackawanna Basin by the Moffat Coal Company on November 1, 1961. By January 1962, this caused flooding of the mine voids under the Lackawanna Valley and the surcharge of mine waters into ground waters and surface drainage that severely damaged private properties and public infrastructure across wide-spread areas between Old Forge, Scranton, Olyphant, and Carbondale.

The various agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Federal Government responded to design and construct a pressure relief borehole on the west bank of the Lackawanna River at the crest of the Moosic Saddle Anticline in Old Forge between May and September 1962. Since then, the Old Forge Borehole has been discharging polluting mine waters at an average of 60 million gallons per day into the Lackawanna River. Over 5,000 pounds of iron, manganese, sulfur, aluminum, and other trace elements precipitate out of this drainage. It may be the largest point source of mine drainage in North America.

Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director, emphasized with great pride, “There is no better mentor of mine, then our former Past President of EPCAMR, and co-founder of LRCA 32 years ago, Old Man River himself, and LRCA Senior Project Manager, Bernie McGurl to act as the Principal Investigator to conduct the research and draft the White Paper. Bernie and I have told thousands of students and visitors to the Old Forge AMD Borehole this story of its inception and legacy through our oral history and knowledge gained from just reading and researching about our fascinating Anthracite Mining heritage and history. It’s time we take that institutional knowledge and transferred it in a way that will captivate audiences young and old at the PA Anthracite Heritage Museum, where there are numerous opportunities for students and visitors alike to learn about our rich history in mining and how we are dealing with the legacy looking to the future. It starts with education.”

The paper will serve as the first phase of several intended outcomes: the development and interpretive exhibit on the end of underground mining in the Northern Field at the Anthracite Heritage Museum; the development of an educational information poster for students and the public; the Installation of a Pennsylvania Historic Marker at the Borehole site and the retrieval, and preservation of the 42-inch diameter stone core plug from the borehole drilling work that lies on the cobble bar in the riverbed adjacent to the borehole.

The sandstone core plug from the Old Forge Borehole currently sits along the western bank of the Lackawanna River adjacent to the box culvert that carries the AMD to the outlet just above the Union Street Bridge. It’s several thousand pounds and LRCA and EPCAMR are going to be looking for a solution on how to get it out of the River and up along the bank to be placed near a future planned Historic Marker at the site.

Check out a 2012 presentation put together by EPCAMR, LCRA, and the SRBC on the Lower Lackawanna River Watershed Assessment Plan. It gives you some insight into the historic conditions of of the water quality and flows below the Old Forge Borehole and it also gives you an idea of the extent of the underground mien pools that feed the voluminous discharge that Bernie often calls “the single largest source of AMD pollution in terms of iron loading and flow to the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The post Old Man River and the Lackawanna River Conservation Association (LRCA) Awarded $1945 ARIPPA EPCAMR Mini-Grant appeared first on epcamr.org.

Frank Sindaco looking over a state-wide map of abandoned mine lands and streams impacted by AMD in PA.

In this role, Sindaco will architect and maintain community-centered information systems; produce clear media that translates data and research into everyday decisions; and lead policy-facing outreach and content development that help local leaders, watershed groups, and residents act on timely information. He will also continue to support field activities—including AMD sampling and watershed restoration efforts—to ensure on-the-ground observations inform community resources, capacity-building, and policy briefs.

“Frank’s work makes information usable—by communities, by partners, and by decision makers,” said Bobby E. Hughes, Executive Director of EPCAMR. “By integrating data systems, media production, and policy outreach, the Information Hub will help our network coordinate faster, build capacity, and advance reclamation, watershed assessment and restoration planning, and AMD remediation results across the EPCAMR region.”

Frank joined EPCAMR as a part-time GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist back in February of 2020. Read up on his background at our previously published article on his initial hire here. Grant funding was provided from the Foundation for PA Watersheds to support his position for 1-year and he will continue to seek funding to continue the position during the year going forward. Additional funds are provided from other grants and professional service income streams recieved by EPCAMR.

About Frank Sindaco

Sindaco brings a blend of community-centered media practice, geospatial and information systems experience, and leadership development work. His background includes designing public information resources, building knowledge-sharing workflows with nonprofit and local networks, and connecting media work to community action and policy development.

The post EPCAMR Promotes Frank Sindaco as Media and Community Systems Specialist to Lead Information Hub and Strengthen Community Capacity appeared first on epcamr.org.

Maria Gereda, Kingston, PA  from the Wyoming Valley, and Dennis Dukinas, Dallas, PA, from the Back Mountain, both natives of Luzerne County, will be hosted and supervised by EPCAMR until the end of December 2025 to work with us to provide volunteer services to add some capacity to the organization starting yesterday.

Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director exclaimed, “We are thrilled to have both of these environmental and conservation professionals join us for the 20 plus weeks through the end of the year to assist us with a number of direct service projects that we currently have underway with a limited staff, who have the passion and commitment to follow through on a number of our awarded grants and professional services throughout the EPCAMR Region.”

Bobby went on to say, “I can’t say enough about Conservation Legacy, OSMRE, and especially AmeriCorps (State and National) and AmeriCorps VISTA and their support for our work. April Elkins Badtke has been a long-time friend and colleague for over 2 decades when the original Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team was formed to provide similar support to non-profit environmental organizations that were and are still working in coal country up and down the Appalachian Mountain Range. She is a consummate professional at Conservation Legacy who never has had a problem responding to my emails or messages at all hours of the night or on weekends and listening to my concerns about AmeriCorps and the funding cuts that we had to endure several months ago. We currently have Morgan Romanowski, Scott Township, Lackawanna County working with us through the end of September 2025 to finish up her year term as an AmeriCorps (State and National) volunteer fellow GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist and Mark Jones, who initially was an Energy Community Assistance Program (ECAP) Community Development Coordinator volunteer with AmeriCorps VISTA, who had to placed into Conservation Legacy’s AmeriCorps VISTA Program. He will be volunteering with us until the end of December 2025.”

Maria will continue her work with EPCAMR as a GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist through the Stewards Individual Placement Program. In her new role, she will help promote food security by encouraging the creation of community gardens in coalfield communities and working with local organizations to plant, maintain, and harvest them as one project that EPCAMR has already started on with the distribution of biodegradable Waterboxxes from Groasis that we have been giving away for free to groups that are interested. Community gardens were very common in what were called “patches” in the coal towns around the Anthracite and Bituminous regions. She will also support affordable housing development by advocating for new housing developments to consider being built on reclaimed abandoned mine lands. She will also continue to engage and assist with  environmental education experiences for students in school districts throughout the region that are under the poverty level.

Dennis and Maria are “kicking for macroinvertebrates on Little Shickshinny Creek in Shickshinny Borough as a part of our Coldwater Heritage Conservation Plan where we are developing a watershed assessment for the Shickshinny Creek Watershed and Paddy and Rocky Run.

Bobby said, “Maria, a Luzerne County native, from Kingston, PA in the Wyoming Valley, joined EPCAMR just two months ago as a part-time Summer Watershed GIS Outreach and Education Intern. In that short time, she has gained a wide range of hands-on experience that will serve her well in her expanding role. She was a natural fit for this longer term position that could give her full-time hours under this program.” 

During her internship, Maria earned a certification in the Non-Tidal Streams Protocol through the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC). She worked closely with EPCAMR Staff to scan and catalog both surface and underground mine maps for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Mine Subsidence Insurance Program. She also participated in field watershed assessments, surveying bridges and culverts across the Shickshinny Creek, Paddy Run, and Rocky Run tributaries in the southern Wyoming Valley—work that directly supports EPCAMR’s ongoing watershed assessment efforts in the Northern Anthracite Coal Fields funded by the PA American Water Charitable Foundation and the PA Council of Trout Unlimited‘s Coldwater Heritage Planning grant program. 

Maria also contributed to community outreach by assisting with water quality monitoring, stream flow measurements, and abandoned mine drainage (AMD) evaluations. She also helped engage local youth in environmental learning during educational events like tie-dye workshops. Her professional network has expanded by attending conferences, including the Abandoned Mine Pools as Beneficial Resources event at Bucknell University and the 2025 ARIPPA Annual Conference.

EPCAMR Staff conducted an AMD Tie Dye T-shirt Workshop for PA Inclusive in Pittston with our recycled iron oxide pigment. Dennis assisted Morgan Romanowski, Mark Jones, and Bobby Hughes in putting on the workshop for the youth and adults.

In addition, Maria will contribute to the development of “land that channels rainfall” resource maps, combining data on demographics, economic indicators, and workforce development with information on local trade schools and community colleges. She will conduct short community surveys and polls via EPCAMR’s social media platforms, update and expand the EPCAMR Partnership Database across 16 counties within our region alone, with our Community Development Coordinator Mark Jones, and will assist in identifying grant opportunities and other organizations and foundations that might be suitable for preparing future grant applications. Her work as well and Dennis’s work will be closely aligned with the goals and objectives laid out by EPCAMR’s Strategic Planning and Education/Science Committees.

Currently enrolled in an online GIS course through Austin Community College, Maria is eager to apply what she’s learning to the real-world challenges facing Pennsylvania’s coalfield communities. Her passion, commitment, and growing expertise make her a valuable asset to EPCAMR’s mission of revitalizing the region through education, outreach, sustainable redevelopment of our abandoned mine lands, and restoration of our watersheds impacted by abandoned mine drainage (AMD).

Maria participated in an AMD Tour in Schuylkill County with EPCAMR where she was able to visit the infamous “Ashland Fountain”, which is a constantly overflowing AMD discharge from the Bast and Continental Collieries that drains to the Mahanoy Creek watershed as explained by Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director.

Dennis Dukinas, Dallas, PA, in the Back Mountain of Luzerne County is currently completing my final course at Bloomsburg University, where he is finishing his degree in Environmental, Geological, and Geographic Sciences with a Minor in Hydrology.

Bobby shared that “Throughout his academic career, he has gained valuable hands-on experience both outdoors as an Eagle Scout and indoors, working with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) desktop environments. He has already used mapping technologies such as ArcGIS Pro and ERDAS Imagine remote sensing imagery and software to create various hypothetical scenarios in college and now gets to take those lessons learned from the hypothetical to the real world watersheds that EPCAMR works in throughout the coalfields. His experience already includes georeferencing, story mapping, census data analysis, and using tools like ArcGIS Pro Online’s ModelBuilder. He already has earned certifications through ArcGIS Online and holds a Watershed Management Training Certification. He’s also already received a free Aquatic Organism Protocol Training from EPCAMR while a volunteering two weeks before his official internship from NAACC. Maria already has this Certificate as well, however, both of them have to assess 20 culverts and or bridges before they can become a field Lead Observer.”

In his role as a GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist, prior to his start today, he’s already gained valuable experience assessing water quality, conducting visual habitat assessments, identifying, counting, and classifying macroinvertebrates as a part of the biological assessment monitoring EPCAMR conducts for our watersheds assessments, and he’s learned how to use our field photometer and YSI Multi-parameter probe already to perform chemistry tests in-stream. He will be involved in a number of projects that were highlighted by Bobby Hughes on their first day of orientation, along with some training provided to them in EarthVision, where they will be helping to digitize mine maps for another project of ours in the Bear Creek Watershed, Dauphin County and creating 3D surface and underground mine pool models to help us calculate volumetrics of water and coal remaining a region of the Southern Anthracite Coalfields. 

Bobby joked with Dennis before this week to get as much sleep in over the Holiday Weekend because he will be shifting from volunteering a few days a week to a full 40 hours a week through the end of the year. “He was in this morning ready to go and get some administrative paperwork out of the way, hear about the myriad of projects that we are going to be working on, work on his background article notes for this release, and to begin his initial training on EarthVision with Mike. I’m really looking forward to the energy, enthusiasm, willingness to jump in and learn from the Staff about all of important work in the region and the value that their efforts are going to have in the communities that we are working in that we have maintained positive, trusting relationships with, for nearly 3 decades.”

Michael Hewitt, EPCAMR Program Manager and Frank Sindaco, GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist is teaching Maria and Dennis how to use our field monitoring equipment at the Askam AMD Maelstrom Oxidizer Treatment System on Earth Conservancy’s property along Dundee Road in the Nanticoke Creek watershed.

The post EPCAMR Hosts 2 Stewards Individual Placement Program (SIPP) GIS Watershed Outreach Specialist AmeriCorps (State and National) Interns Administered by Conservation Legacy through the end of December 2025 appeared first on epcamr.org.

During her term of service, she engaged in projects throughout Texas that included trail maintenance and construction, invasive plant species removal, basic carpentry, and backcountry camping. Although she fell in love with the hands-on aspects of land stewardship, she also wanted to learn the more technical side of conservation work.

This led her to discover and pursue an education in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Currently enrolled in an online GIS course through Austin Community College, Maria is excited to put her skills to use to help the efforts of EPCAMR and her local coalfield communities. “My experience in GIS so far has mostly involved map making, creating story maps, and data analysis, so I’m very excited to gain skills in scanning, digitizing, cataloging, georeferencing, and mapping for the PA Department of Environmental Protection’s Mine Subsidence Insurance (MSI) program. This internship is an opportunity to gain these hands-on skills, while also being able to learn from some of the most well respected and experienced GIS professionals here at EPCAMR.” For instance, she has created a previous data analysis dashboard on World Happiness. From the looks of it, we can use more happiness in the US.

Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director said, “She is a detail-oriented professional with a strong
background in outreach, GIS, and conservation. She already has a proven track record and expertise with coordinating AmeriCorps Programs, managing outreach initiatives, is moving in the direction of building her technical skill sets in GIS, which is exactly what we are looking for. We have plenty of work to be done in the Mine Subsidence Insurance Program area of our work on scanning, catalouging, georeferencing, digitizing, and mosaicking. Her resume shined with skills in project management, social media content creation, and event coordination. These are all great skills to have as an intern. She’s a problem solver and a team player, both qualities we need here at EPCAMR since we are a small shop and tend to be the ones helping others in our communities to help them solve environmental problems. Her fluency in Spanish at an intermediate level may come in handy as well knowing how may students and families we come in contact with throughout our region that speak Spanish.”

Maria is seen here at a farm-to-table restaurant in Antigua, Guatelmala.

Maria even has certifications from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations as an Apprentice Electrician, Wilderness First Aid, and a Green Careers Texas Solar Installer.

Maria Gereda is learning how to fell a tree as a part of her Texas Conservation Corps term.

Maria will have plenty of opportunity over the Summer to pick up and assist EPCAMR with our many projects throughout the region and improve upon her GIS skills as well as learn much more about the legacy mining impacts in the region.

We look forward to her giving us a hand, just as we are our Bonner Leader Program student, from Wilkes University, Ian Padden. He is able to give us 2 days a week and she is able to give us 3 days a week.

She’s already starting scanning and cataloging some of the Industrial Archives Library mining maps, Shickshinny Creek Historical Society & Museum mine maps from the E.S. Stackhouse Collliery and Salem Coal Company, and will be starting to get her Aquatic Organism Protocol (AOP) Training through NAACC to eventually become certified  and later a Lead Observer to survey bridges and culverts as a part of our watershed assessement and coldwater heritage planning work for the Shickshinny Creek, PaddyRun, and Rocky Run tribuaries to the Susquehanna River in the southern end of the Wyoming Valley at the southern tip of the Northern Anthracite Coal Fields.

The post EPCAMR Welcomes Kingston native, Maria Gereda as a Summer Watershed GIS Outreach/Education Intern appeared first on epcamr.org.

Padden, 19, will support EPCAMR by contributing about six hours of service each week during the academic year.

An environmental engineering major, Padden is a participant in the university’s Bonner Leader Program, a unique work-study experience. The program compensates students for devoting their time and skills to nonprofit groups such as EPCAMR throughout the duration of their four-year, undergraduate studies.

“I chose to serve at EPCAMR because it’s my first opportunity to gain meaningful experience in the field of environmental work,” said Padden, a 2024 graduate of the Wilkes-Barre Area School District STEM Academy. “It allows me to make a significant positive impact for EPCAMR, as well as in the community.

The national Bonner Leader Program was created in 1990. Wilkes University launched its program four years ago, becoming part of a network that extends to about 70 colleges and universities

Wilkes University, in Wilkes-Barre, is the only school in Northeast Pennsylvania to provide this opportunity. Each year, the university selects eight to 10 first-year students from a pool of candidates who vie to participate in the civic engagement and leadership program.

Padden is the first Bonner Leader Program participant at Wilkes University to serve with an environmental-focused nonprofit. Padden participated in Scouting for 13 years and, nearly two years ago, earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He serves during summers as a nature director at the Goose Pond Scout Reservation in Wayne County.

“EPCAMR has a long history with both Wilkes-Barre Area STEM and Wilkes University, which is where our first office was located – in Sturdevant Hall – and our first statewide Conference on Abandoned Mine Reclamation was held in 1996,” said EPCAMR Executive Director Bobby Hughes. “Having Ian with us as our first Bonner Leader will assist us greatly in our work and mission. He’s going to bring a lot of enthusiasm and get plenty of hands-on applied science opportunities while serving with us.”

EPCAMR, which was founded almost 30 years ago, works with its many partners to encourage the reclamation and redevelopment of land affected by past mining practices in Pennsylvania’s Northeastern Anthracite and Northern Bituminous Coal Regions.

The nonprofit group – now based in the Earth Conservancy building on South Main Street, Ashley – employs a small but impactful team of professionals who provide technical assistance such as water quality testing and monitoring, stream restoration, dam removal, GIS mapping, and drone services. The organization routinely collaborates with federal and state government agencies, watershed groups, mine industry representatives, nonprofit groups, and other stakeholders on remediation projects throughout its 16-county territory.

The EPCAMR team has a long and successful track record. It has assisted in the removal of unsightly and unsafe culm banks, such as the one along Main Street in Swoyersville, and the cleanup of polluted waterways.

Its projects help to reduce hazards to people’s health and safety. Its actions also improve water quality, eliminate soil erosion, and return land affected by past mining practices to productive use, thereby improving the economy of the region.

During Padden’s stint with EPCAMR, he will aid the group by doing a range of tasks that collectively enhance his leadership and professional skills. Those tasks will include office activities, such as assisting with volunteer recruitment and fundraising, as well as field activities, including stream continuity assessments that aim to identify and remove impediments that prevent fish and other aquatic life from navigating a waterway.

EPCAMR supports area students’ career development and education by frequently offering learning opportunities such as internship, work study, and volunteer roles.

For additional information, including how you can get involved, visit epcamr.org. Or send an email to rhughes@epcamr.org.

The post EPCAMR welcomes community service support from Ian Padden, a Wilkes University Bonner Leader appeared first on epcamr.org.