149 PA Watersheds Data System Goes Live! 2005-12-21 09:32:31
HARRISBURG (November 30) — Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers (POWR) is pleased to announce the release of an online system that will store data collected by volunteer watershed monitors statewide. This information is currently used to track the impacts that human activities may have on a watershed, but it is stored only locally, without online access. With the advent of the PA Watersheds Data System, thousands of records dating back to the early 1970’s can be made publicly available.
The system is accessed through POWR’s website http://www.pawatersheds.org, and is designed to place the monitoring groups in charge of their data, including whether they will store their data in it and who they will allow to see it once it is stored there.
“I am working with a consortium of educators (Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for Environmental Studies- SRHCES) who are investigating the links between contaminants in the environment and human health. In addition to the eight college/universities, we are also collaborating with watershed organizations and the Geisinger Health System. The PA Watersheds Data System will be both a repository for our data collection and a source of data for this type of critical research,” explained Dr. Mel Zimmerman, Director of Clean Water Institute and Chair of Lycoming College Biology Department.
“The PA Watersheds Data System represents an important step forward in Pennsylvania’s water resources management toolkit. Among other things, it allows everyone to see where regular monitoring is taking place and where it may not be taking place. This will help governments and private citizens alike understand the condition of the environment as well as fill in gaps where information is lacking. DEP is a strong contributor to the project both financially and in terms of scientific expertise and we’re excited to see it come to fruition,” commented PA DEP Deputy Secretary for Water Management, Cathleen Myers.
With the state and federal governments poised to spend millions of dollars treating contaminated coal mine discharges, the system will be available to help policymakers compare “before” and “after” conditions at affected streams.
POWR is a nonprofit organization that strives for the protection, restoration, and enjoyment of our water resources, and conducts programs that foster stewardship, communication, leadership and action. Other programs coordinated through POWR include the Pennsylvania River Sojourn Program, educational, multi-day canoeing and float trips that have been organized throughout Pennsylvania and along many of its waterways since the 1980’s and the Pennsylvania Stream Signage Program, which has marked 4,064 stream crossings across Pennsylvania.
CONTACT:
Judy Jordan
Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers
Phone: 717-234-7910
Fax: 717-234-7929
jjordan@pawatersheds.org
148 Request For Proposals for AML Applied Science Projects 2005-12-21 08:33:09
The Department of Interior, Office of Surface Mining (OSM), National Technology Transfer Team (NTTT) is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) requesting technical and cost proposals for applied science projects that have the potential for improving, in a manner that protects the public and the environment, the efficiency with which the coal industry conducts surface coal mining and reclamation activities and the regulatory authorities regulate these activities.
Proposals submitted shall be related to the topical areas identified by the NTTT as needing special emphasis. The general topical areas (to be further delineated in the RFP) include: hydrology issues; steep slope mining and reclamation; underground mine mapping; use of coal combustion by-products or other recycled materials; landscape stability; soil development on reclaimed lands; vegetation assessment; wildlife conservation and reforestation; and cropland reclamation.
The notice response date is March 31, 2006. As this solicitation covers numerous mining related topics, feel free to pass this notice on to interested parties.
For more information and to register please visit the web site:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOI/OSM/1438/IFB612014/listing.html
Source:
Lois J. Uranowski P.E.
Civil Engineer
Office of Surface Mining
Appalachian Region
3 Parkway Center
Pittsburgh, PA 15220
412 937-2805
luranowski@osmre.gov
147 Centre County mine reclamation project gets a boost in the pocketbook 2005-12-21 08:22:15
A $22-thousand dollar payment was given to finish reclamation of the abandoned Vail Mine in Rush Township, Centre County.
Junior Coal Contracting Incorporated of Phillipsburg received the contract and will backfill and grade two sedimentation ponds, plus two thousand feet of ditch.
Once grading and backfilling is completed, trees will be planted on seven acres of the site.
Power Operating Company of Phillipsburg received a permit in 1986 to mine 95 acres of the Lower, Middle and Upper Kittanning coal seams at the Vail Mine. The company had finished mining and begun reclamation of the site when it entered bankruptcy in 2000, forfeiting money when it was unable to complete its reclamation responsibilities.
Work on Vail Mine is now expected to finish in July 2006.
Source:
Gene Starr
News Director
WPPA-AM/WAVT-FM
P.O. Box 540
Pottsville, PA 17901
(W) 570-622-4440
(F) 570-622-2822
gstarr@pbcradio.com
146 Authority approves dredge agreement 2005-12-16 16:30:11 Thursday, 15 December 2005
By L.A. TARONE Hazleton Standard Speaker – tarone@standardspeaker.com
The City of Hazleton will receive $1.25 per cubic yard of dredge material imported, with a minimum royalty payment of $250,000 annually for the next 20 years. That figure was contained in the Site Development Agreement approved by the Redevelopment Authority during its special meeting Thursday afternoon.
The agreement, a lease of 277 acres with an option to buy, is between HRA and Hazleton Creek Properties LLC , the subsidiary of Mark Development, Kingston, which is planning to build an amphitheater on the abandoned mine site. There are other fees included in the agreement as well.
HCP will pay $200,000 as a rental payment up front. HRA will use that money to execute its purchase agreement with Pagnotti Enterprises, the owner of the land right now.
HCP will also pay the city 50 cents per cubic yard, which will be channeled into a fund to cover the cost of the amphitheater (called the Amphitheater Contingency Fund in the agreement). Plus, HCP will put another 25 cents per cubic yard into a fund to assist development citywide (called the Economic Development Fund Fee in the agreement).
The agreement passed the board 4-0, with Chairman Bob Dougherty, Larry Tedesco, Paul Capparell and new member Lynn Gorski all voting “yes.” Gerry Palermo was absent.
Dee Deakos was the only person in the audience. She asked several questions related to the agreement. One question was whether HCP was liable for any other payment to the city to exercise the option to own the land. Solicitor Dave Glassberg said there was no other payment spelled out. But noting the royalty fees, the clause that requires HCP to cap the existing landfill at its own expense, and the clause that requires HCP to pay for additional testing of dredge material upon city demands, he said the agreement contained other “significant consideration.”
Dougherty underscored the $250,000 minimum annually, “whether any material is brought in during any given year or not.”
“So, if they bring up a million cubic yards one year, you’ll get $1.25 million?” Deakos asked.
“That’s correct,” Dougherty answered.
“But if they bring nothing in the next year, you’ll still get $250,000?” Deakos asked.
“That’s correct,” Dougherty said.
Deakos asked whether there were clauses in the agreement to impose a penalty on HCP if contaminated dredge is brought in. Dougherty said HCP would be responsible for any remediation ordered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. He added that the agreement gave the city the option of doing up to 12 unannounced “spot checks” on the material per year. He said any costs associated with them would be borne by HCP.
“We would take a sample and split it in half,” Dougherty said. “We’d get our half tested; the other half would be given to HCP and they’d get it tested so we can verify each other’s results.”
The agreement itself is 21 pages long. In addition to the fees and costs discussed publicly, “5b.” also requires HCP to put up $75,000 for the cost of moving an existing PPL power line. The clause further states that if the cost exceeds that, HRA will pick up the balance.
Section 10 requires HCP to inform the city of the delivery of any material within three days of receipt, and to pay the royalty within 30 days of delivery. However, 10c. allows HCP to carry a credit for years in which the royalty payment exceeds the minimum $250,000, and to use that credit to cover years when no material is brought in.
It reads, in part: “For example, if the HRA receives ($1 million) in royalty payments in calendar year 2006, and if no dredge material is brought to the property or capacity at the property is sold for the calendar years 2007, 2008, and 2009, HCP shall owe no minimum royalty payment to the HRA in those years.”
Conversely, the next sentences require HCP to meet the minimum $250,000 royalty payment in years where dredge intake otherwise wouldn’t result in a $250,000 payment and when there is no “credit” available.
“For example, if in the calendar year 2006, HCP signs its first contract to deliver dredge material on Oct. 1 requiring HCP to pay the HRA a royalty payment of $100,000 within 30 days and HCP acquires no more dredge material and sells no capacity at the property for the remainder of 2006, HCP is required to pay the HRA an additional $150,000 on or before Dec. 15, 2006.”
Another clause, 14b., states that if HCP decides not to build the amphitheater, HRA will receive all money in the Amphitheater Contingency Fund.
Further clauses require HCP to make all test results available to HRA and to pay all real estate transfer taxes and utilities bills associated with the property and its ownership transfer.
HCP is considered in default if it fails to provide HRA with any of the documentation spelled out, fails to make any of the royalty payments as stipulated or through the “failure to comply with any other provision of this (agreement).”
144 Hazle Township Planning Commission Hosts GIS Workshop on Abandoned Mine Reclamation 2005-12-15 14:44:59 Contact: Robert E. Hughes
EPCAMR Program Manager-Luzerne Conservation District
570-674-7993
The Workshops have been conducted by staff from the EPCAMR Program at the Luzerne Conservation District, in particular, Robert E. Hughes-Program Manager and Regional Coordinator for the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR), Mike Hewitt-Watershed Outreach Coordinator for EPCAMR, Rob Lavelle-Municipal GIS Technician for EPCAMR, and Valerie Taylor- Office of Surface Mining/VISTA Community Outreach Coordinator, who is working with EPCAMR and the Luzerne Conservation District throughout the next year on dozens of community service, environmental education, and watershed outreach efforts to local governments and community watershed organizations.
EPCAMR received a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Grant funded in part by the Federal Office of Surface Mining to conduct regional GIS Mapping workshops in the Northeastern part of Pennsylvania in partnership with local governments and planning commissions to provide municipalities that do not currently have GIS capabilities or large-scale mapping reproduction with free GIS Maps, depicting first and foremost, an updated inventory of abandoned mine land features, problem areas, acreages of abandoned mine lands, watershed boundaries, streams miles impacted by abandoned mine drainage, topographic contours, elevation models, and dozens of other available data sources that might make their local decision making processes easier and their community better informed.
Paul Matulevich, Hazle Township Planning Commission Chair, was put in contact with the EPCAMR Regional Coordinator, Mr. Robert Hughes, who also happens to be the Chair of his hometown Planning Commission in Plymouth Township, Luzerne County, for the last few years to talk about hosting the workshop a few months back. Having a shared vision of providing both of their communities with any available tools, data, maps, resources, and extended partnerships with other non-profit organizations and the Luzerne Conservation District, the two gentlemen set a date for the GIS Mapping Workshop in Hazle Township and both started to spread the word. Every municipality that surrounded Hazle Township, including the City of Hazleton were mailed a letter of invitation to the GIS Workshop, and even asked to consider hosting the workshop that Hazle Township, eventually took EPCAMR up on. Sadly enough, only two residents from Hazle Township made it to the meeting and the entire Planning Commission as well as its Solicitor was in attendance and none of the surrounding municipalities sent any representatives. However, the EPCAMR Program staff were not discouraged by the low turnout, and it actually allowed for the Hazle Township Planning Commission members and the two audience members to very informally ask questions about specific areas in Hazle Township and concerns that they had related to stormwater management and infiltration practices on abandoned mine lands, among other topics of discussion.
A draft copy of a digital elevation relief GIS Map complete with an Inventory of all of the abandoned mine lands and feature points that are contained within a State and Federal database known as NAMLIS (National Abandoned Mine Land Inventory System) that is currently maintained by both the PA DEP and the Federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM), along with a roads layer for geographic reference was given to the Planning Commission to show the Hazle Township Board of Supervisors or any members of the public the Map for reference and educational purposes. The EPCAMR Program Staff at the Luzerne Conservation District have been working in partnership with the PA DEP and the OSM to more accurately reflect the numbers of acres of abandoned mine lands that have been reclaimed to date, the number of stream miles that have been remediated to date, and the locations of abandoned mine drainage treatment systems across PA that will show a true reflection of the amount of progress that has nearly been completed over the last 3 decades.
Because of Hazle Township’s Planning Commission progressive attitude towards considering the possibility of the use of the GIS Maps and the technology tool as a planning resource in the near future, they will now receive 3 large scale full color production GIS Maps, suitable for framing, if they’d like, as a part of the grant from EPCAMR, that will depict all of the abandoned mine land features, problem areas, streams impacted by AMD, and many other GIS Datasets that are readily available from EPCAMR that are housed on a server at the Luzerne Conservation District. Rob Lavelle-EPCAMR Municipal Outreach Technician will be working closely with the Planning Commission staff over the Winter months to complete the maps for Hazle Township. They already received a 3-ring binder complete entitled, “AMD in Your Community”, a Resource Guide for both municipal, elected, appointed officials, and the general public on AMD, abandoned mine reclamation, resource contacts, fact sheets, an environmental complaint referral sheet, presentation materials, and a CD-ROM that has the entire 3-ring Resource Guide on it and dozens of other documents, resources, presentations, and materials that are related to AMD, the Chesapeake Bay 2000 Agreement, and on abandoned mine reclamation, in general.
The EPCAMR Program Staff were greatly appreciative of the fact that the Planning Commission hosted the GIS Mapping Workshop and were very impressed by the Hazle Township Commons Facility and the fact that a Wireless Network “bubble”, as they called it, was available during the meeting that allowed EPCAMR to surf the web and show the Planning Commission members other facets, technical assistance, grant writing assistance, and professional services that EPCAMR and the other Luzerne Conservation District Staff could provide to them and other municipalities, by linking to our respective websites, at www.orangewaternetwork.org and www.luzernecd.org. The Hazle Township Planning Commission will also be providing EPCAMR with an in-kind match for the use of the facility that will be reported to our granting agency that will show that we were able to leverage the grant funds that we received even further, by not having to pay the cost to rent another facility to hold the workshop.
For more details or quotes directly from those in attendance, you may want to contact Paul Matulevich, 570-455-2039-Chair of the Hazle Township Planning Commission directly to get some feedback as to what the members thought of the workshop and its content.
143 Lack of funding delays mine, watershed projects, critics say 2005-12-07 16:02:05
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
BY BRETT LIEBERMAN – THE PATRIOT-NEWS
WASHINGTON – A lack of federal funds to clean polluted watersheds, such as those damaged by coal mine run-off in 44 Pennsylvania counties, drew bipartisan complaints from frustrated lawmakers and conservation officials.
Watershed restoration efforts have long been underfunded, and the problem has worsened in recent years because of cuts by the Bush administration and lawmakers directing money to their own projects.
The result is a $1.5 billion backlog for more than 2,000 projects that are needed to provide clean drinking water and other benefits to 48 million Americans.
“While I know that the administration may have good intentions, I also know that the current backlog of requests for funds shows that funding requests will not disappear no matter how efficient the government becomes,” U.S. Rep. Frank D. Lucas, R-Okla., said during a hearing by a House agriculture subcommittee.
Ed Wytovich, an eighth-grade science teacher at Upper Dauphin Middle School and president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, said that acid runoff from abandoned mines is the largest water pollution problem in the state. Such runoff contaminates more than 3,000 miles of streams, he said.
“Our ability to form coalitions and raise awareness has brought some success, but the largest obstacle remains federal assistance,” he said.
Pennsylvania received some assistance from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund, but the needs vastly exceed the funds it provides.
Officials did not know how much it would cost to clean the state’s watersheds, but the total tab for cleaning all of Pennsylvania’s abandoned mines, including watersheds, has been estimated at $15 billion.
“Improving water quality in coal mining areas, which are mostly rural, is important not only for the environment and surrounding communities, but also for agriculture that uses the water,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, D-Schuylkill, the ranking Democrat on the Conservation, Credit, Rural Development and Research subcommittee.
The lack of funding has meant that even projects authorized by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, may remain on the list indefinitely.
“There is a lot of needs that are not being met,” said U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, who said one of his local projects waiting for funding was authorized in 1972.
Bruce I. Knight, the NRCS chief, said the agency’s hands are tied by a lack of funding. But he said slow progress is being made.
Source:
Jan Jarrett, Vice President
PennFuture
610 N. 3rd Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101
717-214-7924
jarrett@pennfuture.org
www.pennfuture.org
142 Congressional Agriculture Subcommittee Reviews USDA Watershed Programs 2005-12-07 10:36:02
Contact: Trish Reilly-Hudock (202) 225-5546
Washington, DC – The House Agriculture Committee, Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Rural Development and Research, today held a hearing to review the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Watershed Programs. Congressman Holden, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, invited Ed Wytovich (Ashland, PA), President of the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR), to testify at the hearing.
Congressman Holden commented, “Today’s hearing was an important opportunity to provide a good review of the value of watershed programs under the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It seems to me that these programs are what I call “trickle-up” efforts; by improving local watersheds we can contribute significantly to the revival of larger watersheds, to where the smaller creeks, streams, and rivers flow.
The most successful, comprehensive watershed projects have a strong partnership of stakeholders from the local community and receive assistance from those with technical expertise like NRCS. Local watershed coalitions and conservation organizations have a vested interest in improving water and environmental quality in their communities.”
Holden continued, “Ed has started many watershed groups in his community. These organizations have helped to create restoration plans for waterways that are impaired largely by polluted water draining from abandoned coal mines in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Coalitions like the ones that Ed has formed, are the essential ingredient in a watershed restoration recipe. The other crucial ingredients are technical and financial assistance from specialists such as the Natural Resource Conservation Service. With all of these resources mixed together, the recipe is a grand-champion state fair winner.”
Ed Wytovich in his testimony stated, “I have been actively involved in land and waters restoration projects in the Anthracite Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania for over 30 years. I have worked with several conservation groups, industry representatives, elected officials, and students to help found ten watershed organizations in the Commonwealth. The work we have been able to accomplish is proof that building partnerships is essential to any winning watershed strategy, and the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Resource Conservation and Development Councils (RC&DC) and the Conservation Districts are a vital component of our team.”
Wytovich continued, “Pennsylvania’s watershed groups can point to several successes, but there is much work left to be done. We believe our efforts to bring all parties to the table may be stifled due to the elimination of important programs such as RAMP (Rural Abandoned Mine Program) and lack of federal funding for RC&DC’s and staff. It is my hope that I’ve shed some light on a small, but equally important program and that we can continue to work together to address our watershed concerns.”
Currently, the backlog for watershed protection and flood prevention operations (P.L. 566, and P.L. 534) is $1.85 billion nationwide and $21 million for Pennsylvania. The NRCS watershed programs, such as P.L. 566 Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program, the Watershed Rehabilitation Program, and Emergency Watershed Protection Program, improve and protect water quality, prevent flooding, and reduce hazards in communities.
The hearing was held in 1300 Longworth House Office Building at 1:30 p.m. Congressman Frank Lucas, (OK) is the Subcommittee Chairman.
141 Growing Greener 1 Announcements 2005-11-17 12:07:53
[b]Governor Rendell Investing to Improve PA’s Economy, Environment; Awards $14.4 Million in Growing Greener Funds[/b]
HARRISBURG – November 17, 2005 , As part of Governor Edward G. Rendell’s aggressive agenda to improve the state’s economy and environment, Pennsylvania is investing $14.4 million to help local conservation organizations clean up watersheds, enhance environmental protection and revitalize communities across Pennsylvania. The money will fund 129 project grants through Pennsylvania’s Growing Greener program.
“These grants will improve the quality of our waterways, address serious environmental problems at mine sites and make our communities more livable,” Governor Rendell said. “Pennsylvania needs clean streams, protected open spaces and uncontaminated sites in order to win the race for new business development, enhance our economic competitiveness and create the jobs we critically need.
“Growing Greener is supporting our efforts to grow our economy. At the same time, it’s cleaning up our environment and conserving our exceptional natural resources.”
Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty made the grants announcement a little more than a week after Governor Rendell announced the first $65 million in grants under voter-approved Growing Greener II bond initiative. That law brought to fruition more than a year of aggressive efforts by the Governor to address some of the state’s most pressing environmental problems and help the state win the race for revitalized communities, new business and job creation.
The Secretary also said that DEP is now accepting applications for the 2006 watershed restoration and protection grants to be awarded in the eighth year of Growing Greener as well as Growing Greener II. The deadline to apply is March 3.
“Governor Rendell is making the investments we need today to keep Pennsylvania “˜growing greener’ well into the future,” McGinty said. “Cleaning up rivers and streams, protecting natural areas and open spaces, preserving working farms , these are priorities all of us share. Growing Greener is a powerful tool to address these pressing environmental issues while partnering with local communities to help revitalize our economy.”
Included in the $14.4 million, which represents the seventh round of funding awarded by DEP under the traditional Growing Greener program, are the following: $9.3 million in traditional watershed grants, $1.6 million in federal Office of Surface Mining Title IV grants, $1.9 million for the beneficial use of acid mine discharge to clean state waterways and $537,081 in 10 percent set-aside funds for state-federal mine reclamation projects. In addition, DEP is recommending $1.1 million in Nonpoint Source Implementation Program Grants, funded through Section 319(h) of the federal Clean Water Act.
Since 1999, DEP has supplied $172 million in watershed grants for 1,497 projects in all 67 counties of Pennsylvania. The grants are used to create or restore wetlands, restore stream buffer zones, eliminate causes of nonpoint source pollution, plug oil and gas wells, reclaim abandoned mine lands, and restore aquatic life to streams that were lifeless due to acid mine drainage.
For the upcoming grant round, DEP will invest in projects that seek to address nonpoint source pollution, such as comprehensive watershed plan implementation; legacy sediment and stream restoration; nutrient and sediment trading; long-term operation and maintenance for watershed projects and mine drainage treatment systems; urban and agricultural runoff; and upgrades to on-lot sewage systems.
Eligible projects also could include reducing nonpoint source pollution in watersheds where streams are impaired; designing practices and activities that support water quality trading initiatives; integrating stormwater management and flood protection into watershed management; encouraging the beneficial use of abandoned mine pool water; and integrating air deposition controls and management with mitigating water quality problems.
Deadline for submitting applications to the DEP Grants Center is March 3. Applications must be postmarked no later than that day. If hand delivered, the package must be received by 4:30 p.m. on March 3. Late submissions will not be considered.
For more information on Growing Greener, visit DEP’s Web site at www.dep.state.pa.us, Keyword: “Growing Greener.”
[i]AMD/AML Related Projects are placed in Italics[/i]EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a list by county of the $9.3 million in Growing Greener watershed restoration and protection grants:
[b]ADAMS[/b]Watershed Alliance of Adams County Inc. – $14,076 for the operation and maintenance of the East Berling stream gauge.
[b]ALLEGHENY[/b]3 Rivers Wet Weather Inc. – $50,000 to develop a water quality monitoring plan for bacteria in the three rivers area of Pittsburgh.
North Area Environmental Council – $19,251 for a stream channel and riparian assessment of the Pine Creek Watershed.
[b]ARMSTRONG[/b]Armstrong Conservation District – $72,899 to install agricultural best management practices in the Patterson Run watershed with water quality monitoring during the pre- and post-construction phases to do*****ent results.
[b]BEAVER[/b]Beaver County Conservation District – $110,000 to continue installation of agricultural best management practices and target farms in the Raccoon Creek Watershed.
[b]BEDFORD[/b]Bedford County Conservation District – $77,800 to address soil loss by putting in place year-round no-till operations at farming operations through the Crop Management Association.
[b]BERKS[/b]Foundation for the Reading Public Museum – $24,248 to design and obtain permits for an 850-foot reach of Wyomissing Creek above the area where two dams were removed in 2004, using new techniques for restoration.
[b]BLAIR[/b]Altoona – $115,000.00 to finish restoration of Mill Run by stabilizing stream banks, removing debris and using structures for better stream flow.
[b]BRADFORD[/b]Bradford County Conservation District – $2,500 for a team of nutrient and conservation planners to visit 58 farms in the North Branch Towanda Creek subwatershed to develop an inventory and evaluate best management practices to reduce pollution from agricultural operations.
Bradford County Conservation District – $60,000 to supplement Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) buffer projects which include four miles of buffer restoration with fencing, two miles of buffer restoration without fencing, 10 acres of buffer maintenance and rotational grazing system components.
Schrader Creek Watershed Association – $120,000 to construct a passive treatment system to mitigate the effects of chronic acidification of Little Schrader Creek. The project was designed through a previously funded Growing Greener grant. Little Schrader Creek is considered an “exceptional value” cold water fishery.
[b]BUTLER[/b]Butler County Conservation District – $4,037 for a manure-testing program for farmers. A nutrient management technician would discuss and help calculate proper application rates.
[b]CAMBRIA[/b]Greater Johnstown Watershed Association – $14,300 to provide organizational support for a new urban watershed association to increase membership and address environmental problems (including stormwater control) in the greater Johnstown area.
[b]CAMERON[/b]Cameron County Conservation District – $46,000 to help address the single worse source of acid mine drainage in the Sterling Run Watershed through the design of a passive treatment system at May Hollow 49 to restore approximately 6.2 miles of stream connecting trout populations in the headwaters to emerging populations in Sterling Run.
[b]CARBON[/b]Jim Thorpe – $48,583 to prepare designs and permits needed to construct stream channel protection, restoration and stabilization on two sections of Slaughterhouse Creek.
[b]CENTRE [/b] [i]Moshannon Creek Watershed Coalition – $15,000 to develop a restoration plan for Shimmel Run, a two-mile long stream affected by acid mine discharge. [/i]Moshannon Creek Watershed Coalition – $30,000 to clean up the first polluted discharge on a major unnamed tributary to Trout Run.
Moshannon Creek Watershed Coalition – $30,000 to clean up the second major polluted discharge affecting Trout Run.
[b]CHESTER[/b]Tredyffrin Township – $40,000 to restore approximately 2,400 linear feet of severely eroded stream bank along two branches of Trout Creek.
[b]CLEARFIELD[/b]Trout Unlimited, Allegheny Mountain Chapter – $20,000 to determine the magnitude of the acidification problem in Trout Run, a tributary to the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and develop a progressive restoration plan to mitigate this problem.
Clearfield County Conservation District – $1,400 for startup funds for a new watershed group’s efforts to do work on Deer Creek and help restore the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.
Clearfield County Conservation District – $40,000 to purchase monitoring equipment and supplies to construct weirs, pay for sample analysis and to produce outreach materials to recruit volunteers for Deer Creek and West Branch of the Susquehanna River cleanups.
[b]CLINTON[/b]Clinton County Conservation District – $40,000 to fund agricultural best management practices on farms in the Fishing Creek Watershed.
[b]CRAWFORD[/b]Fairfield Township – $70,000 to assess and develop a restoration plan for Wyman Run, which contributes excessive sediment to French Creek.
[b]*****BERLAND[/b]Camp Hill – $45,800 for the Willow Park Stream Restoration Project, which involves the design and rehabilitation of 1,400 linear feet of an urban stream in the borough as part of the Cedar Run watershed restoration initiative, a multi-municipal effort to restore a cold water fishery in the Yellow Breeches Watershed.
*****berland County Conservation District – $50,000 to install agricultural best management practices on farms in the Three Square Hollow Watershed.
[b]DAUPHIN[/b]Harrisburg – $37,471 for Paxton Creek Watershed restoration.
Harrisburg – $25,000 to design and permit a stream corridor rehabilitation project along lower Asylum Run within city limits.
Paxton Creek Watershed and Education Association – $32,825 for a stream corridor restoration project that would measurably reduce sediment and nutrient yield to Wildwood Lake and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.
[b]DELAWARE[/b]Springfield Township – $30,000 to design a variety of stormwater management best management practices at a 13-acre municipal property located in a very urbanized area. This project is seen as having an important education and outreach element because of the visibility of the location.
[b]FAYETTE[/b]Fayette County Conservation District – $25,351 to make no-till equipment available to farmers and reduce soil erosion and nutrient runoff through out the county.
Fayette County Conservation District – $29,593 to provide fund-raising technical assistance to the four county watershed groups to help them become viable, long-term sustainable organizations.
[b]HUNTINGDON[/b]Pennsylvania State University – $60,000 to study, assess and install agricultural best management practices on impaired reaches of county streams.
[b]INDIANA[/b]Indiana County Conservation District – $90,000 to install agricultural best management practices at various farms.
[i]Blackleggs Creek Watershed Association – $24,000 to design ponds to treat the 360-gallons-per-minute deep-mine discharge in the watershed.Evergreen Conservancy – $11,000 to fix acid mine discharge seep on the South Branch Bear Run with treatment ponds, 25 acres of site reclamation and 2000 feet of stream bank stabilization.[/i] [b]JEFFERSON[/b] [i]Headwaters Charitable Trust – $40,000 to design two passive treatment systems for acid mine discharge.[/i] [b]JUNIATA[/b]
Juniata County Conservation District – $37,800 for the third part of watershed assessment to identify nonpoint source pollution from land use.
Juniata County Conservation District – $50,000 to use five concentrated poultry operations to study aspects of manure management.
[b]LANCASTER[/b]Lancaster County Academy – $2,000 to replant wetland with native plants and reduce amount of invasive purple loose strife. The project also includes water quality testing and signage.
Lancaster County Conservation District – $3,700 to create and maintain a county-wide Web site, run by the conservation district, that all watershed and conservation groups in the county could share information on, and to purchase a “groundwater Karst model” for education programs.
Chiques Creek Watershed Alliance- $4,687 for purchasing additional water quality monitoring kits and signage for recently completed stream restoration project.
[b]LAWRENCE[/b]Lawrence County Conservation District – $60,000 to implement agricultural best management practices on Lawrence County farms.
Lawrence County Conservation District – $12,385 for a series of training sessions to encourage proactive implementation to minimize watershed impacts and determine community development objectives for Mahoning, Union and Pulaski townships.
LUZERNE
Luzerne Conservation District – $74,000 to help municipalities with surface and drainage improvements to dirt roads.
[i]Wildlands Conservancy Inc. – $44,222 to design a passive treatment system to treat the Owl Hole mine discharge and reduce metals going into the Lehigh River.[/i] [b]LYCOMING[/b]Lycoming College – $10,000 to support efforts of the Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition of Environmental Studies, a collaboration of local colleges and universities interested in learning about and stewardship opportunities with the river.
Lycoming College – $5,989 to update the current Natural Stream Channel Design guidelines written in March of 2003.
[b]MONROE[/b]Brodhead Watershed Association – $155,000 for a six-component project to protect Paradise Watershed.
[b]MONTGOMERY[/b]Montgomery County Community College – $5,020 to continue work on two existing stormwater retention basins and an 800-foot drainage channel transecting them both through the use of native vegetation and a barrier upstream of outfall for longer detention of water.
[b]MULTIPLE COUNTIES[/b] [i]Blacklick Creek Watershed Association Inc. – $27,000 to drill nine borings and study a small shallow deep mine using wells and dye in order to correlate rainfall and the seven acid mine discharge seeps which produce a total of 51 gallons per minute.[/i]Cambria County Conservation District – $50,000 to conduct an assessment of the 129-square-mile Chest Creek Watershed in Cambria and Clearfield counties and develop a restoration plan.
Capital Resource Conservation & Development Area Council Inc. – $300,000 to establish adoption of no-till agriculture production systems in the southcentral regional area.
Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc – $122,000 to implement a pilot precision dairy feeding program in the Susquehanna River basin in Pennsylvania over a two-year period. The program will enlist 40 dairy farmers and educate the farmers and their animal nutritionists, veterinarians and feed company representatives on precision feeding benefits and opportunities.
Ducks Unlimited Inc – $488,824 to conduct field visits and surveys, and to help with design and construction management of wetlands in the Ohio Basin.
Earth Force Inc., DBA Lake Erie-Allegheny Earth Force – $35,134 to educate adults, youth group leaders and children on nonpoint sources of pollution.
Huntingdon County Conservation District – $1,627 for a startup watershed organization.
Community Partnerships Resource Conservation and Development Council – $216,300 to promote the use of precision rotational grazing systems as best management practices to reduce sediment and phosphorus.
[i]Moshannon Creek Watershed Coalition – $71,460 to address acid mind drainage in this central Pennsylvania creek. The headwaters of Moshannon Creek sustain a viable fishery. The downstream portion of Moshannon Creek supplies the city of Houtzdale with a drinking water supply. [/i]Natural Lands Trust Inc. – $95,000 to target more effective conservation outreach and implementation on issues such as land use, storm water, source water protection and drinking water supply protection.
The Nature Conservancy- $108,864 to develop and use a new method to provide water managers with an instream flow assessment tool. The tool will provide users with the ability to assess and set limits on the degree to which instream flows can be altered depending on the designated uses to be protected and /or restored.
Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts Inc – $170,000 to provide engineering and soils assistance to groups developing or implementing a watershed assessment, watershed restoration plan or watershed protection plan.
Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts Inc. – $2,244,000 for administrative support and state cost-share funds to farmers enrolled in the state’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program in the 59 counties of the Susquehanna, Potomac and Ohio River watersheds.
Pennsylvania Environmental Council Inc. – $302,000 to deliver a water quality trading platform and registry design for the Chesapeake Bay Basin in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society – $250,000 to restore tree cover to a five-county area in southeastern Pennsylvania and to plant riparian buffers, helping to enhance water quality.
Pennsylvania State University – $59,000 to develop a specialized urban model to estimate nutrient and sediment load reduction for watershed implementation plans.
Pennsylvania State University – $116,000 to build a Pennsylvania-specific, eco-regional varying model of the relation between nutrients, algal biomass, and species composition in streams.
Pennsylvania State University – $76,886 to create algorithms that will reduce the amount of effort needed to conduct an analysis of stream nutrient loads.
Pennsylvania State University – $56,000 to develop and incorporate a pathogen loading estimation routine within a new urban model for nutrient and sediment loads. This tool will estimate loadings pathogens based upon available data rather than sampling.
Pennsylvania State University – $132,300 to study variability in phosphorus levels to determine healthy level of stream periphyton.
Pennsylvania State University – $51,189 to estimate the maximum quantities of water consumed by livestock and used for irrigation for vegetable, fruit, and specialty crop production in Pennsylvania.
Pocono Northeast Resource Conservation & Development Council – $140,000 to provide technical assistance and quality control to watershed groups throughout the state. The multi-disciplinary team offers watershed specific technical assistance, mentoring and quality assurance/quality control assistance.
Somerset Conservation District – $159,000 for agricultural landowners in a 15-county area of southwestern Pennsylvania and for the installation of prescribed grazing practices for 19 farms.
Pennsylvania Envirothon Inc. – $65,000 for this environmental education program that reaches over 15,000 high school students in more than 700 public and private schools in all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
Susquehanna County Conservation District – $104,082 to address nonpoint source pollution water quality impairments by implementing various best management practices on impaired streams, wetlands, and agricultural lands in the Meshoppen Creek and Tunkhannock Creek watersheds.
[i]Turtle Creek Watershed Association Inc. – $115,000 to eliminate the discharge by draining the mine pool through a barrier into the Irwin mine pool. This will restore five miles of Turtle Creek by reducing acid and metals loading. [/i]Villanova University – $96,340 to use a newly developed procedure to identify the source of fecal contamination in waters. The project would establish a database of 2000 possible sources.
Villanova University – $175,000 to advance evolving comprehensive stormwater management and faster development of public and private partnerships.
Wanashee Conservancy Inc. – $70,000 to develop a Watershed Plan for the Robinson Run Watershed.
[i]Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation – $5,000 to support the South Sandy Creek Watershed Association’s development, its education and outreach efforts, and supply and equipment needs. [/i] [i]Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation – $166,000 to provide a means for watershed associations and other project sponsors to monitor their constructed passive treatment systems to determine how well they function and to help determine if any repairs, changes or replacements are needed. [/i]Western Pennsylvania Conservancy – $180,000 to provide technical watershed related assistance to watershed groups, conservation districts, landowners, government officials and the general public.
Wildlands Conservancy Inc. – $65,262 to complete a characterization stream assessment, embeddedness and trout habitat assessment, develop a restoration/stabilization plan and acquire joint permit for construction of structures on the Saucon Creek and two unnamed tributaries totaling 2.61 miles in length.
[b]NORTHAMPTON[/b]Upper Mount Bethel Township – $73,500 to develop a watershed protection plan and related outreach/education activities to increase awareness of nonpoint source pollution in the Martins-Jacoby Watershed in Northeastern Northampton County.
Monocacy Creek Watershed Association Inc. – $69,595 to develop the Illick’s Mill Park Restoration Master Plan, which will focus on establishing a riparian buffer, wetland aeration, native plantings, sediment transport, improved fish and aquatic habitat, a goose nuisance strategy and an educational outreach program.
Bushkill Stream Conservancy – $12,000 to design and plan a wetland passive treatment system at Sullivan Park. The project will help to reduce siltation and urban/suburban discharge to the Bushkill Creek.
[b]NORTHUMBERLAND[/b] [i]Northumberland County Conservation District – $29,403 to address the Maysville borehole, which is ranked as the ninth significant discharge that impacts Shamokin Creek with acid mine drainage.[/i] [b]PHILADELPHIA[/b]The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education – $83,260 to plan, develop, test and fine tune an educational program that mirrors the Senior Environmental Corp’s stream water quality monitoring and assessment program but specifically designed and crafted for students.
[b]PIKE[/b]Pike County Conservation District – $72,000 to provide financial and technical support to municipalities in Pike County. The project will support municipal officials in implementing land-use regulations that will contribute to the long-term conservation of water resources.
[b]POTTER[/b]Potter County Conservation District – $40,000 for a natural stream channel design project on the Middle Branch of the Genesee River.
[b]SCHUYLKILL[/b] [i]Schuylkill County Conservation District – $60,000 to collect necessary data to develop a detailed engineering design, complete with cost estimates, for a passive treatment system on the No. 5 borehole and breach, which is the most significant source of metals to the Mahanoy Creek, a tributary to Susquehanna River.[/i] [b]TIOGA[/b] [i]Tioga County Concerned Citizens Committee Inc. – $40,000 to design and permit a series of passive alkalinity generating systems to treat acid mine discharge in Fall Brook, a tributary to the Tioga River. [/i] [i]Tioga County Concerned Citizens Committee Inc. – $45,600 to fund the design, permitting and bid packages for a passive treatment site in the Fall Brook Creek portion of the Tioga River. [/i]Mansfield Municipal Authority – $25,000 to finalize a watershed management plan for the 23-square-mile Corey Creek Watershed.
[b]UNION[/b]Buffalo Creek Watershed Alliance of the Merrill Linn Land and Waterways Conservancy – $35,000 to study and design a passive treatment system for the remediation of seven miles of acid deposition impaired stream.
[b]VENANGO[/b]Venango Conservation District – $60,000 for design and implementation of sustainable best management practices to reduce nonpoint source pollutants such as sediment and nutrients.
[b]WASHINGTON[/b]Washington – $76,430 for a comprehensive stormwater assessment of the Catfish Creek subbasin within the Chartiers Creek Watershed.
[b]WESTMORELAND[/b]Pucketa and Chartiers Watershed Association – $41,300 to design a natural stream restoration for a severely eroded section of Chartiers Run in Lower Burrel.
[i]Loyalhanna Watershed Association Inc. – $211,400 to use the mine drainage flow, which is presently polluting Saxman Run, to generate electricity. This power will be used by a treatment system already in place and another system scheduled to come online in the future. Any excess power will supply discreet systems at the Latrobe Sewage Treatment Plant.[/i]* *
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a list by county of the $537,081 in 10 percent set-aside funds for state-federal mine reclamation project.
[b]CAMBRIA[/b] [i]Windber – $51,511 for a stream-grouting project aimed at eliminating acid mine discharge at the Jandy Refuse Pile Reclamation Project in the Little Paint Creek Watershed.[/i] [b]ELK[/b] [i]Toby Creek Watershed Association Inc. – $452,999 to upgrade the existing Brandy Camp Treatment Plant by installing two additional clarifiers, a raw transfer pump and sub-control panel.[/i] [b]HUNTINGDON[/b] [i]Huntingdon County Conservation District – $32,571 to evaluate the failure of the Joller acid mine drainage treatment facilities and design a rehabilitation plan to address the needed repairs[/i]* *
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a list by county of the $1.1 million in Nonpoint Source Implementation Program Grants, funded through Section 319(h) of the Federal Clean Water Act:
[b]BEDFORD[/b] [i]Broad Top Township – $8,000 to construct a passive system to treat mine discharge in Six Mile Run. [/i] [i]Broad Top Township – $182,000 for two separate systems to treat deep-mine seeps. Two separate treatment facilities will be used with settling ponds to capture flushed aluminum into Six Mile Run [/i] [i]Broad Top Township – $19,000 to construct three systems to treat mine discharge from three seeps in Six Mile Run. [/i] [i]Broad Top Township – $96,000 to design and construct limestone ponds and ditches to treat five different seeps totaling 22 gallons per minute in Shreves Run. [/i] [i]Broad Top Township – $10,000 to construct a system to treat a 15- to 20-gallon-per-minute deep-mine seep with a 600-ton limestone passive system.[/i] [b]BUCKS[/b]Plumstead Township – $77,247 to modify an existing wet basin stormwater management facility, creating from it a smaller basin with an adjacent wetland of 29,000 square feet.
[b]CENTRE[/b]Centre County Conservation District – $100,000 to install best management practices on 24 farms in agriculturally impaired watersheds. Landowners will contribute a minimum of 20 percent.
[b]CLEARFIELD[/b]Clearfield County Conservation District – $9,564 for a complete assessment of the Hartshorn Run Watershed to help support restoration of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.
[i]Emigh Run/Lakeside Watershed Association Inc. – $99,000 to construct the Hubler Run 2 passive treatment system that will treat three discharges of acid mine drainage that emanate from abandoned drift mines in the watershed.[/i] [b]HUNTINGDON[/b] [i]Huntingdon County Conservation District – $29,000 to add limestone to Hartman Run, stabilize the 750-foot access road, construct a stream crossing, riprap a 75-foot stream bank, reclaim small spoil piles eroding into the stream and replant the riparian zone.[/i] [b]LANCASTER[/b]Paradise Sportsmen’s Association – $158,485 for stabilization and restoration techniques along 3,725 linear feet of Pequea Creek.
[b]LUZERNE[/b]Luzerne Conservation District – $48,900 for a watershed and lake assessment for Frances Slo***** Lake. The assessment will be used to prepare a comprehensive management plan.
[b]MONTOUR[/b]Montour County Conservation District – $22,800 to augment a previous grant for construction of a natural design stream restoration.
[b]SCHUYLKILL[/b] [i]Schuylkill County Conservation District – $200,000 for the purchase and installation of limestone media to complete the Audenreid Mine Tunnel Discharge project.[/i] [b]UNION[/b]SEDA-Council of Governments – $45,000 to support construction of an innovative integrated stormwater management system in the proposed Energy Resource Center. Funding will be used for a green roof, porous paved parking and native plants in bioswales.
* *
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a list by county of the $1.6 million from the federal Office of Surface Mining Title IV grants:
[b]ALLEGHENY[/b] [i]Allegheny Land Trust – $650,955 to complete the design and construct a passive treatment system to treat high volume, alkaline, iron acid mine drainage. The iron precipitate will be recovered and sold to cover long-term operation and maintenance costs.[/i] [i]South Fayette Conservation Group – $329,249 to seal mine entries contributing to acid mine discharge to Miller Run, re-establish Fishing Run to its approximate historical channel, eliminate dangerous highwalls in the area and demolish hazardous abandoned mine structures.[/i] [b]INDIANA[/b] [i]Blacklick Creek Watershed Association – $93,562 to fund the reconstruction and redesign of the Yellow Creek Phase 2C Passive Treatment System. [/i] [b]JEFFERSON[/b] [i]Jefferson County Conservation District – $82,555 for a feasibility study and development of a conceptual design to treat an abandoned mine discharge to Sugar Camp Run so the water can be used for a municipal water supply.[/i] [b]SCHUYLKILL[/b] [i]Pottsville – $422,510 for Phase IV of a project to reclaim dangerous abandoned mine land features as a result of subsidence in the city.[/i]* *
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a list by county of the $1.9 million in innovation grants for the beneficial use of acid mine discharge to clean state waterways:
[b]BUTLER[/b] [i]Stream Restoration Inc. – $205,957 to evaluate the process and costs of recovering materials from acid mine discharge; determine the consistency of the raw material; pilot scale processing of recovered material; identify product demand; and identify future design improvements to decrease operation, maintenance and implementation.[/i] [b]ELK[/b] [i]North Central PA Regional Planning and Development Commission – $74,050 to determine the feasibility of use of the sludge from the Brandy Camp treatment plant to manufacture powdered metals components.[/i] [b]GREENE[/b] [i]Concurrent Technologies Corp. – $736,651 for a two-phase enhanced metals recovery program using iron derived from acid mine discharge as a raw material to produce a novel corrosion inhibitor.[/i] [b]INDIANA[/b] [i]Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation – $299,355 to study the bacteria and provide several carbon sources to determine which products produce the greatest SRB activity.[/i] [b]MULTIPLE COUNTIES[/b] [i]Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation – $189,813 to optimize the design and operation of self-flushing limestone systems for mine drainage treatment in Butler and Clarion counties. [/i] [i]Western PA coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation – $279,221 for five pilot-scale demonstrations at different locations treating a variety of acid mine discharge in Lackawanna, Northumberland, Jefferson, Fayette and Westmoreland counties.[/i] [b]WESTMORELAND[/b] [i]Saint Vincent College – $111,130 to test the ability of iron oxide sludges to compete with Ferric Chloride and Alum as a medium for removing phosphorous from municipal wastewater treatment plants.[/i]
140 PA’s Share of Coal Tax Could Triple 2005-11-07 11:02:23
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Pennsylvania’s share of money to repair damage from abandoned mines could nearly triple under a deal being worked out by federal lawmakers, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Friday.
The money comes from a coal production tax that generates about $300 million a year. Pennsylvania receives about $24 million, and Santorum said he’s working on an agreement to increase the annual amount to about $70 million. Lawmakers are working out the details and hope to include the agreement in a deficit reduction bill that’s headed for a final vote in the next month.
The deal also would secure health insurance for about 16,000 people in Pennsylvania, mostly surviving spouses of miners, Santorum, R-Penn Hills, said.
“This is huge for Pennsylvania,” Santorum said.
Officials long have debated how to distribute the coal tax since its inception in the 1970s.
Half of the money now is divided among states based on their current coal production. An additional fifth is divided based on their past coal production. That formula fails to take into account the fact that Eastern states have more dangerous mine sites and need a larger share of the money, some officials say.
Pennsylvania Coal Association President George Ellis said his group supports any measure that would increase Pennsylvania’s share.
“We have a bigger legacy than other states, so we need the money more,” he said.
But State Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Kurt Knaus said fixing all of the problems still will take decades.
“You’re talking about undoing two centuries of damage to the landscape,” he said.
Pennsylvania needs about $4.6 billion to fix mine sites that pose a threat to public health and safety, according to the U.S. Office of Surface Mining’s database of abandoned mine lands. The rest of the country needs about $2 billion to meet the same goal.
Those figures don’t include money needed for emergencies such as the Oct. 6 collapse of a 1940s mine shaft in Pleasant Hills.
But Jim McElheny, the owner of a shopping center damaged by the collapse, is thankful for the federal program.
The Office of Surface Mining is using coal tax money to pay for a geological study of the mine voids under McElheny’s property. Depending on the results of the study, the agency also could use coal tax money to fill those spaces and prevent future collapses.
McElheny inherited the Old Clairton Road properties from his father, and the buildings have been there for at least 50 years without any subsidence problems, he said. Now he’s not sure whether the ground hasn’t moved in the last two weeks because the old mine has finished collapsing or because it’s getting ready for the “big” one.
“I don’t know if that’s a good sign or a bad sign,” he said.
The study should answer that question within a few weeks, said Richard Ruffolo, a geologist with GAI Consultants Inc., a civil and environmental engineering consulting firm in Homestead. GAI is taking core samples around the property to determine the condition of the rock between the surface and the mined-out areas.
By Brian Bowling
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
bbowling@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7910.
139 More Acid Rock Drainage Problems at I-99 Project 2005-11-07 10:54:32
State officials are ordering an investigation into acid-rock drainage in Centre County from an Interstate 99 construction site near Port Matilda four miles west, separate from the acid-drainage problem at Skytop.
That order from the state Department of Environmental Protection to PennDOT says one sample of runoff from near a road cut just west of the new I-99 overpass above Route 220 exceeds limits for iron and acidity, and sulfate levels in groundwater samples are above state limits as well.
DEP wants PennDOT to identify all areas where the pyretic Brailler Shale vein has been disturbed by I-99 construction as well as where excavated material has been placed.
DEP is also demanding a water monitoring plan for the three-mile section that goes around Port Matilda to the north by November 23rd.
138 New Mine Subsidence Insurance Website 2005-11-03 11:44:50
Some Pennsylvania homeowners can check a new state Web site to see whether their houses are situated above or near an abandoned mine.
Tom Rathbun from the state Department of Environmental Protection says it can help folks determine if they want to purchase mine subsidence insurance.
While the www.paMSI.org website only has information on areas in Western Pennsylvania, Rathbun says officials are working to scan maps from locations east of the Susquehanna River into the system.
Coal has been mined underground for about 250 years and more than a million Pennsylvania homes sit on or near abandoned mines.
Active underground mining is ongoing in 43 of the state’s 67 counties.
Source:
Gene Starr
News Director
WPPA-AM/WAVT-FM
P.O. Box 540
Pottsville, PA 17901
(W) 570-622-4440
(F) 570-622-2822
gstarr@pbcradio.com
137 Growing Greener 2 Announcement 2005-11-03 11:26:24
[b][align=center]GOVERNOR RENDELL SAYS PA INVESTING IN THE FUTURE WITH ENVIRONMENTAL GRANTS; SAFEGUARDING COMMUNITIES,ATTRACTING BUSINESS INVESTMENT
140 Critical Projects in 50 Counties First to Receive Funding[/align][/b]
HARRISBURG – Nov. 2, 2005– Governor Edward G. Rendell today said Pennsylvania is taking aggressive steps to clean up its rivers and streams, improve parks, revitalize abandoned industrial sites and protect open space and preserve farmland
The Governor announced an investment of $65 million in environmental projects that will help scores of Pennsylvania communities.
Additionally, Governor Rendell said all 67 counties will now be able to apply for $90 million, allocated on a county-by-county basis, for eligible environmental projects. Information on how to apply is going directly to counties today, the Governor added.
“With these projects we deliver on our promise to voters, who approved a $625 million bond issue in May, to make Pennsylvania healthier, a better place to live and more competitive in attracting and supporting business investment,” Governor Rendell said. “In just three months since we reached a final agreement with the legislature, we have our first list of projects. No state is doing more to protect its quality of life or to safeguard tomorrow.”
“Pennsylvania is making an investment in its future and our families, communities and businesses will all share the benefits,” Governor Rendell said. “With this funding we will get 140 critical projects in 50 counties underway, projects that have languished for years because we lacked the money. This is good news for all Pennsylvanians.”
The Governor added that the first installment of $65 million in grants under Growing Greener II brings to fruition more than a year of aggressive efforts to address some of the state’s most pressing environmental problems and help the state win the race for revitalized communities, new business and job creation.
Governor Rendell said the projects fall into various categories including:
“¢ $31.5 million to upgrade state parks and improve state forests
“¢ $14 million to clean up acid mine drainage and other water quality improvements (watershed grants)
“¢ $9.7 million to clean former industrial sites (brownfields)
“¢ $3 million to upgrade our water and sewer infrastructure
“¢ $3.7 million for open space protection
“¢ $2.2 million to use mine water as an economic resource
“¢ $700,000 to remove impacts from dams
Nearly one-quarter of the grants will be used to clean up the state’s rivers and streams, the Governor said. The largest investment, $7.7 million, is going to conservation districts that administer the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, which pays farmers to take land along streams out of production to help decrease agricultural related run-off into major waterways that feed into the Chesapeake Bay, Governor Rendell added.
“With these resources we can move faster to clear polluted and abandoned industrial sites so we can attract new businesses and new jobs,” Governor Rendell said.
The Governor noted that this is not the only planned announcement of environmental grants. He said additional Open Space grants, administered by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will be announced this winter. The Department of Environmental Protection also will soon open its round of Growing Greener I and Growing Greener II grants.
And the Department of Agriculture is working with counties to identify state funds needed to match county funds for farmland preservation grants. That announcement is expected in the spring, the Governor said.
Voters in May approved a $625 million bond issue to clean up rivers and streams; protect natural areas, open spaces and working farms; and shore up key programs to improve quality of life and revitalize communities across the commonwealth.
###
The Rendell Administration is committed to creating a first-rate public education system, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and continuing economic investment to support our communities and businesses. To find out more about Governor Rendell’s initiatives and to sign up for his weekly newsletter, visit his Web site at: www.governor.state.pa.us.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The list of projects in 50 counties is attached.
[b]GROWING GREENER II PROJECT LISTCOUNTY LISTING, FUNDING, PROJECT NAME AND DESCRIPTION[/b] [b]Allegheny[/b]
Allegheny County Department of Parks – $270,027 to construct a treatment facility to treat three acid mine drainage discharges. This Phase II project will decrease loading to Piersons Run, which is a tributary to Turtle Creek.
Big River Development – $759,066 for the former Armstrong Cork factory in Pittsburgh
Lincoln/Larimer – $100,000 for Lincoln/Larimer neighborhood redevelopment in Pittsburgh.
Montour Run Watershed Association – $146,984 to design and construct a passive treatment system to treat the Wilson School discharge (SFMD7) in the Montour Run Watershed. The system will remove 9,000 pounds per year of acidity and 1,000 pounds per year of metals from the South Fork Montour Run.
Progress Street Partners – $251,250 to convert the former Heinz plant to lofts in Robinson Township.
Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh – $17,835 for the former trolley shop in Pittsburgh.
Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh – $116,775 for the Federal North Redevelopment project in this historic neighborhood.
[b]Allegheny/Washington[/b]Property Manager James Wilharm of Alliance Realty Management- $400,000 for the former Montour railroad right-of-way in Allegheny and Washington counties.
[b]Armstrong[/b]Roaring Run Watershed Association – $5,260 to repair 200 feet of riparian buffer on both sides of Roaring Run. Replacing the limestone rip-rap will protect the stream banks from further damage, as well as repair the damage caused by major storms to the original 2004 Growing Greener project.
[b]Bedford[/b]Western Pennsylvania Conservancy – $90,000 for acquisition of approximately 101 acres along Silver Mills Road in Mann Township for open space and watershed protection.
[b]Berks[/b]Greater Berks Development – $131,250 to remediate Goggle Works, site of a former manufacturing plant in Reading.
Project Development Inc. – $500,000 to remove the deteriorating Felix Dam and restore the river channel in Bern Township.
[b]Blair[/b]Blair County Conservation District – $97,021 to design and install contour ditches and rock channels to repair a 29-acre bond forfeiture site that is poorly reclaimed and eroding acid sediment into Sugar Run. The main benefit will be to eliminate the severe erosion of acid spoil into Sugar Run, which was estimated to be 57 tons of acidity per year.
Lexington Mall Partners – $750,000 to rehabilitate Altoona Works, a former railroad plant site in Altoona.
[b]Bradford[/b]Canton Township – $47,000 to stabilize approximately 1,500 feet of eroding stream bank by cutting back banks and revegetating; complete a Triage Environmental Assessment of second through fourth order streams in the Main Stem and South Branch subwatersheds.
Sylvania Borough – $62,500 to fund design, permitting and construction of the stabilization of approximately 18,000 feet of eroding stream banks on two tributaries to Sugar Creek identified as priorities in the watershed assessment. Stream stabilization will be accomplished by regrading and revegetating stream banks and providing rock-toe stabilization.
Wysox Creek Watershed Association – $101,800 for construction of approximately 8,800 feet of a designed and permitted NSCD project on Johnson Creek. This is a continuation of a previously funded project and construction will aid in maintaining stability. The project also includes funding for design and permitting of a second stream restoration project on Trout Stream, which is on the federal impaired waterways list. Both projects were identified as priorities in the Wysox Creek Watershed Assessment and Restoration Plan.
[b]Bucks[/b]Bucks County Conservation District – $20,639 to stabilize and restore eroded 800 feet of stream bank on Curl’s Run, a tributary to Pidcock Creek, using bioengineering techniques and best management practices; and $19,300 for a four-part project: stabilize 200 feet of eroding stream bank; retrofit two detention basins; evaluate storm water catch basin inserts; and obtain supplemental stream data for oil and grease.
Lower Makefield Township – $1.49 million (two grants) at Westinghouse die plant for a recreation park along Delaware Canal.
Milford Township – $100,000 for acquisition of a conservation easement on approximately 16 acres within Unami Forest, off Wright Road, for open space and critical habitat protection.
Nockamixon State Park – $1.5 million to rehabilitate a sewage collection system in Nockamixon State Park by relining and replacing approximately 10 miles of sewer line.
West Rockhill Township – $100,000 for acquisition of a conservation easement on approximately 12 acres along Twin Lows Road for open space and watershed protection; $45,000 for acquisition of a conservation easement on approximately five acres off Esten Road for open space and watershed protection; and $195,000 for acquisition of a conservation easement on approximately 48 acres off Thousand Acre Road for open space and watershed protection.
[b]Butler[/b]CDC Environmental Chemcial – $138,750 for work on Shearer Roadat a former chemical plant site in Butler Township.
Stream Restoration Inc. – $5,801 for the Jennings Environmental Education Center acid mine drainage treatment facilities in Brady Township.
[b]Cambria[/b]Cambria County Conservation District – $77,906 to improve fish and wildlife habitat within a diked flood control project. Terraces and rock barbs will be installed along approximately 2,400 feet of stream channel to narrow a shallow, over-wide channel and create a meandering pattern within the flood control project area. This is the second phase of a two-phase project.
Prince Gallitizin State Park – $700,000 for a complete rehabilitation of a 120,000-gallons-per-day sewage treatment plant at Prince Gallitizin State Park.
[b]Cameron[/b]Portage – $350,000 to rehabilitate a spring-fed water system at Sizerville State Park.
[b]Carbon[/b]Hickory Run State Park – $1 million for a complete rehabilitation of a 33,000-gallons-per-day sewage treatment plant at the park; and $295,000 to re-roof selective buildings in the group camps at the park.
[b]Centre[/b]Pennsylvania State University – $169,420 to reconnect Slab Cabin Run to its wetland floodplain. Slab Cabin Run has been identified as impaired due to acid mine drainage. Reconnection to Millbrook Marsh will provide pollutant removal during rain and improve the functionality of Millbrook Marsh as a bio-retention wetland. This project is in line with the Millbrook Marsh Protection and Management Plan and is in line with the strategic goals of the Spring Creek Watershed Community. The project integrates storm water management and nutrient reduction.
Poe Valley State Park – $1.5 million to replace existing beach house and campground pit latrine at Poe Valley State Park with restrooms that have flush toilets and showers. This project is to be connected to the DGS project for water and sewage.
[b]Chester[/b]Marsh Creek State Park – $1.3 million for complete rehabilitation of the pool at Marsh Creek State Park, including the filtration building.
Pennsbury Township – $231,900 for acquisition of a conservation easement on approximately 59 acres off Hickory and Hillendale Roads for open space preservation.
Phoenixville Borough – $467,500 for acquisition of approximately 7 acres at the southeast corner of Fillmore and Franklin Streets for expansion of existing Reservoir Park to provide additional athletic fields and open space.
West Caln Township – $550,000 for acquisition of 93 acres along Barren Hills Ridge for open space and watershed protection to create greenway linkages and to expand recreation opportunities.
[b]Clarion[/b]Forest District 8 – $1.5 million to rehabilitate and add on to an existing district office in Forest District 8.
Knox Township – $97,601 for a passive treatment system to treat two high aluminum abandoned mine discharges in the Licking Creek Watershed Assessment.
[b]Clearfield[/b]Clearfield County Conservation District – $49,977 to clean up Long Run, a tributary to Clearfield Creek, which is a major tributary to the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Most of the Long Run watershed is affected by acid mine drainage. This grant funds the design, permitting and construction of four diversion wells to raise alkalinity to restore the four miles of stream; $395,880 for the construction of a passive treatment system involving a combination of a vertical flow pond, settling basin and aerobic wetland. This is the first acid mine drainage construction project in the overall restoration plan for Morgan Run; and $267,500 for the construction of a passive treatment system called “Mr. Frog” that involves a combination of a vertical flow pond, settling pond and aerobic wetland. This is the second acid mine drainage construction project in the overall Morgan Run watershed restoration plan. This system will restore 500 feet of an unnamed tributary and 1.5 miles of Morgan Run.
Clearfield County Solid Waste Authority – $25,000 for clean up one of nine illegal dump sites identified in the county that directly threaten surface and/or ground water. The site is in Pike Township and is approximately 8,000 square feet in size. It is located in the headwaters of Hogback Run, a cold water fishery and tributary to the West Branch.
Emigh Run/Lakeside Watershed Association Inc. – $122,260 for the relocation of the headwaters of Emigh Run that flow through deep mine refuse waste. The mine refuse was deposited directly into the stream by an abandoned deep mine operation. The stream relocation will divert stream flow away from the acid spoil piles using natural stream design techniques.
Mosquito Creek Sportsment’s Association Inc. – $143,500 for construction of two innovative alkaline-addition technologies using limestone sand to mitigate the effects of acid deposition in the Mosquito Creek watershed. One project will create a high-flow buffering channel paralleling Gifford Run to neutralize episodic acidification occurring during high-flow events without placing limestone sand directly in the stream channel. The second project will create a vertical flow limestone bed on Lost Run to test the efficiency of using limestone sand in vertical flow wetlands to eliminate the need for compost. Both of these projects are part of the Mosquito Creek Progressive Restoration Plan.
Parker Dam State Park – $600,000 to replace a campground restroom with a new shower house at the Huston Township park.
[b]Clinton[/b]Kettle Creek State Park – $1.3 million to construct a shower house and sewage system at lower campground at Leidy park.
[b]Columbia[/b]Columbia County Conservation District – $68,750 to repair an existing natural channel design project at the Kocher Memorial Park — a handicapped accessible nature park. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designed and constructed this project under a DEP Growing Greener Grant in 2000. Then, 1,800 linear feet of bed and bank were stabilized and the nature park was subsequently constructed with another Growing Greener Grant via DCNR. The project was one of the earliest natural stream channel designs in Pennsylvania and was considered a demonstration to encourage similar efforts in the commonwealth. In the past five years, several severe storms have impacted the structural integrity of rock veins and created bed aggregation contributing to continual degradation of the banks. The repair is to re-grade the banks and repair/replace the structures to attain stability and sediment transport.
Forest District 20 – $600,000 to construct a parking lot and access area at state Route 42 in Forest District 20.
[b]Crawford[/b]Crawford County Conservation District – $96,299 to implement a natural stream channel design project on a tributary to Woodcock Creek. The project will rehabilitate 2,600 linear feet of stream bank.
[b]Cumberland[/b]Kings Gap Environmental Education Center – $750,000 to repave the main road to the center.
[b]Dauphin[/b]Capital Region Economic Development Corp. and Bethlehem Steel – $1 million to rehabilitate ISG Bethlehem, the former USX steel mill site.
Harrisburg – $150,000 for improvements to Wildwood Lake in Dauphin County.
Steelton – $246,200 to reclaim and restore the Steel Canal as part of the Steel Canal Restoration project.
Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority – $750,000 to rehabilitate the Crawford Station brownfield, a former power plant.
Washington Township Authority – $168,967 to update a wetland area. Washington Township in Dauphin County is the home of the largest operational constructed wetland treatment system for wastewater treatment in the state. The facility is currently under construction as part of a two-part project. This money funds Phase II, which comprises cleaning all accumulated solids and making other design changes.
West Hanover Township Water and Sewer Authority – $500,000 for sewer upgrades. The West Hanover Township Water & Sewer Authority owns and operates a 780,000-gallon-per-day wastewater treatment plant serving West Hanover Township. The plant is required to remover organics, suspended solids, ammonia-nitrogen, and phosphorus from the wastewater prior to discharging the treated effluent to a tributary of the Manada Creek. The Authority has chosen to replace the post-lime addition process with a vermicomposting process. Vermicomposting is a sustainable process that uses earthworms in a raised bed reactor to further treat the biosolids to a level that satisfies DEP criteria for “exceptional quality” without the addition of chemicals and the odors associated with the post-lime treatment process, or the energy input required by a heat-drying process.
Wiconisco Township – $69,900 to install a new technology for wastewater treatment plant. This technology uses two floating vegetative islands which regulates wastewater flow and treats nutrients by uptaking them through the plant roots and bacteria attached to the roots which are all suspended in the wastewater column.
[b]Erie[/b]Millcreek Township School District – $400,000 to install approximately 15,000 square feet of porous pavement, a rainwater harvesting system to collect storm water for use in non-potable water applications (toilets), a one-quarter-acre wetland and a 2,000 square-foot green roof as part of the J.S. Wilson Middle School green building project.
Presque Isle State Park – $1.8 million to rehabilitate Marina Pond Bridge and replace Misery Bay Bridge at Presque Isle State Park.
[b]Fayette[/b]Trout Unlimited, Chestnut Ridge Chapter – $107,267 to complete construction of a passive treatment system that will restore four miles of a high-quality stream.
Ohiopyle State Park – $545,950 for structural steel and bearing repairs to Ferncliff High Bridge (bike trail) at the park.
[b]Franklin[/b]Franklin County Conservation District – $22,988 for stream bank fencing on the Conococheague Creek and Little Cove Creek Stream.
Shippensburg – $500,000 to implement a five-stage biological nutrient removal treatment process at the Shippensburg waste water treatment plant. In order to implement this new treatment process, a new 682,000-gallon tank will need to be constructed to augment an existing activated sludge tank. There will also be a substantial amount of new treatment equipment installed, including submersible mixers, blowers equipped with variable frequency drives, fine bubble diffusers and air piping, internal recycle pumps, and instrumentation and control equipment.
Washington Township – $82,800 for acquisition of approximately four acres off state Route 16 and adjacent to existing Happel’s Meadow for open space.
Waynesboro Borough – $183,500 for acquisition of approximately four acres off state Route 316 for open space and passive recreation.
[b]Greene[/b]Ryerson Station State Park – $1 million for selective silt removal from a drained impoundment at the dam at the park.
[b]Huntingdon[/b]Forest District 5 – $1.5 million to rehabilitate an existing district office in Forest District 5.
Huntingdon County Conservation District – $2,929 to clean up four or more dump sites identified in a previous grant.
[b]Indiana[/b]Blackleggs Creek Watershed Association – $44,000 to add 2,000 tons of limestone to their existing limestone pond and to raise the water level another 1.5 feet to the maximum elevation in order to create more detention time and to generate more alkalinity. These ponds are too small, and room must be fully utilized to increase the detention time of the existing system.
[b]Lackawanna[/b]Archbald Borough – $525,000 to reclaim approximately 115 acres of abandoned mine lands and make safe about 24 mine openings, reducing the amount of surface water entering the underground deep mines, thereby reducing the amount of acid mine drainage flowing into the Lackawanna River. The project is part of restoration efforts for future economic development as part of the Valley View Business Park.
Lackawanna State Forest – $1 million for a new office in addition to the district office in Lackawanna State Forest.
[b]Lancaster[/b]Elizabethtown College – $40,100 to expand innovative storm water best management practices on campus as was done in earlier round of Growing Greener.
Lancaster Area Sewer Authority – $500,000 for sewer upgrades. The Lancaster Area Sewer Authority seeks to upgrade the activated sludge aeration system at its Susquehanna plant. The basic goals of this project are to upgrade and replace the diffuser, optimize the aeration process with additional blowers with those of the proper size, and create anoxic zones to obtain a certain degree of dentrification for the existing flows to the facility. The project will decrease nutrient load discharged to the Susquehanna River and decrease energy demands at the facility.
Lancaster County Conservancy – $113,800 to the Lancaster Conservancy for acquisition of approximately 28 acres off Tucquan Glen Road, adjacent to Lancaster County Conservancy’s Tucquan Glen Preserve for open space and habitat protection; and $150,000 to the Lancaster County Conservancy for acquisition of approximately 26 acres along the Susquehanna River and River Road for greenway and open space protection.
[b]Lebanon[/b]Bethel Township – $375,000 for acquisition of approximately 50 acres off of Sherwin Williams Drive for passive recreation and open space.
Lebanon Valley Conservancy – $83,200 to the Lebanon Valley Conservancy for acquisition of approximately 101 acres near Camp Kiwanis Road for greenway and habitat protection.
Willows Senior Apartments – $712,278 for Willows Senior Apartments at a former steel mill site.
[b]Lehigh[/b]Lehigh County Conservation District – $36,950 to restore 1,200 linear feet of a tributary to the Saucon Creek to improve fish habitat and reduce siltation pollution to the impaired Saucon Creek.
T-GM Ventures – $27,750 for work at 128-34 N. Eighth St. to convert a warehouse to condominiums and townhouses.
[b]Luzerne[/b]Butler Township – $61,227 to create a sediment retention system on a portion of Oley Creek.
Earth Conservancy – $248,000 to continue the reclamation of a large tract of mine-scarred land (Preston/Huber Bank Reclamation), transforming unusable land into recreational areas and residential development.
Luzerne County Conservation District – $56,528 to establish a program to restore eroded sections of stream bank.
Pyrah Corp. – $50,000 for Sea Isle Sportswear, a former clothing plant.
Ricketts Glen State Park – $2.4 million for park development at the park. The work includes replacing a bathhouse and two comfort stations in beach, day-use, and organized group tent areas, including utilities; and developing trailhead parking, comfort stations and trails at the Lake Rose area.
[b]Mercer[/b]Hermitage – $39,051 for Indian Run stream restoration. The city is concerned with the loss of property and potential safety issues with the degraded stream and has committed to paying for phase one data collection, analysis, design and permitting. This funding finances construction of the stream restoration to eliminate approximately 6,700 cubic feet of nonpoint source sediment pollution from the stream bank erosion, restore the aquatic habitat to enhance the biologic diversity of the stream, create a riparian buffer zone and produce short- and long-term educational experiences for Hermitage school students.
West Middlesex – $90,000 for Hogback Run channel improvements. Last year’s numerous extraordinary storms badly affected this section of stream causing nonpoint source erosion, flooding and safety concerns.
Winner Development – $1.1445 million for the Westinghouse plant, a former electric transformer manufacturing site.
[b]Monroe[/b]Middle Smithfield Township – $357,000 to fund the conversion of the existing wastewater treatment plant to new technology to treat the existing 22,000 gallons per day. The township authority will install a double ditch process to allow automated and complete control, ensuring essentially a continuous flow. The system does not require secondary clarifiers or return sludge pumping.
Stroud Township – $250,000 for acquisition of the Glen Brook Golf Course consisting of approximately 221 acres along Hickory Valley Road and Glenbrook Road for continued use of active recreation and open space preservation.
[b]Montgomery[/b]American Littoral Society = Delaware Riverkeeper Network – $39,200 to plan the removal/modification of an upstream dam and water intake structure to allow fish passage to upstream areas. Cross vanes and other structures would be used to stabilize the stream.
Center for Sustainable Communities – $212,220 for sustainable storm water work. The Center for Sustainable Communities and the Villanova University’s Urban Storm Water Partnership are combining resources to work on this project. The Initiative is an integrated program involving the construction of demonstration best management practices, research to describe their effectiveness and outreach to promote improved storm water management. The Growing Greener funds would be used to construct several demonstration best management practices on the property of the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust.
Montgomery County Conservation District – $23,504 to enhance wetland areas with native plantings, removing invasive plants and restoring floodplain. In the storm water detention basin, remove low-flow concrete channel and replace with meadows mixes. Work includes restoring eroded storm swale, now a gully, into bioretention.
Schwenksville Borough – $135,000 for acquisition of approximately three acres at the intersection of Centennial Street and Forest Lane for development of a park.
Spring-Ford Area School District – $10,215 to create planted buffer zones around two drainage swales and create a rain-garder at the drainage basin above the swales. As part of this project, the community will be educated on best management practices, nonpoint source pollution and overall watershed health.
Trout Unlimited, Southeast Montgomery County Chapter 468 – $50,000 to remove a dam on the main stem of the Pennypack Creek. Benefits would be to restore a more natural dynamic in terms of hydrology and sediment transport; improve aquatic and riparian habitats; and restore fish passage.
[b]Northumberland[/b]Northumberland County Conservation District – $12,080 to stabilize and plant a riparian buffer for a high-priority erosion site in the watershed. The group wants to demonstrate “solutions” to assist local landowners on what can be done on their properties. This would be the first “on the ground” project for this group.
Shikellamy State Park – $740,000 to purchase two, new, inflatable dam bags at the park to replace those damaged in Ivan storm; and $260,000 to construct a temporary causeway and install two, new, inflatable dam bags at the park.
[b]Perry[/b]Western Pennsylvania Conservancy – $426,000 for the acquisition of approximately 656 acres for open space, natural resource and watershed protection.
[b]Philadelphia[/b]Friends Center Corp. – $242,726 to incorporate a variety of innovative storm water best management practices into their ongoing campus buildings and site renovations. Best management practices proposed include a 10,000-square-foot green roof system, rainwater cistern storage system and small bioretention system at their campus property located in downtown Philadelphia.
Haines Eastburn Stenton – $727,500 for neighborhood redevelopment in Philadelphia.
Mount Airy – $11,512 for neighborhood redevelopment.
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society – $92,189 for two separate projects: One project is a renovation of a schoolyard at a Philadelphia public school; and the other is a new urban park on a square block in an area of newly constructed residential infill. Both projects would capture and infiltrate storm water by retrofitting existing urban landscapes that are 100 percent impervious. Both projects also are in combined sewer areas.
Woodlands 58, LLC – $250,549 for Abrams Metals, a scrap yard to remediation and redevelopment project.
[b]Pike[/b]Pomised Land State Park – $75,000 to construct a 10-kilowatt wind turbine at the park office; and $2.6 million to construct water and sewerage systems at the park to service Pickeral Point and Deerfield Campgrounds, complete with flush comfort/ shower facilities.
[b]Potter[/b]Lyman Run State Park – $183,000 to build piers for future spillway bridge at Lyman Run State Park.
Potter County – $200,000 for half of the non-federal share of the rehabilitation of North Fork Dam, a flood-control facility.
[b]Schuylkill[/b]CANDO Inc. – $2.22 million to build a water treatment plant to treat 1 million gallons daily from the Green Mountain Tunnel and sell the water to the Humbolt Industrial Park. The industrial park is in need of an additional one mgd of water to allow for expansion and the potential creation of 4,800 jobs.
Mahanoy City Sewer Authority – $428,600 for the installation of a Hydro International Grit King System for grit and grease removal as part of the Mahanoy City Sewer Authority $3 million in planned improvements. The system would be the first of its kind in the northeast region.
Weiser State Forest – $500,000 to renovate the existing Haldeman House for office and meeting facilities.
[b]Somerset[/b]Laurel Hill State Park – $1.6 million to replace beach bathhouse/concession, comfort stations and Group Camp 1 Bathhouse at Laurel Hill State Park.
[b]Sullivan[/b]Forest District 20 – $3 million to construct a new district forest office near Laporte.
[b]Tioga[/b]Hills Creek State Park – $500,000 to replace pit latrine at campground with new flush facility with showers at Hills Creek State Park.
Leonard Harrison State Park – $1.2 million to replace the maintenance building, campground pit latrine and two pit latrines at overlook at the park. Campground restroom to have showers and all others are to be flush and connected into the DGS sanitary project for water and sewage.
Lycoming Creek Watershed Association – $29,500 to stabilize 260 feet of highly erosive stream bank with an estimated soil loss of more than 21 tons. The area will be graded to decrease the bank angles and toe of slope. Rip rap protection will be installed as well as riparian plantings.
Tioga County Conservation District – $19,485 to reduce sediment pollution by stabilizing a 300-foot reach of Catlin Hollow with vertical bank heights up to 18 feet. The stream bank will be stabilized in such a way that the stream will have access to its floodplain, and a riparian buffer will be established; and $14,616 to stabilize approximately 425 feet of stream through a combination of re-grading vertical banks and installation of log veins and rip rap in an effort to protect the toe of the slope until vegetation is established. Planting of a dense buffer is a major component of the project.
[b]Union[/b]Union County Conservation District – $44,029 to provide the balance of funds needed to complete construction on a natural channel design project.
[b]Venango[/b]Venango County Conservation District – $87,391 to plug 10 oil wells in Scrubgrass Creek Watershed to restore viability and sustainability to this cold water stream.
[b]Washington[/b]Western Pennsylvania Conservancy – $20,200 for acquisition of approximately 64 acres for open space and natural resource protection.
[b]Wayne[/b]Salem Township – $79,600 for payment for the acquisition of approximately 15 acres in the eastern corner of the township for a recreation complex including athletic fields and supporting facilities.
[b]Westmoreland[/b]Donegal Township – $44,035 to protect Four Mile Run by implementing controls on a dirt and gravel road. The project will stabilize the road in order to prevent large amounts of sediment from entering the receiving stream during rain events.
Mount Pleasant Borough – $15,000 for a stream bank stabilization project in a municipal park. A total of 890 feet of stream bank along Shupe Run and unnamed tributary within the Jacob’s Creek Watershed will be restored using a combination of vegetative bioengineering, structural enhancement and riparian buffer plantings to decrease sediment loading to the stream.
North Huntingdon Township – $10,708 for construction of stream bank stabilization structures and a riparian buffer along Tinkers Run.
Saint Vincent College – $30,162 to finance modifications and improvements to repair and maintain the operation of the Monastery Run improvement project. Work includes repairs to an earthen dike, repair of a walkway, repair of bank erosion, and the installation of fencing to prevent muskrat damage and erosion.
Trout Unlimited, Forbes Trail Chapter – $11,014 to address mine discharge in Rock Run by implementing limestone sand dosing in the headwaters. The limestone will slowly dissolve and/or be carried down the stream to help combat a chronic acidification problem in the stream due to inadequate natural buffering.
Westmoreland Conservation District – $97,442 for a nature park and Donohoe Creek protection. The Westmoreland Conservation District proposes to address storm water problems that are causing degradation to an unnamed tributary within the Sewickley Creek Watershed. Three local businesses have agreed to improve the quality and reduce the quantity of their runoff by incorporating new innovative storm water best-management practices.
[b]Wyoming[/b]Mehoopany Creek Watershed Association – $318,773 for natural stream design on a portion of Mehoopany Creek. The assessment and design have been completed.
[b]York[/b]Northeastern York County Sewer Authority – $500,000 to upgrade the existing Mount Wolf Wastewater Treatment Plant from a trickling filter process to a Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor process. The upgrade would allow the existing facility to construct mechanisms to meet the more stringent effluent limits being implemented by the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy.
York Butterfly LP – $707,625 for the Caterpillar plant, a former manufacturing plant.
York Redevelopment Authority – $112,500 for a brownfield project to convert the Graybill Building, a historic building, to a city market.
[b]MULTIPLE COUNTIES[/b] [b]Berks/Bucks/Carbon/Chester/Luzerne/Montgomery/Schuylkill Counties[/b]Park Region 4 – $1.2 million to rehabilitate 12 water tanks in State Park Region 4.
[b]Crawford/Venango Counties[/b]French Creek Project of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council – $163,300 to initiate alternative storm water best management practices in the French Creek watershed in Crawford and Venango counties. The project will design and construct 10 to 15 alternative storm water projects, which will significantly decrease the amount of storm water discharged directly into French Creek. The BMP’s will also be used as demonstration sites for outreach.
Western Pennsylvania Conservancy – $87,999 to conduct education workshops and riparian restoration projects using minor mechanical engineering and vegetative stabilization on private, non-agricultural properties in four priority subwatersheds of the French Creek basin, specifically Conneautee Creek, LeBeouf Creek, West Branch French Creek and Conneaut Outlet.
[b]Statewide[/b]Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts – $7,779,480 to the for farmers enrolled in Pennsylvania’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) in the 59 counties of the Susquehanna, Potomac and Ohio River Watersheds. The money will enable farmers to implement best management practices on their farms to reduce runoff nonpoint source pollution. Nearly all of Pennsylvania is enrolled in CREP except the eight counties in the Delaware River watershed. The commonwealth’s program is the nation’s largest.
Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation – $350,000 to provide a means for quick payment of funds needed for emergency repair of previously funded Growing Greener restoration projects. WPCAMR will act as an agent to provide quick pass-through of funds.
[b]CONTACTS:[/b]Kate Philips (717) 783-1116
Kurt Knaus (DEP) – (717) 787-1323
Christina Novak (DCNR) – (717) 772-9101
136 Grant Announcement from the Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable 10/04/05 2005-10-25 10:45:08
I. Federal Grant Opportunities
a. U.S. EPA Region 3- Water Quality Cooperative Agreements
II. Non-Federal Grant Opportunities
a. Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation: Outdoor Classroom Grant Program
b. Yves Rocher Foundation: Women of the Earth Awards
c. Richard King Mellon Foundation- SW Pennsylvania
III. Conferences:
a. Potomac Coal Basin Task Force
I. Federal Grant Opportunities:
a. U.S. EPA Region 3- Water Quality Cooperative Agreements
Region 3 is soliciting proposals for Federal Assistance for Water Quality Cooperative Agreements under the Clean Water Act. Region 3 covers Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. These unique and innovative projects should address the requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Specifically the projects should advance strategies to implement watershed-based efforts, reduce wet weather flows, demonstrate collaborative innovative approaches to control or reduce pollution to protect and restore water quality on a watershed basis. The grants awarded will range from $30,000 to $400,000, with up to 15 projects selected. The funds may be used to conduct or promote the coordination and acceleration of investigations, training, demonstrations, surveys and studies. The projects include innovative wastewater treatment practices, efficiencies and training, watershed permitting, storm water programs, low impact development, and other NPDES issues in watersheds.
A full application is required. Any further questions, one can contact Patricia Iraci at 215-814-5727.
Deadline: November 3, 2005
More Information: http://www.epa.gov/region3/grants/pdf/EPA-R3WPD-05-03.pdf
II. Non-Federal Grant Opportunities:
a. Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation: Outdoor Classroom Grant Program
The Outdoor Classroom Grant Program, sponsored by Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation, International Paper and National Geographic Explorer, provides outdoor, hands-on science education to students in grades K-12. This school year, the program will award grants of up to $2,000 to at least 100 schools. In some cases, grants for up to $20,000 may be awarded to schools or school districts with major outdoor classroom projects. The grants can be used to build a new outdoor classroom or to enhance a current outdoor classroom at the school. All K-12 public schools in the United States (excluding Puerto Rico) are welcome to apply. Online requests may be submitted at any time. A watershed group could partner with the school to apply for this grant. If you apply between September and December, the application will be considered in January.
More Information: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=pg&p=AboutLowes/outdoor/index.html
b. Yves Rocher Foundation: Women of the Earth Awards
The “Women of the Earth” Awards, sponsored by the Yves Rocher Foundation, provides financial support and recognition to programs conducted by women that are concerned with the protection or promotion of the plant world and aimed at reconciling humanity and nature. For the 2nd year in the United States, 3 women will be honored with the Terre de Femmes Award. Whether it is a simple project like creating a community garden or a program as large-scale as preserving coral reefs, any woman age 18 and above who is working within an organization and is conducting a program that benefits nature and humanity is eligible to compete. To do so, one must fill out the Terra de Femmes “Women of the Earth” Awards application form and provide a written and visual detailed description of her program, its accomplishments, funding requirements and long-term prospects, before October 31, 2005.
The winners will receive a cash prizes and a trip to Paris, France.
More Information: http://www.yvesrocherusa.com/shop_app/app_US/jms.jsp?&nav=topic&topicId=577&noFrame
c. Richard King Mellon Foundation- for Southwestern Pennsylvania
The Foundation was created in 1947 by Richard King Mellon (1899-1970), chairman of Mellon Bank, conservationist, and dominant figure in the financial, industrial, and civic life of Pittsburgh for many years. The Foundation makes grants for such purposes as, in the judgment of the Trustees, will be “in the public interest.” Priorities included regional economic development, the quality of life in southwestern Pennsylvania, land preservation, and watershed restoration and protection with an emphasis on western Pennsylvania.
REGIONAL FOCUS FOR PENNSYLVANIA
Conservation
· Land preservation
· Watershed protection and restoration
· Sustainable environments
FOCUS FOR SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Human Services and Nonprofit Capacity Building
· Critical and strategic service providers
More Information: http://fdncenter.org/grantmaker/rkmellon/
III. Conferences
Potomac Coal Basin Task Force
Help Wanted!!
Task force forming on Mine Pools and AMD Problems
Please come to the first meeting of the
Potomac Coal Basin Task Force
Let your voice be heard! And pass this message onto a friend.
*Task force to include representatives from the North Fork of the Blackwater River, the North Branch of the Potomac, the Upper Youghiogheny River and those affected downstream.
*Come learn about Mine Pools and Acid Mine Drainage; the problems and the areas and streams most impacted!
*Network with other watershed groups and environmental activists!
*Get active in bringing the problem to the attention of the public.
*Learn valuable information you can take back to your organization and community!
When: October 8, 2005 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Where: Oakland, Maryland Public Library
Who: Watershed groups with an interest in the Potomac River Coal Basin.
DRAFT: Mine Pool Meeting Agenda
12:00 p.m. Sign-in and LUNCH (provided) – Be sure to specify that a vegetarian lunch is preferred when you RSVP.
Name tags, handouts. Meet other activists and concerned community members
Introduction of Organizations
Who we are:
-What groups are represented?
-Where are they located?
-What issues is your organization been tackling?
-Why does your group has an interest in Mine Pools/AMD?
– Locating groups and problem areas on wall map
1:00 p.m. Mine Pool Presentation by Northfork Watershed Project (PowerPoint)
1:30 p.m. Current State of Mine Pools across the Potomac Coal Basin
2:00 p.m. , 4:00 p.m. Open discussion, taskforce and capacity-building , strategies, task assignments, conclusion
1. Reaching out to public, media, and decision makers
2. Getting funding for remediation and revitalization
3. Plan second meeting
***If you have an interest in adding to the agenda please contact: Sandra Gardner or Janel Farron at 304-463-4068.
Please feel free to bring information about your organization. There will be a table for you to display any brochures or publications. Posters welcome!
Keep Updated with ECRR Grant Resources
135 The Schuylkill County Conservancy would like to introduce you to its new website 2005-10-25 09:44:44
On the website, you will find all types of useful information related to conservation. Browse through an extensive list of resources under the resources page. Also, membership information and a signup form are available online. Future updates will include information about projects, online versions of the newsletters, and relevant land conservation news in Schuylkill County. Please feel free to share comments or suggestions. Enjoy!
Visit: www.schuylkillconservancy.org
Source:
Tom Davidock
County Natural Resource Specialist
Schuylkill Conservation District
Phone: (570) 622-3742 EXT. 120
Fax: (570) 622-4009
Cell: (610) 823-4616
134 Chesapeake Bay Program Launches New Educational Resource 2005-10-25 09:35:11
Last week, the Chesapeake Bay Program launched Chesapeake Academic Resources for Teachers (ChART), a resource designed to help educators provide meaningful watershed educational experiences to their students. ChART provides educators with one place to find Bay-related lesson plans and activities, field studies and professional development opportunities.
Explore ChART at: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/chart/
Source:
Amy C. Handen
Watershed Coordinator
National Park Service
Chesapeake Bay Program Office
410 Severn Avenue, Suite 109
Annapolis, Maryland 21403
Phone: 410-267-5786
Fax: 410-267-5777
133 Governor Rendell honors six Pennsylvania environmental leaders 2005-10-12 16:41:45
Governor Edward G. Rendell honored six of Pennsylvania’s most remarkable environmental leaders during a state dinner held on their behalf Oct. 6 at the Governor’s residence. The honorees were recognized for their significant contributions in the environmental field and for the inspiration they have provided to others.
“These honorees have recognized the importance of preserving our greatest natural treasure,” said Governor Rendell. “Promoting the highest standards of environmental protection is vital to sustaining our quality of life in communities across Pennsylvania. These six individuals have each made contributions through education and outreach, research and, most of all, by not being afraid to stand up for what they believe in. They are to be commended for a job well done.”
Each honoree was presented with the official state gift, a symbolic expression of the leadership provided by those who are inspirational guiding lights to others. The gift, “Lighting the Way,” is a handcrafted reproduction of a wooden wall sconce, circa 1760, that hangs in Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Handcrafted of Pennsylvania black walnut, it is awarded to those who have excelled in their respective areas and have made a difference in Pennsylvania on behalf of the citizens of our commonwealth.
Out of the six honorees, two were from the EPCAMR Region. Their profiles are below:
Maryruth Wagner – Bloomsburg, Columbia County
Maryruth Wagner is the District Manager of the Columbia County Conservation District. Under her guidance, the district hosts an annual education program for students in third through sixth grades to foster the development of a greater appreciation and understanding of our environment. She also leads the district in sponsoring the Susquehanna Valley Environthon for Columbia County middle and high school students.
Wagner is actively involved with the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts and the Pocono Northeast Resource Conservation and Development Council. She has participated in the Chesapeake Bay Program and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in protecting our commonwealth’s waterways.
In 1997, she was instrumental in establishing the Catawissa Creek Restoration Association and subsequently in 1998, she helped to create the Fishing Creek Watershed Association. One of her proudest accomplishments was helping to create the Frank Kocher Memorial Park, which serves as a relaxing area where the community can enjoy fishing, kayaking, canoeing, swimming and picnicking. Due to her steadfast commitment to our environment, citizens are surrounded by the natural beauty that is Pennsylvania.
Dr. Mel Zimmerman – Montoursville, Lycoming County
Dr. Mel Zimmerman is a professor of biology at Lycoming College whose students have historically monitored trends in both biology and chemistry for local watersheds. He developed Lycoming College’s “Clean Water Institute” which has helped a number of watershed groups compile data and evaluate trends, needs and solutions. He was instrumental in helping DEP’s North Central Regional Office Team 5 by providing a forum for exchange with various partners.
He was extensively involved in the formation of the Susquehanna River Heartland Coalition for Environmental Studies. His expertise has been monumentally instrumental not only in beginning this group but also coordinating the participation of higher education facilities. He serves on the board of the Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers and is also the chair of the Keystone Stream Team.
Dr. Zimmerman helped the North Central PA Conservancy accomplish a Rivers Conservation Plan for a portion of the western branch of the Susquehanna River. This tremendous effort involved numerous partnerships, including counties and municipalities. Dr. Zimmerman has generously shared his time, expertise and environmental ethic to help those interested in watershed work throughout Pennsylvania. He serves as an inspiration for every individual who wants to personally work toward creating a better environment for our commonwealth.
The Rendell Administration is committed to creating a first-rate public education system, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and continuing economic investment to support our communities and businesses. To find out more about Governor Rendell’s initiatives and to sign up for his weekly newsletter, visit his web site at: www.governor.state.pa.us.
132 Head of the US Mine Safety and Health Administration calls for Safer Coal Mining 2005-10-07 15:21:39
PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) – The acting director of the U-S Mine Safety and Health Administration says more improvements are needed in the coal industry.
In a speech prepared for a group of coal operators, David Dye says “the vast majority” of mining accidents are caused by human error, and miners have to be persuaded not to take risks.
So far this year, 15 coal miners have been killed on the job in the U-S. Kentucky leads the nation with six fatalities. Last year, 28 people died in coal mine accidents nationwide.
Dan Kane, who is the secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America, says coal operators need to give miners the tools needed to work safely. He also says regulators need to adopt and enforce regulations to keep miners safe.
SOURCE:
Gene Starr
News Director
WPPA-AM/WAVT-FM
P.O. Box 540
Pottsville, PA 17901
(W) 570-622-4440
(F) 570-622-2822
gstarr@pbcradio.com
131 DEP SECRETARY JOINS COALS PARTNERS AS NEW DUMP CLEANUP FUND IS ESTABLISHED 2005-10-07 15:06:28
Partners Commit Nearly $186,000 in Contributions, In-Kind Services Over Two Years
10/7/2005
SOURCE: Dan Spadoni
DEP North Central Regional Office
MOUNT CARMEL, Northumberland County , Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty and 17 companies and communities today committed nearly $186,000 over two years to cleanup illegal dump sites under a new multi-county initiative called Clean Up Our Anthracite Lands and Streams, or COALS. The group made its first deposit at Union National Bank to help finance the effort that has been under way since April.
“Residents of Pennsylvania’s anthracite region contributed immeasurably to the strength of our nation,” McGinty said. “Our coal towns sacrificed and labored to power this country through two world wars and build the industrial strength of America. Now, Governor Rendell is determined to honor these contributions by helping to rebuild these communities.”
The funds deposited today are being administered by a partnership among the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy and PA Cleanways, a Greensburg-based environmental organization that focuses on dumping and littering education and cleanups.
COALS was developed after a December 2004 tour of illegal dumpsites on coal company and county properties. Using a multi-faceted approach, which includes recycling, education, enforcement and innovation, DEP staff has developed a coalition of committed partners to direct and fund the program. McGinty helped to launch COALS officially in April.
Between April 15 and June 23, DEP oversaw dump cleanups on Big Mountain Road, the Whaleback and Snake Road in Northumberland and Columbia counties. To date, 54.4 tons of tires and 125 tons of municipal waste have been removed at a cost of $16,310. A final fall cleanup at these same three sites is scheduled to begin Oct. 29.
“The education and enforcement components of the COALS program also are very important if we want to ensure that dumping does not recur once these sites are cleaned up,” McGinty said.
Enforcement efforts to bring illegal dumpers to justice as part of the COALS program have been under way since last spring. DEP already has issued 22 summary citations to responsible parties, which has resulted in 14 guilty verdicts and six others waiting court dates. In addition, DEP has issued three notice of violation letters to responsible parties.
State and local law enforcement agencies have been working with DEP, and the four local district justices have strongly supported the enforcement activities.
DEP’s Waste Management Program staff has begun meeting with 18 area municipalities in Columbia and Northumberland counties to explain COALS and enlist their support. The focus is on education, site evaluation, surveillance and recycling.
COALS has proved to be a successful model for others in Pennsylvania to follow. The department also is developing a similar program in its Northeast Regional Office to address the long-standing problem of large, illegal dumps that have become all too commonplace in the anthracite coal region.
For more information on waste management, visit DEP’s Web site at www.dep.state.pa.us, Keyword “Waste Management.”
# # #
EDITOR’S NOTE: Listed below are the major contributors in the COALS initiative and their financial contributions for 2005 and 2006:
· Mount Carmel Cogen Inc./Susquehanna Coal Co. — $25,000 (includes $15,000 cash and $10,000 for surveillance cameras that already have been purchased)
· Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy — $23,794 (as provide by DEP)
· Girard Estate — $10,000
· Pagnotti Enterprises Inc. (Jeddo Coal Co.) — $10,000
· Reading Anthracite — $10,000
· AQUA America — $3,000
· Blaschak Coal Corp. — $2,000
· Shamokin Filler Coal Co. Inc. — $1,500
· Eastern Industries Inc. — $1,000
· Louis DeNaples — $72,000 of in-kind services
· Waste Management of Central Pennsylvania — $24,000 of in-kind services
· Mount Carmel Borough — $2,500 of in-kind services
· Mount Carmel Area School District — $1,100 of in-kind services
Other partners providing volunteer support for the COALS initiative include the following: PA Cleanways, Habitat for Wildlife, Mahanoy Creek Watershed Association and Shamokin Creek Restoration Alliance.
130 DEP AUTHORIZES HAZLETON CREEK PROPERTIES LLC TO CONDUCT MINE RECLAMATION PROJECT 2005-10-06 12:52:15
250-Acre Site Will be Reclaimed for Commercial Development
10/5/2005
WILKES-BARRE , Environmental Protection Northeast Regional Director Michael D. Bedrin today announced that DEP has completed its review of Hazleton Creek Properties LLC’s “determination of applicability,” authorizing the company to operate under a general permit for a land reclamation project in Hazleton, Luzerne County.
The general permit regulates the processing and beneficial use of dredge material, cement kiln dust, lime kiln dust and coal ash by screening, mechanical blending and compaction in mine reclamation. Hazleton Creek Properties of Kingston, Luzerne County, is proposing to use the mixture to reclaim and remediate an abandoned industrial and mine site covering more than 250 acres in the city.
“DEP has strict standards that apply to the use of materials in mine reclamation,” Bedrin said. “Hazleton Creek Properties’ proposal meets all of the requirements needed to operate under this general permit.”
The general permit (Number: WMGR085) sets conservative chemical quality limits and requires sampling and testing of all materials at three distinct stages: Stage 1 occurs before the material is shipped to the site; Stage 2 takes place when the material arrives at the site; and Stage 3 occurs prior to placing the processed mixture at the site.
All incoming material must be visually screened for signs of contamination or unapproved waste, and any new source of dredge, ash or kiln dust must be approved by DEP before it can be shipped to the site.
The permit also requires groundwater and surface water monitoring and requires Hazleton Creek Properties to post a bond to cover the costs associated with water monitoring and removal of any waste not meeting Stage 3 testing requirements and limits.
The company still must obtain several other permits and approvals before reclamation work can begin, including a special industrial area agreement under the state’s Land Recycling Program to clean up three unpermitted landfills on the property and dispose of all containerized waste found during remediation, including any capacitors and drums.
The property was once part of the Hazleton Shaft Colliery that was abandoned in the 1940s. Hazleton Creek Properties proposed to use the regulated materials in the permit to supplement on-site soil and mine spoil to reclaim the site and construct a 20,000-seat amphitheater and other commercial development.
For more information on the remediation of abandoned industrial sites, visit DEP’s Web site at www.dep.state.pa.us, Keyword: “Land Recycling.”
CONTACT:
Mark Carmon
Phone: (570) 826-2511
[align=center][b]Please feel free to post a comment on this article by choosing the “comments?” link below.[/b] [/align]EPCAMR is not responsible for these statements and reserves the right to filter any comments that are deemed inappropriate for this forum.
129 Grant Announcements from the Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable 2005-09-19 15:10:38
Please remember to visit The Eastern Coal Region Roundtable Funding Sources Archive for more grant opportunities relevant to the Appalacian Coal Fields.
The Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable (ECRR) was created through a partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Office of Surface Mining (OSM). This site is a “meeting place” for watershed organizations working in eastern coal country. Their region includes nine states: AL, IN, KY, MD, OH, PA, TN, VA, & WV
128 The Anthracite Miners and Their Hollowed Ground 2005-09-19 13:35:30
“The Anthracite Miners and their Hollowed Ground” by Pennsylvania Artist Sue Hand will be unveiled at her Dallas studio beginning Saturday, September 17 in conjunction with the Dallas Harvest Festival.
Approximately two hundred fifty custom stretched hexagonal artists’ canvases have been painted in the style of historiated abstract expressionism with acrylic/collage. Hand chose the six-sided shape because the Wyoming Valley was “honeycombed” with mines. The hexagonal shape allows the paintings to fit together in various honeycomb patterns. Each composition is balanced on its point symbolizing the instability of the mining industry. The series began with collaged historical images related to various concepts involved with anthracite mining in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Some inclusions are actual newspaper articles and postcards; some were drawn from historical photographs or hand lettered from historical information. The paintings are filled with symbolism. The overall colors of the canvases are low chroma, which represent the colors of the earth, dust and coal. However, each canvas also includes areas of blue paint representing the Susquehanna River and the Knox Mine Disaster, which essentially ended deep coal mining in the Wyoming Valley. Spots of red paint on each composition symbolize the danger of the mining industry”¦the blood, sweat, and tears. Pieces of anthracite coal are embedded into each composition along with actual historical objects such as tools, rope, etc.
Hand spent five years researching the “land of anthracite” before beginning the actual painting process. It is her hope that this exhibit will honor the memory of some very special people, places and events that contributed to the historical fabric and greatness of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The public is invited to view this exhibit of historical importance at Hand’s Dallas studio, 35 Main Street, beginning Saturday, September 17, 9:00 , 6:00 and Sunday, September 18 from 1:00 , 6:00 (during the Dallas Harvest Festival). The exhibit continues through Thursday, September 22. Hours during the week are Monday & Wednesday 9:00 , 6:00 and Tuesday & Thursday noon , 9:00. For additional information, contact Heather Madeira, 675-5094.
Sincerely,
Heather Hand Madeira
Heather Hand Madeira
Sue Hand’s Imagery
35 Main Street
Dallas, PA 18612-1603
570.675.5094
hhmadeira@aol.com
127 New USGS stream gague to be installed on the Susquehanna 2005-09-19 12:53:54
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (AP) – A team from the United States Geological
Survey is starting a pilot project in Columbia County with a new
kind of river level sensor.
It should help forecasters and state emergency officials better
deal with ice and debris jams.
The new gauges will be put on the East Bloomsburg Bridge over
the North Branch of the Susquehanna River starting today.
When operational, they devices will transmit real-time stream
flow and water velocity data to the existing USGS gauging
station near the Bloomsburg Airport.
From there, the readings go out to the National Weather Service
and the US Army Corps of Engineers, as well as the state
Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania
Emergency Management Agency.
USGS officials say by using both measurements, forecasters
and emergency officials will be better able to deal with ice and
debris jams that increase water levels while stream flows stay the
same.
The system should be up and running in three days after
installation and testing.
Gene Starr
News Director
WPPA-AM/WAVT-FM
P.O. Box 540
Pottsville, PA 17901
(W) 570-622-4440
(F) 570-622-2822
126 W.Va. Native Nominated to Head of Federal Mine Safety Agency 2005-09-16 13:45:17
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – A former director of Pennsylvania’s
Bureau of Deep Mine Safety has been selected by President Bush to
head the agency that oversees the safety of the nation’s mining
work force.
The White House announced today that Bush intended to nominate
Richard Stickler to assistant secretary of the U-S Department of
Labor, overseeing the federal Mine Health and Safety
Administration.
Stickler grew up in Marion County, West Virginia, and attended
Fairmont State College. He worked for Beth Energy Mines for 30
years as a shift foreman, superintendent and mine manager.
Gene Starr
News Director
WPPA-AM/WAVT-FM
P.O. Box 540
Pottsville, PA 17901
(W) 570-622-4440
(F) 570-622-2822
125 Abandoned Mine Drainage Remediation Project in Bear Creek Underway 2005-09-15 10:05:03
Source: Andrew McAllister
Dauphin County Conservation District Watershed / Water Resource Specialist
The upper part of the Wiconisco Creek Watershed, which includes Bear Creek, lies in the extreme southwest section of the anthracite coalfields of Pennsylvania. From the mid-1800’s until the 1930’s, the region encompassing the Bear Creek Watershed and the upper half of the Wiconisco Creek Watershed were heavily mined using both strip and deep mining methods.
When mining activity in the Bear Creek Watershed ceased in the mid twentieth century, the complex of mine workings became flooded due to seepage from groundwater and also due in part to surface water finding its way down to the workings from the surface through “cropfalls”. Cropfalls or sinkholes are formed on the surface where the underlying tunnels have collapsed. The iron polluted mine water pours out in the creek and smothers the stream bottom with a thick orange sediment, resulting in the inability of Bear Creek to support aquatic life.
The Dauphin County Conservation District, the Wiconisco Creek Restoration Association, the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation and other organizations recognize the value in clean streams and are partnering to remediate the AMD impacts on Bear Creek.
The long-term goal of this effort is to restore Bear Creek to a healthier state by installing passive treatment systems to trap the iron sediment before it reaches the creek.
The broader positive impacts of AMD remediation efforts in the Bear Creek and Wiconisco Creek Watersheds are many. These positive impacts include improved fisheries, increased tourism, and an improved local economy.
Broad-based partnerships like those represented in the Bear Creek Project, continue to be the most effective way for addressing the widespread degradation caused by AMD in the Anthracite region.
Please see this webpage on the Dauphin County Conservation District Website for pictures and more information.
124 2006 PAEP Annual Meeting & Conference Planned 2005-09-15 09:31:01
[align=center]2006 Annual Meeting & Conference“Career Development for Pennsylvania’s Environmental Professional”
[b] May 17, 18, 19 at the Ramada Conference Center State College, PA[/b] [u][b]Mark your calendars!![/b][/u][/align]The 2006 PAEP conference site is the newly renovated and expanded Ramada Inn and Conference Center in State College. The new conference center will serve as a wonderful venue for our conference, and the overnight room rate will be a reasonable $70.00/night.
With “career development” as our theme, our goal is to provide you with a track of topics at the 2006 Conference that will either give you some new tools to apply towards your work, or help you improve some of your existing skill sets; furthermore, we want a majority of these topics to have a universal appeal, regardless of which niche of the environmental profession you happen to work.
As a result of the recent decision by the Northeastern Pollution Prevention Roundtable to join PAEP as the “Pollution Prevention / Energy Efficiency (P2E2) Roundtable”, this conference will feature a “Pollution Prevention /Energy Efficiency” track. This new topical element will infuse new people and topics to the event, which will only serve to further enrich the PAEP conference experience for its members. For more info on the new partnership between NEPPRT and PAEP, go to http://www.paep.org/.
In addition to the sessions, the conference will feature a keynote speaker of worth, social / networking opportunities, tours of environmentally relevant sites in State College, vendor displays, and our Karl Mason Awards Banquet. The other attraction is, of course, State College itself!
If you have any specific suggestions regarding topics / speakers, or Karl Mason Award nominees, now is the time to share them as the Conference Committee will be determining the speaker list and finalizing the conference schedule over the next 2 months. Feel free to share your ideas / suggestions with any of the Conference Committee members listed below.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing all of you at the 2006 PAEP Conference!
Sincerely,
Eric Buncher Jerrold McCormick
PAEP President 2006 Conference Committee Chairperson
[hr] [align=center]2006 Conference Committee MembersAmy Altimare, ASC Group, Inc.
John Burglund, Wallace & Pancher, Inc.
Ted Fridirici, Buchart Horn, Inc.
Jennie Granger, McCormick Taylor, Inc.
Deb Henson, KCI Technologies, Inc.
Shannon Miller, Greenhorne @ O’Mara, Inc
Jason Minnich, PaDEP
Joseph F. Musil, Jr., Urban Engineers, Inc.
Camille Otto, McCormick Taylor, Inc.
Brian Pancher, Wallace & Pancher, Inc
Jeffrey M. Prawdzik, Shaw Environmental, Inc.
Jim Ruth, PennDOT District 5-0
Tim Tuttle, Scranton Army Ammunition Plant
Elaine Farrell, Farrell Associates LLC [/align]
123 Efforts to transform a historical mining area into a park received a boost 2005-09-13 16:01:03
By Tom Venesky
The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources awarded a $135,000 grant to Luzerne County to support the acquisition of 136 acres in Ashley Borough and Fairview and Hanover townships.
The land borders state Route 309 and will be used to provide public access to the Ashley Planes Heritage Park via an access road from state Route 309.
The site dates back to 1848 and was the primary means of transporting millions of tons of coal by rail from the floor of the Wyoming Valley, over Wilkes-Barre Mountain to White Haven.
The Ashley Planes sat dormant for nearly 50 years until 1998 when the Earth Conservancy proposed the creation of the park.
The entire site encompasses approximately 500 acres and much of it is owned by Earth Conservancy. The area is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.
The park is in the planning stages and include a parking area, informational kiosk and a mile-long trail.
State Sen. Raphael Musto, D-Pittston, said he was pleased DCNR recognized the importance of land preservation through the grant.
“This park will one day be a great historic site in the Wyoming Valley. It will show visitors what was once a state-of-the-art transportation system, moving coal from the valley floor to markets on the East Coast,” he said.
Development of the Ashley Planes Heritage Park is linked to the Huber Breaker reclamation project in Ashley. Planners hope to renovate the breaker and connect it to the Ashley Planes as a tourist attraction.
Merle Mackin, director of the Luzerne County Convention and Visitors Bureau and a member of the Huber Breaker Society Board of Directors, said the funding will benefit numerous anthracite sites in the region.
“We’re trying to get all the anthracite area attractions in the county developed, so we can put together a tour from Eckley, where the miners lived, to the breaker, where the coal was processed, to the Ashley Planes where it was transported,” Mackin said. “It would show the public the mining process from start to finish.”
©The Citizens Voice 2005
122 Audenreid Mine Tunnel Treatment leads to Catawissa Creek Watershed Restoration 2005-09-13 15:43:54
[hr]Please visit The Audenried Blog for more articles and progress to date.
[hr]Nearly 36 miles of the Catawissa Creek in Schuylkill County will be cleaned up thanks to a new treatment facility.
The Audenreid Mine Tunnel Discharge just outside of Sheppton is the largest abandoned mine drainage area within the Catawissa Creek Watershed, contributing 85% of the creeks pollution.
The $2-million dollar passive treatment system consists of 3 large circular concrete tanks that are filled with limestone. The limestone removes dangerous aluminum and makes the waters less acidic, which in essence filters pollutants and replaces clean water into the stream.
Craig Morgan, District Manager of the Schuylkill Conservation District says cleaning up this portion of stream will be beneficial not only to Schuylkill County wildlife, but to residents as well”¦.
Nearly $1.5-million dollars of the $2-million dollar project cost came from the Department of Environmental Protection, through the Growing Greener Program.
The project, conceived by the Catawissa Creek Restoration Association 5 years ago, will treat the Audenreid Discharge and improve the Catawissa Creek Watershed aquatic habitat once it is complete, removing the creek from DEP’s list of impaired waterways.
Gene Starr
News Director
WPPA-AM/WAVT-FM
P.O. Box 540
Pottsville, PA 17901
(W) 570-622-4440
(F) 570-622-2822
gstarr@pbcradio.com
121 Free GIS Mapping Support to AML Impacted Local Governments 2005-08-29 17:07:56
The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation has approved an award of $40,000 in federal funds under the Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program supported by the Office of Surface Mining to the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation to support our public outreach efforts to local governments in the Coal Region of Northeastern PA and to provide FREE GIS Mapping that is focused on abandoned mine land reclamation, watershed restoration, economic redevelopment, and AMD remediation.
The Luzerne Conservation District is providing matching funds in terms of space and housing for the EPCAMR created position of a Municipal GIS Technician for the 1 year grant funded position under the grant. A brand new 44″ wide color plotter was requested under the grant and has been purchased by EPCAMR and will be heavily used during the course of the project for producing professionally colored maps for local governments that will show various layers of land use, abandoned mine land acreage, stream miles impacted by abandoned mine drainage (AMD), watershed boundaries, and other thematic areas of interest to the local municipalities.
Rob Lavelle, a May 2005 graduate from The Pennsylvania State University, with a Bachelor of Science in Geography with a considerable amount of GIS experience, who is originally from Jeannette, PA, a southwestern coalfield community in PA’s Bituminous Region, jumped at the opportunity to get a job a few months after graduating, to gain some real world practical experience in GIS with a leading non-profit organization in the field of abandoned mine reclamation, in EPCAMR, and at one of the most pro-active Conservation District’s in Northeastern PA. His salary will be $22,000 that is allowable under the grant. Rob will be making the transition from the soft coal region to the hard coal region in the coming months and EPCAMR and the LCD are hoping to introduce him to the Wyoming Valley and the surrounding coal field communities over the next year.
20 workshops are going to be conducted over the course of the year that will showcase some of the available data, information, layered themes, and land use data, that will be especially important to appointed officials that are in charge of Planning, Land Development, and Comprehensive Land Use Planning, Regional Planning, and Watershed Restoration, especially the Planning Commissions. EPCAMR will be looking for Host Municipalities that must have a considerable amount of abandoned mine lands and waterways impacted by AMD to allow 2 hour workshops that are currently being developed by EPCAMR. Those municipalities will be given first priority on the production of the FREE GIS Maps. Contact Rob Lavelle, EPCAMR GIS Municipal Outreach Technician for details at 570-674-3409. More details of the scope of work for the project can be found on the EPCAMR Municipal GIS Website.
120 Federal funding in a tug-of-war 2005-08-29 17:02:08
By MIKE FAHER and JOE GORDEN
THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT
It seems like a simple equation: Mining companies across the nation pay a fee for each ton of coal they produce, and that money helps pay for abandoned-mine cleanup.
But a shifting coal industry – along with a strong dose of Washington politics – has thrown the federal Abandoned Mine Land Program into disarray. And that has big implications in this area, where those working to remediate abandoned mines and polluted discharges say they cannot be successful without receiving federal funding many claim Pennsylvania has earned.
“Without the AML fund, we’re not going to be able to get it done. I really don’t think so,” said Tom Grote, who directs Kiski-Conemaugh River Basin Alliance and Kiski-Conemaugh Stream Team.
The fund sprang from mining legislation passed by Congress in 1977. It levies 35 cents on each ton of surface-mined coal and 15 cents per ton for underground mines. But the law also says that 50 percent of fees collected in each state should go back to that state – not necessarily to states that have the biggest abandoned-mine problems.
So while Pennsylvania has nearly a quarter of a million acres of abandoned-mine land, its federal remediation allocations do not even come close to keeping pace because the state’s coal industry has stagnated.
At the same time, Wyoming produces the most coal and gets the most money from the federal fund. But the state has no serious abandoned-mine problems.
For fiscal year 2005, Wyoming received nearly $30 million from the cleanup program, while Pennsylvania got $23.5 million.
Wyoming officials have used millions from the fund to pay for projects unrelated to mine cleanup, while Pennsylvania still needs billions to handle an abandoned-mine problem created before the 1977 law went into effect.
Grote said he understands that Wyoming officials are loathe to abandon the gravy train, especially since their own mining companies pay the most into the AML fund.
The situation has created a rift in Washington.
“The reason this fund exists is to clean up the worst mine lands,” said U.S. Rep. John Peterson.
Peterson has introduced legislation that would allocate the fund’s money to states “based on their number of abandoned mines that present a public health and safety risk.”
The Venango County Republican argues that Wyoming has no special entitlement when it comes to the AML fund.
Much of the coal mined there leaves the state and is mined on federal land, he said.
And he joined others in saying that the coal surcharge feeding the fund actually is passed on to people across the nation.
“You and I, as electricity buyers, pay for it,” Peterson said.
Peterson and Wyoming officials agree on one thing: The AML program’s structure is flawed.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyoming, said her home state still is owed more than $400 million that Congress has failed to appropriate from the abandoned-mine fund. Cubin has introduced a bill that she says will redirect the money toward the most-dangerous mine problems.
But she also decries the fact that contributions from Wyoming companies make up 40 percent of the federal fund, and Cubin has said Peterson’s bill unfairly penalizes her state.
“If cleaning up abandoned mines in a national problem, we ought to have a national solution,” Cubin said in a June statement. “One state shouldn’t be asked to pick up almost half of the check.”
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, has signed onto both the Peterson and Cubin bills because, he says, a compromise is necessary.
To make matters worse, the fund itself – even with its current structural problems – teeters on the edge of existence.
After much debate, Congress has extended the fund until June 30. Cubin has said such a move “just extends a broken program.”
Peterson now hopes to reach some sort of compromise with his colleagues when Congress reconvenes next month.
And he still expects to bring more cleanup cash to Pennsylvania.
“Our bottom line is that we will have measurably more money to spend on cleanup,” Peterson said.
Murtha hopes that will be the case. And he said the fund must receive a long-term renewal.
“That way,” Murtha said, “we can plan.
119 Environmentalists criticize meeting on proposed change to mining rule 2005-08-25 12:43:00
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. , Some environmental activists are concerned that their opposition to changes in a federal mining regulation are not being seriously considered by the U.S. Department of the Interior as it seeks input in a series of public meetings.
An existing federal rule that requires a 100-foot buffer zone around streams in areas where strip mining is conducted should remain in place or be expanded, several attendees said Monday in Knoxville during the first of four meetings planned this week in Eastern coal-mining areas.
The U.S. Office of Surface Mining proposed easing the federal buffer zone rule in January 2004, saying current policy is impossible to comply with during mountaintop removal mining.
The current rule says mining cannot disturb land within 100 feet of a stream unless a company can prove it will not affect the water’s quality and quantity. The proposed change would require coal operators to minimize only “to the extent possible” any damage to streams, fish and wildlife by “using the best technology currently available.”
The meetings seek comment on how officials should conduct the environmental impact statement for the proposed change, according to OSM officials.
But about 50 people who attended the meeting complained about its format, saying that holding informal group discussions was a way of suppressing their opposition to the rule change.
“We understand that there will be no official transcript from this meeting and instead of people having the chance to give public comments, people will be divided into small groups to talk to each other about the stream buffer zone,” Ann League, a board member of Save Our Cumberland Mountains, said in a written statement. “We want to be able to stand up and make comments to (officials), not sit around and chit-chat with each other.”
Federal officials said Monday’s session was not technically a public hearing.
“This is a meeting, it’s not a hearing,” said David Hartos, a physical scientist for the OSM. “We invited folks to come in and tell us what their issues are. … We want to interact. We’re here to improve. We’re not trying to suppress any speech or anything like that.”
But activists weren’t convinced.
Chris Irwin, a University of Tennessee law student and one of the organizers of Mountain Justice Summer, criticized the format as “hopelessly complex, designed to make it harder for people.” Axel Ringe called the meeting format another example of the Bush administration’s dismissal of environmental concerns.
Hartos told attendees that their concerns would be seriously considered. “I can assure you it does not go into a black hole,” he said.
The next three meetings are scheduled for Tuesday in Hazard, Ky., Wednesday in Charleston, W.Va., and Thursday in Pittsburgh.
,,,
Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, www.knoxnews.com
118 FREE SUSQUEHANNA BASIN STREAMSIDE CLEANUP TRAINING ACADEMY WORKSHOPS 2005-08-22 12:14:03
SRBC News Release for August 17, 2005
CONTACT: Mattie Buskirk, SRBC Marketing and Communications Specialist – (717) 238-0423, ext. 224
[b]SRBC Teaches Steps To Organize a Cleanup Event[/b]HARRISBURG, Pa. , The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) today announced that it will conduct several workshops through the Susquehanna River Basin Streamside Cleanup Training Academy. The workshops are part of SRBC’s on-going efforts to help non-profit organizations, municipalities and county conservation districts conduct streamside cleanup projects in the Susquehanna basin. Funding for these workshops is provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and by PPL Corporation.
The workshops will be held from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. on the following dates, and at the following places:
“¢ September 29 , Best Western, 101 East Walnut St., Lock Haven, Pa.
“¢ October 5 , Hometown Hotel, 108 Hellam St., Wrightsville, Pa.
“¢ October 6 , Williamston Inn, Leisure Dr., Towanda, Pa.
Workshop registration materials and additional information are available at http://srbc.net/sc-training.htm. [b]The registration deadline is September 15, 2005[/b].
Workshop participants will receive a free sample kit of materials to use during their cleanup.
“The training academy is an essential component of our overall streamside cleanup program. Not only do we teach groups how to conduct successful cleanup events, they also learn how to sustain the cleanups by working within their communities to prevent reoccurring litter problems,” said Tom Beauduy, SRBC Deputy Director.
“The hallmark of the Susquehanna basin streamside cleanup program is the public-private partnership that funds and supports the overall initiative. The generous donations from DCNR and PPL Corporation, along with funds from the Department of Environmental Protection, are central to the ongoing partnership effort that is helping local communities to appreciate the importance of keeping our waterways clean.”
In order to provide guidelines for organizing a successful streamside cleanup event, the workshops will focus on several key issues including:
“¢ How to raise funds and obtain donated services for a cleanup
“¢ How to recruit volunteers and plan for their safety
“¢ How to dispose of and recycle items collected during a cleanup
“¢ How to highlight the education and community outreach benefits of the cleanup, to potential participants
“¢ How to monitor the cleanup sites and dissuade future dumping there
Susan Auman of the Buffalo Creek Watershed Alliance, Linn Conservancy, said of her past experience at a workshop: “The information presented in the SRBC workshop was extremely valuable. Why re-create the wheel when you have the chance to learn from people with extensive experience in Streamside Cleanups?”
“The workshop had a lot of useful information,” said Michelle Kirk, Program Administrator, Watershed Alliance of Adams County. “I was surprised at how much I learned. I thought a cleanup meant going out and picking up trash, but there are a lot of little things that you don’t think about that the workshops include. Definitely a worthwhile program!”
SRBC and the PPL Corporation (PPL) first partnered in streamside cleanup efforts in 1999, and their efforts were enhanced to include funding and training sessions for local cleanup events. This program is called the Susquehanna River Basin Cleanup Training Academy and Assistance Program. The Pennsylvania Departments of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and Environmental Protection (DEP) and Buchart Horn, Inc. have joined the partnership.
Source:
SUSQUEHANNA RIVER BASIN COMMISSION
1721 North Front Street, Harrisburg, PA 17102-2391
117 Schuylkill to get money to protect waterways 2005-08-08 16:25:09
Schuylkill will receive nearly $55-thousand dollars in grant money for maintenance to unpaved roads where pollution from erosion, sedimentation and dust impacts local waterways.
The grant is part of $3.5-million dollars in funding the State Conservation Commission is awarding through the Dirt and Gravel Road Program. The program implements environmentally friendly maintenance to dirt and gravel roads which have been identified as sources of dust and sediment pollution.
More than 17-thousand miles of public unpaved roads have been inspected and more than 1,200 worksites totaling 600 miles have been completed since the program began.
Source:
Gene Starr
News Director
WPPA-AM/WAVT-FM
P.O. Box 540
Pottsville, PA 17901
(W) 570-622-4440
(F) 570-622-2822
gstarr@pbcradio.com
116 Abandoned Mines Can Be Reclaimed at No Cost to Taxpayers 2005-08-08 16:05:25
Pennsylvania has over 5,000 abandoned mine sites encompassing more than 189,000 acres, many of them leaching acid runoff into the streams and rivers of the Commonwealth. The estimated cost of cleanup of these sites is $15 billion. By reusing the heaps of refuse coal that litter Pennsylvania’s landscape, Penn State researchers may have provided a low-cost solution for two pressing environmental problems.
A new book published by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection highlighting the results of twenty years of research by scientists at Penn State’s Materials Research Institute, proves the beneficial uses of fly ash produced in Pennsylvania’s cogeneration power plants for controlling acid drainage, and for backfilling abandoned and working coal mines, water-filled mines and rock pits.
In places such as the anthracite coal mining region of Eastern Pennsylvania, homes are threatened by collapsing underground mines, while underground coal fires have burned in parts of the state for decades. In addition, water-filled surface pits are dangerous attractions to rock climbers and swimmers, resulting in frequent injuries and death. Remediation efforts to reclaim these mine sites and end the threat of acid runoff, dangerous collapses and rock pit accidents have been slow and costly.
Coal Ash Beneficial Use in Mine Reclamation and Mine Drainage Remediation in Pennsylvania is a joint project of the PA DEP and Penn State Materials Research Institute. Dr. Barry E. Scheetz, Dr. William B. White, and Dr. Caroline M. Loop, a former Penn State graduate student now a consultant in Greenville, North Carolina, are the researchers whose work forms the core of the book, along with contributions by DEP staff and engineers on other beneficial uses of coal ash. The book aims to provide peer-reviewed research results for the scientific community, government agencies, environmental groups, and the general public.
Currently more than 50 percent of electric power in the state of Pennsylvania is generated in coal-fired power plants. Traditionally, the coal ash was deposited in huge landfills and slurries near the power plants, leaching highly corrosive acids into the surrounding land and water. But in recent decades coal ash has been put to use to fill and reclaim abandoned mines, a practice that has raised considerable controversy over alleged contamination of the water table. The Penn State researchers and DEP monitors conclude that the use of fly ash in mine remediation is not hazardous when applied correctly. A committee of the Pennsylvania legislature noted that 3,400 acres of abandoned mine land has already been reclaimed at no cost to taxpayers, and 88 million tons of acid bearing coal refuse and countless culm piles have been removed from the Pennsylvania landscape through the use of coal ash.
In Pennsylvania cities such as Pottsville, where underground mining generations ago has left active cropfalls – collapsing vertical pits that can drop off hundreds of feet – within sight of residential streets, the use of a stabilizing concrete material made of fly ash may be the only affordable way to halt the dangerous collapses. In Clearfield County, waste piles of acid leaching rock, capped by a hardened layer of fly ash and waste lime, effectively cut off the drainage of contaminated water into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. This new book’s timely information will be widely used to help Pennsylvania and the rest of the nation solve two pressing environmental problems.
The book is available in CD format by contacting:
Barry Scheetz
107 Materials Research Laboratory Bldg.
University Park, PA 16802
e-mail se6@psu.edu
Print copies are available through:
State Book Store
400 North Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120
The book is also available online through the EPA website at www.dep.state.pa.us
[color=black] [/color]
115 New poll: “Local History in Schools?” 2005-08-08 10:45:34
Does this need to be initiated in Eastern Pennsylvania?
Taken from Pittsburgh Live – Richard Robbins: ‘ Teaching local history in Westmoreland County schools was the No. 1 priority of a small gathering of historical preservationists who met this summer under the auspices of the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh.
The nonprofit Young Preservationists also held workshops at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg in eight other western Pennsylvania counties, including Indiana County and Washington County. The concluding workshop will be held in Braddock Sept. 20.
The results of the meetings will be posted on the organization’s Web site, www.youngpreservationists.org
Dan Holland, of Pittsburgh, the moderator for the Westmoreland County brainstorming session, said decisions about what to preserve in a community and what to let go should be made with the best possible information in hand.
“There is a lot of misinformation” about historic preservation, Holland said. Heading the list was the idea that communities have little say-so when it comes to locating new developments.
Holland acknowledged the tension between development on one hand and preservation on the other, and the challenge posed by the region’s many municipal governments.
There are some 500 units of government in the Pittsburgh region. This number tends to discourage regional planning and cooperation, and it has potential negative consequences for traditional downtowns, Holland said.
Thomas W. Headley, executive director of Westmoreland Heritage, said during the brainstorming session that “something” needs to be done to help Jeannette, once a national leader in glass-making. Preserving a portion of the county’s remaining beehive coke ovens also should be a priority, Headley said.
Alex J. Graziani, of Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County, said the county’s preservation record has been mixed. He insisted, however, that county leaders “now get it.”
“I think the county really knows the economic opportunities associated with historical preservation,” Graziani said.’
EPCAMR Staff would like your opinion, or if you know of any way that your local school district is teaching 0 871 22 admin 1 english 1 0 0 0 0 0
Edit Edit Edit Inline Edit Copy Copy Delete Delete 113 Clean Coal-to-Oil plant gets over last hurdle 2005-08-05 15:12:57 The final piece is now in place for a Schuylkill County company to begin construction of the nation’s first clean coal-to-liquid fuel plant.
U.S. Senators Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter have announced that the United States Senate has approved language in the Energy bill that authorizes financing for the $612 million dollar plant developed by WMPI Proprietary LLC, a coal and energy company based in Schuylkill County.
This language allows a portion of funds already appropriated to the Department of Energy and awarded to WMPI, through a Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) competitive grant to be used to fund a federal loan guarantee for WMPI’s coal-to-diesel project.
WPPA/T-102 News spoke with John Rich, President of WMPI, who said that the funding for the project is complete and ready to move forward. Rich estimates that it will take approximately 30 months to construct the facility that will turn waste coal into high quality-zero sulphur diesel fuel. The company projects that 1,600 jobs will be created at the Schuylkill County plant alone.
Rich recognized Senators Santorum and Specter, and state Representative Bob Allen, for their invaluable support in moving the project forward.
The project is the first of its kind in the United States, and has the potential to dramatically reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil.
Source:
Gene Starr
News Director
WPPA-AM/WAVT-FM
P.O. Box 540
Pottsville, PA 17901
(W) 570-622-4440
(F) 570-622-2822
gstarr@pbcradio.com
112 A New Publication Available from Trout Unlimited on AML 2005-08-05 14:42:25
[i]”Restoring the Wealth of the Mountains: Cleaning up Appalachia’s Abandoned Mines”[/i] This report is not intended to recount or bemoan the woes of the coalï¬elds, but rather to examine closely one of the region’s foremost problems while trying to ï¬x it. Within it’s 28 pages are several full color photos, historical elements, treatment technologies, successful case studies and legislative recommendations Download the Report here
111 Abandoned Mine Land Program is being debated on Capitol Hill 2005-08-05 14:20:25
[i]Do you know that the Abandoned Mine Land Program is being debated on Capitol Hill?[/i] This is key to cleaning up your stream and community. [u]Be a part of the solution![/u]The Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable needs your support immediately. This is your chance to meet face-to-face with Members of Congress who make key decisions about your hometown rivers and watersheds.
The ECRR is bringing member groups to Washington D.C. to participate in the [b]River Lobby Day on September 12-13[/b]. We need you to attend, your voice is important on the Abandoned Mine Land Fund issue to both other watershed groups and your congressional representatives. This two day session will involve training workshops and time to meet with your congressional representatives.
Date: September 12-13, 2005
Where: Washington D.C.
Time: September 12th
9-12am: Abandoned Mine Land Message Training
12-5pm: Workshops
September 13th
9am-?: Meeting with Representatives
Workshops consist of the following topics: (1)Communicating with Legislators, (2) Words that work with the public, and (3) Taking river conservation to Congress
There is an excellent opportunity to meet the ECRR and other watershed groups across the Eastern Coal Region, while learning how to educate your congressional representatives on the Abandoned Mine Land Program.
[b]Please do not let this issue slide; we need to spread the importance with your help![/b]You are urged to attend. We need to know by August 15, 2005 if you would like to attend. We are looking into possible scholarships. Please contact Meredith Ballard at 304-345-7663 or info@easterncoal.org ASAP. More details are available once you contact the Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable.
Those of you a far distance away, we are working on travel stipends. We are particularly interested in people from Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, & Ohio. But everyone is welcome!
Source: Eastern Coal Region Round Table
110 Luzerne County about to get a little Greener 2005-08-01 14:13:59
By BRETT MARCY bmarcy@leader.net
HARRISBURG , Luzerne County is set to receive $1.75 million in new state money to use at its own discretion for top-priority projects that protect or clean up the environment.
Only Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the Philadelphia suburbs will get larger chunks of $90 million set aside for counties by last week’s passage of Gov. Ed Rendell’s Growing Greener II initiative that allows the state to borrow up to $625 million for environmental programs.
“This gives the counties a little bit more control,” said Chuck Ardo, a Rendell spokesman. “The counties will submit projects that are high on their list of priorities that could or should be funded through Growing Greener II.”
In essence, it’s a way for counties to sidestep the lengthy grant application process required for most Growing Greener projects. As long as the project meets the funding requirements, it should be approved for funding from the county’s allocation of $1.75 million , or about $290,000 over the six years of the initiative.
The county has not submitted its priorities list to the state, but Commissioner Todd Vonderheid said there are plenty of projects that could benefit from the extra cash. He said the commissioners would work with the county’s state lawmakers to firm up a list of priorities.
“The state has thrown us $600 million. If we don’t get our fair share, it’s our fault,” Vonderheid said. “They’ve given us the tools. Now we’ve got to use them.”
One way to ensure Luzerne County gets its “fair share” would be to use a portion of the state money to create a new position in the county administration, he said. The new county administrator would be charged with overseeing the county’s environmental and recreational resources, and applying for state grants to improve them.
Some of the Growing Greener money could be used for projects that are already partially funded, or are in line for state aid, officials said. Also, the new influx of money could help pay for the cleanup of additional mine-scarred sites that haven’t yet been targeted for state funding.
“Mine reclamation is important for more than just aesthetic reasons,” Vonderheid said. “There are the environmental issues with abandoned mines and there are the safety issues.”
More than one-third of Growing Greener II’s funding, $230 million, will go to the Department of Environmental Protection for projects near and dear to the hearts of the region’s residents , abandoned mine cleanup, acid-mine drainage cleanup and sewerage outflow problems.
Any one of those problems would cost more than $1 billion to resolve, said state Sen. Raphael Musto, D-Pittston Township.
“In Northeastern Pennsylvania, we’re living with the problems that were created years ago,” said Musto, minority chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
“I would like to see more … I tried to get Gov. Rendell’s full $800 million he proposed, but it just couldn’t be there. I’m satisfied with what we got.”
Once voters approved the borrowing of the money, lawmakers began haggling on how to spend it. While Northeastern Pennsylvania’s delegation lobbied hard for the abandoned mine cleanup and related issues, lawmakers in the sprawling Philadelphia suburbs pushed for open space preservation money.
“My argument to my colleagues in the urban areas is that my county cannot compete economically if we don’t clean up these environmental issues,” said state Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke. “It really is a lifeline. This comes down to economic survival.”
In the end, both sides claimed victory. While the Northeast should benefit greatly from the $230 million allotment to DEP, the Philadelphia suburbs will receive help through the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which will get $217.5 million to spend on improvements to state parks, forests and open space preservation.
Other statewide benefits include $80 million to the Department of Agriculture for farmland preservation and $50 million to the Department of Community and Economic Development for downtown revitalization projects.
Northeastern Pennsylvania’s needs may be far more than Growing Greener II can address, but it’s a start, Vonderheid said.
“It’s a drop in the bucket, but it’s a drop in the right direction,” he said.
——————————————————————————–
As part of the $625 million Growing Greener II environmental program, $217.5 million will be funneled to local and state parks to pay for maintenance needs and improvements. Here’s a look at some of the projects planned for state parks in Northeast Pennsylvania:
Ricketts Glen State Park , This park encompasses more than 13,000 acres with a lake and 22 named waterfalls. The park needs water and sewer upgrades at a cost of $5.1 million.
Frances Slocum State Park , Located in the Back Mountain, this park also includes a 165-acre lake and a large public pool. The park needs upgrades to the lake’s dam and boat launch ramps, improvements to the shoreline, campsite drainage and leveling, and repairs to the sewage treatment plant. Estimated cost is $1.6 million.
Nescopeck State Park , One of the newest state parks, it includes 3,000 acres and is primarily used for environmental education. The park needs work, including the removal of invasive plants, restoring native species of plants and additional resources for managing rare plant species in the park. Total cost is estimated at $170,000.
Archbald Pothole State Park , A 150-acre park, it is named for a 38-foot pothole that formed during the Wisconsin Glacial Period, around 15,000 years ago. The park needs repairs to its trail at an estimated cost of $8,000.
Lackawanna State Park , This 1,411-acre park features the 198-acre Lackawanna Lake as its centerpiece. Repairs to the campground and daytime use areas are needed, as well as lake dredging and pool improvements at a total cost of $3 million.
Tobyhanna State Park , This park needs dramatic improvements to its daytime use areas and restroom facilities, which are more than 50 years old. Total cost is $2.4 million.
Hickory Run State Park , This 15,700-acre park was once run by the National Park Service as a recreation demonstration area. Most of its facilities were built in 1938 and 1939 and need substantial repairs at a cost of $6.6 million.
Lehigh Gorge State Park , A popular tourist destination for people looking to many outdoors activities year-round, this park was never fully developed. Improvements would cost an estimated $7.9 million.
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
109 Site of worst anthracite mine disaster all but forgotten till now 2005-08-01 13:34:06
Saturday, July 16, 2005
By Michael Rubinkam, The Associated Press
PLYMOUTH, Pa. — The nation’s worst anthracite mining disaster is commemorated by a historical marker, a long-forgotten folk ballad and not much else.
Motorists zooming down a busy roadway near Wilkes-Barre have little idea they are passing by ruins where a fire in 1869 killed 110 men and boys, most of them Welsh immigrants — an event that led to passage of the first mine safety law in coal-rich Pennsylvania.
Preservationists have started a campaign to increase public awareness of the former Avondale mine. They’d like to see a garden, interpretive signage and a self-guided walking tour at the site.
Meanwhile, two historians are working on a book that will argue the fire was not accidental — the finding of the official coroner’s inquest into the disaster — but was deliberately set by radical unionists bent on punishing the strike-breaking Avondale miners.
The blaze consumed the wooden coal breaker built atop the mine shaft, along with every other building in the mine workings. Trapped underground with no other escape route, the miners asphyxiated. Two rescuers also were killed.
More than 135 years later, relics and ruins abound at the site, which is nestled on a steep slope between an abandoned railroad bed and U.S. Route 11: a stone wall, massive timbers with circa-1800s iron nuts, bolts and washers, thick cables that lowered men into the mine and hoisted out coal.
Until last year, the site had been completely obscured by trees and scrub. Workers have since cleared the brush, allowing ATV riders, joggers and bicyclers who use the railroad bed to see the ruins for the first time. A memorial service held last September drew well over 100 people, including victims’ descendants, in what organizers said would be an annual ritual.
And Thursday night, activists formed the Avondale Preservation Society, which plans to apply for nonprofit status, raise grant money and acquire the property, said co-chairman Joe Keating, who began researching the Avondale disaster 10 years ago. The land is currently owned by the Earth Conservancy, a nonprofit group that reclaims old mine lands.
“It’s our roots. We don’t have to live in the past but we should talk about our history,” said Robert Hughes, regional coordinator of the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, who is involved in the Avondale effort.
Other U.S. mine disasters have killed hundreds of workers, but Avondale was the worst to hit a mine for anthracite — a hard coal found only in eastern Pennsylvania.
The Sept. 6, 1869, fire prompted the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass laws that required mines to have more than one opening; governed ventilation; and forbade breakers from being placed atop mine shafts.
History records that a spark from a ventilating furnace at the bottom of the shaft set fire to the wooden planks lining the shaft. The flames traveled more than 200 feet to the surface and engulfed the breaker, a structure that broke and sorted coal by size.
Promoting a more sinister alternative are Robert Wolensky, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and Keating, co-authors of a forthcoming book on the disaster. Both believe the fire was arson.
Although there is no physical evidence to prove sabotage, they say there is a strong circumstantial case that militant unionists were behind the blaze.
The Avondale mine had just reopened after a three-month strike; miners from the Hyde Park section of Scranton, 30 miles to the north, had voted to go back to work over the objections of their counterparts in the Wilkes-Barre and Pottsville areas, who wanted the mine shut down until owners met their demands.
A mining engineer for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which operated the Avondale mine, testified at the coroner’s inquest that he thought the fire was deliberately set. Miners also expressed doubt that a spark could have traveled so far. Newspapers in New York and Philadelphia reported the fire was “incendiary” in nature, Wolensky said.
“It was a terroristic act,” said Wolensky, who grew up in nearby Swoyersville and attended Thursday night’s meeting. “Whether they knew they were going to asphyxiate everybody, I don’t know.”
108 Only 71 days until expiration of the Abandoned Mine Land Fund 2005-08-01 09:36:38
Please inform your members! For an update to the most recent news on the “Road to Reauthorization” please visit ECCR Reauthorization News Site
107 Pennsylvania Wins the 2005 Canon Envirothon 2005-08-01 09:31:18
With an overall score of 578.50 out of a possible 700 points, Pennsylvania won the 2005 Canon National Envirothon! A five member team from Penncrest High School, located in Media, Delaware County, represented Pennsylvania at the 18th annual Canon Envirothon. The Penncrest team also received high station score awards for the following stations: Soils/Land Use with a score of 81; Wildlife with a score of 98.5; Forestry with a score of 85; and Aquatic Ecology with a score of 91 and tying with Texas. In addition they had the highest score in the Oral Presentation with 186.67 out of a possible 200 points. California received the high score at the current issue station with a score of 81, one point above the Pennsylvania team. The stations are based on a possible 100 points. Pennsylvania has won 10 of 18 past Canon National Envirothon.
Each of the team members received a $5,000 Canon Envirothon scholarship, medallions, and plaques. The advisors received a Canon DV camcorder.
Teams that placed in the top 10 include:
First – Pennsylvania – 578.50
Second – Virginia – 542.10
Third – Delaware – 536.40
Fourth – Texas – 518.20
Fifth – Wisconsin – 503.60
Sixth – New Jersey – 536.17
Seventh – Ohio – 529.17
Eighth – Connecticut – 524.50
Ninth – New York – 519.50
Tenth – Minnesota – 518.83
If you would like more information, please visit the Canon Envirothon web site at www.envirothon.org. For photos and a complete listing of all awards visit www.envirothon.org/media/photoalbum/winners_05.htm.
[u][b]Congratulations Pennsylvania Envirothon Team![/b][/u] Source:Lorelle Steach, Program Coordinator
Pennsylvania Envirothon, Inc.
702 West Pitt Street, Suite 3
Bedford, PA 15522
Phone: 814/623-7900 ext. 111
Fax: 814-623-0481
106 New On-line Watershed Discussion Board 2005-08-01 09:30:34
EPA’s Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watershed launched a new on-line Watershed Discussion Board. This forum offers watershed practitioners a platform to exchange ideas, so that innovative solutions and ideas can be easily shared in (near) real-time cyberspace. EPA hopes to engage people from around the country in these interactive, on-line discussions. The Forum currently includes the following six categories:
Community Involvement
Smart Growth/Low Impact Development
Source Water Protection
Stormwater Best Management Practices
Sustainable Financing
Watershed Planning Tools
Please visit the Watershed Forum Webpage and join in! Share your expertise so that others can learn from your experiences. Anyone can view the discussion, but one must register to post messages and receive customized updates.
Source:
Amy C. Handen
Watershed Coordinator
National Park Service
Chesapeake Bay Program Office
410 Severn Avenue, Suite 109
Annapolis, Maryland 21403
Phone: 410-267-5786
Fax: 410-267-5777
105 Work to Treat Mine Tunnel Water Proceeds 2005-07-14 10:27:03
Source: MARK KATCHUR – The Standard-Speaker
USA – Three underground tanks – part of a system that will treat polluted water rushing out of the Audenreid mine tunnel – could be set in place this week. About 1,000 feet of piping must still be laid to connect the mouth of the tunnel to the tanks, which will help remove aluminum from the highly acidic water.
The treatment system will catch the water before it flows into Catawissa Creek, where the aluminum now makes 36 of 41 miles unsuitable for fish, the flies they eat and other aquatic life.
One member of the Catawissa Creek Restoration Association is pushing for the project’s engineer and contractor to meet a December deadline to complete work on the system.
Jim Gotta has monitored progress since construction began in April. A member of the association’s oversight committee, he visits the area – about two-and-a-half miles east of Sheppton – three times a week, then reports back to other association members.
Gotta even put together a papier-mache model of the treatment system, which he carried in the back of his van on a trip to the tunnel last week. He uses it to show others how the process will work.
“We’re proud of what we’re doing,” Gotta said.
The association is one of a half-dozen groups that have joined together to clean the 8,500 gallons of water that, every minute, flows from the Audenreid mine tunnel, which accounts for about 85 percent of Catawissa Creek’s pollutants.
One of the partners, the Schuylkill County Conservation District, solicited bids on a contract to build the treatment system earlier this year.
However, the lowest bid, submitted by contractor James T. O’Hara of Moscow, was $2.2 million, about $1 million higher than what the Catawissa Creek Restoration Association had expected.
“Luckily, we were able to locate funds to cover the rest of the cost,” Gotta said.
The contract stipulates that work must be completed by December.
“If it’s not done by then, it’s not the end-all,” Gotta said. “I think it can happen (by December), but the work activity has to increase to make it happen.”
Much excavation work is yet to be done, Gotta said. Because the system is gravity-fed, the tanks must be at least 4 feet below the level of the tunnel.
But last week, some areas in front of the tunnel where the pipes will be laid were still considerably higher than the mouth, as much as 20 feet in spots, Gotta estimated. Crews must place a basin at the mouth to collect water and divert it into three pipes leading to the tanks.
About 1,000 feet away, base rock set in circles showed where the three tanks – each 120 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep – will be built.
Concrete could be poured this week, weather permitting. Heavy rains halted work at the site Thursday and Friday, and Gotta is worried more storms could cause further delays.
The pipes from the tunnel leading to the tanks will actually cross underneath Catawissa Creek, as well as a gas pipeline.
When ready, the tanks will contain baseball-sized limestone, which will separate aluminum from the water and increase its pH level to around 7, or neutral, over a two-hour period. A stream’s pH must be around 5.5 for brook trout to survive.
When water reaches the top of the tanks, a drain valve will trigger, releasing the water into a settling pond where aluminum will drop out, before it is redirected to Catawissa Creek.
The treatment system is passive, meaning that little or no human involvement will be necessary.
“The project’s going to get done – there’s no question about that – and the system will work,” Gotta said.
Bloomsburg University scientists plan to visit the site before and after the tunnel discharge is treated, to see how wildlife is affected.
Trout swim and feed in a mountain stream near the Audenreid mine tunnel until it meets the Catawissa Creek.
The tunnel runs three miles through the mountainside that straddles the Luzerne/Schuylkill County border.
It was constructed 85 years ago to lower the groundwater level of the Jeanesville mine basin, which lies between McAdoo and Hazleton.
Workers from the state Department of Environmental Protection collapsed the mouth several years ago for safety reasons, but water still finds its way through.
It seemingly appears from nowhere in a swirling pool near where the tunnel opening once was. Just feet from the discharge, however, it rushes forcefully downhill across rocks in the bed it carved out. Last week, following heavy rains, the flow was especially heavy.
The tunnel and soon-to-be nearby treatment system is on land owned by Butler Enterprises and leased to Paragon Adventure Park, a 4,000-acre facility for all-terrain vehicles.
A road leading to the site from near Route 924 passes through Blue Nob Rod and Gun Club property.
Along that road is the Green Mountain mine tunnel, which along with the Oneida #3 tunnel in Eagle Rock, releases water into Catawissa Creek and contributes to its pollution. The Catawissa Creek Restoration Association is seeking funds to treat water from the minor discharges.
A few years back, Gotta helped oversee construction of a $250,000 system that treats polluted water from the Oneida #1 mine tunnel, also in the Eagle Rock development where he lives.
The system worked fine until the remnants of Hurricane Ivan in the fall of 2003 wiped out an earthen dam built to redirect water from the tunnel.
For the Audenreid mine tunnel work, the association and its partners had secured $1.4 million through the state’s Growing Greener program and the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water initiative.
Rettew Associates is the engineer on the project. Also involved is the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, which is responsible for implementing a plan for the 152-square-mile Catawissa Creek Watershed.
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and Susquehanna River Basin Commission will help monitor water quality and assist with educational and outreach activities.
Catawissa Creek begins at the southernmost tip of Luzerne County and flows for five miles before it reaches the Audenreid mine tunnel.
It then continues on for 36 miles through northern Schuylkill County and Columbia County before emptying into the Susquehanna River.
104 Registration deadline approaching for the Abandoned Mine Drainage Treatment Conf 2005-07-12 17:44:56
Registration deadlines are fast approaching for the [b]Abandoned Mine Drainage Treatment Conference[/b] being held in Pittsburgh[b], August 16, 17, & 18[/b] with a free (to registered participants) workshop on passive treatment design on the 15th.
The conference will have a decidedly technical format with experts from across the country giving two days of presentations on active and passive mine water treatment technologies and a day of presentations on resource recovery. The event promises to provide something for everyone and is geared toward those with a technical understanding of the subject material. More information including the technical agenda is available at http://www.treatminewater.com/. You can also register for the conference online and book your room reservation with the Sheraton Station Square.
Putting on the [i]”˜best ever’ [/i]Conference on Mine Water Treatment has been a collaborative effort among several organizations and agencies that are all passionate about cleaning up our waterways from AMD. This conference will advance everyone’s working knowledge on the current technology of mine drainage treatment and resource recovery.
Registration has been heavy and participation is limited, especially for the Passive Treatment Workshop. If you intend to register, [u]please don’t procrastinate.[/u] [b]Deadline for reduced registration fee is July 25th.[/b] [b]Sheraton Station Square Hotel reservations at the conference room rate is guaranteed only through July 15th. [/b] All registrations can be made via the website.
103 $625 Million PA Environmental Initiative Passed: Summary 2005-07-12 17:19:55
Amendment A to House Bill 3 Amends Title 27 Pa.C.S. (Environmental Resources) to implement $625 million environmental borrowing approved by voters at May 2005 primary election.
[b]Borrowing Authorized [/b]Authorizes the Commonwealth to borrow up to $625 million over six years. Funds borrowed shall be deposited into the Growing Greener Bond Fund.Governor shall submit annual allocation plan for bond proceeds as part of annual budget.
[b]Allocation of Bond Proceeds [/b]$230 million to Department of Environmental Protection for watershed protection, acid mine drainage remediation and mine cleanup, oil and gas well plugging, advanced energy projects, flood protection, geological hazard mitigation and brownfields remediation.
At least $60 million for acid mine drainage abatement and mine cleanup.Up to $10 million annually to PA Energy Development Authority for advanced energy projects.Up to $5 million annually to DCED for brownfields remediation.$217.5 million to Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for improvements to State park and State forests, community park and recreation grants and open space preservation. (Requires county approval prior to acquisition of additional State park or State forest land, except interior lands of existing State park or State forest lands.)At least $100 million for improvements to State park and State forests.$90 million for open space conservation.$80 million to Department of Agriculture for farmland preservation.$50 million to Department of Community and Economic Development for Main Street and downtown redevelopment related to smart growth.$27.5 million to Fish and Boat Commission for capital improvements to existing lands and facilities. PFBC shall annually submit report detailing the projects to be funded to respective Senate and House of Representatives Game and Fisheries Committee.$20 million to Game Commission for capital improvements to existing lands and facilities. PGC shall annually submit report detailing the projects to be funded to respective Senate and House of Representatives Game and Fisheries Committee. PGC may not utilize funds received for additional land purchases.[b]County Environmental Initiatives [/b]
$90 million from the amounts allocated to various agencies shall be available for projects designated by counties.Each county shall be provided with annual funding amount according to its class as determined by the Secretary of the Budget.Counties shall consult with county conservation district to designate projects eligible to be funded under DEP, DCNR, PDA and DCED allocations.Designated projects shall be reviewed by applicable state agency to ensure compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and procedures.Applicable state agency shall consider a county’s recurring environmental and conservation funding levels to ensure project supplements existing efforts.Within first six fiscal years of effective date of act, each county shall receive the following amounts:First, Second and Second-A Class – $2.7 millionThird Class – $1.75 millionFourth and Fifth Class – $1.39 millionSixth, Seventh and Eighth Class – $1 millionIf county fails to designate projects in amounts equal to annual funding allocation, remaining funds shall be allocated to other eligible projects.[b]Environmental Stewardship Fund [/b]
Requires utilization of up to $60 million annually for debt and principal payments.Up to $20 million in FY ’05-’06 and $30 million in FY ’06-’07 to HSCA.Up to $10 million annually for historic preservation tax credit/grant program ( requires enabling legislation ).Up to $2.5 million annually to reimburse General Fund for sales tax holiday for energy efficient appliances ( requires enabling legislation ).Adds “council of governments” as eligible entity to receive moneys from ESF.Authorizes DEP to utilize ESF moneys to develop state water plan (Act 220) as well as addressing regional priorities in major watersheds and compliance with Chesapeake Bay agreements.Raises administrative expense limitation for DEP, DCNR and PENNVEST from 2% to 2.5% and for grant recipients from 2% to 5%.Clarifies that $4/ton disposal fee applies to municipalities or municipal authorities that operate disposal facilities. Retroactive to July 9, 2002.May receive an annual transfer from the Alternative Fuels Incentive Fund as determined by the Secretary of the Budget. Such amount shall ensure sufficient funds are retained to properly implement the Alternative Fuels Incentive Act.Sunset on $4/ton disposal fee repealed ( sunsets June 30, 2012 ).[b]Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund (HSCA[/b])
Up to $20 million in FY ’05-’06 and $30 million in FY ’06-’07 to HSCA.[b]Reporting [/b]
Requires each state department and agency receiving funds to publish at least annually a report of all projects funded by that department or agency. Such report shall also be made available on the department or agency’s publicly accessible world wide website.Requires each county designating projects under county environmental initiative program to publish at least annually a report of all projects. Such report shall also be made available on the county’s publicly accessible world wide website.[b]Repeals[/b]
27 Pa.C.S. §6304 ( Sunset on $4/ton disposal fee ).27 Pa.C.S. §6110 ( Related to environmental infrastructure grants ).Act 2 of 1971 §602.3(a.1) ( HSCA trigger ).Source: Jan Jarrett, PennFuture, 717-214-7927
102 Only 84 days until September 30, 2005 AMRF expiration date! 2005-07-07 12:56:18
Pennsylvania is being largely left out on a rare opportunity to both protect and restore the environment and create badly needed jobs in the state’s coal-mining counties. It will take action by Congress and the President to change that, say members of a statewide alliance of environmental groups, watershed associations, conservancies, and conservation districts that have joined a nation-wide campaign to speed up efforts to reclaim old abandoned mines and thousands of miles of streams impacted by abandoned mine drainage, more commonly known as AMD.
“Funding for AMR”. Read more about the problem and watch videos online.
The Surface Mining Law (Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977) provides for the restoration of lands mined and abandoned or left inadequately restored before August 3, 1977. Production fees of 35 cents per ton of surface mined coal, 15 cents per ton of coal mined underground and 10 cents per ton of lignite are collected from coal producers at all active coal mining operations. The fees are deposited in the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund, which is used to pay the reclamation costs of abandoned mine land projects. The fund consists of fees, contributions, late payment interest, penalties, administrative charges, and interest earned on investment of the fund’s principal. From January 30, 1978, when the first fees were paid, through June 30, 2004, the fund has collected $7,013,239,421 and fund appropriations totaled $5,493,809,291.
- SMCRA is up for Reauthorization
- Reclamation efforts in the coalfields across the country depend on this tax on coal. This tax on coal mining corporations is justified because for decades they paid nothing back to the communities and lands that they scarred. Mining operations only last for so many years, but the hazardous effect it has on the land and water continue for decades afterwards, causing health and safety issues for those who live near former mines. Millions of Americans live less than a mile from a dangerous mine site. There are 3.2 billion dollars worth of high-priority abandoned mines left to be cleaned-up and only 1.6 billion dollars left in the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) fund. Please show your support by writing a letter to inform your legislator of the importance to continue this funding. Here is a Sample Letter to Educate your Legislator and the Contact Information for Eastern Coal Region US House of Representatives & US State Senators
101 GOVERNOR RENDELL ANNOUNCES BUDGET AGREEMENT 2005-07-06 12:33:50
By Nate Collins
Shortly after 10:00 p.m. Monday night, Governor Ed Rendell held a press conference to announce an agreement has been reached on the budget.
He explained this budget was possible thanks to a surging economy, allowing revenue estimates to be adjusted because of a larger than expected surplus.
He noted that most of the Medicaid cuts have been restored, caps will be lifted off all prescription drugs, caps will be lifted for hospital access for women and children and there will be no increases in co-pays.
The Legislature was cooperative and helping achieve these goals, Governor Rendell stated.
He further offered that investments in education and workforce development were “significantly increased.” Head Start will receive additional funding and for the first time, Pennsylvania will have foundation funding.
The Governor commented that he also expects approval for Growing Greener II and the cap on the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to be lifted. Lifting this cap, he said, will increase economic development and create more construction jobs.
The Governor then offered that he expects the budget to be adopted Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. He added that all parties compromised to make this budget a reality.
When asked if the legislator pay raise was included in the budget, Governor Rendell said no, adding that he has not seen a pay raise bill yet. We couldn’t do a pay raise with serious cuts to the Medicaid in this budget, he added.
With Medicaid cuts coming from the federal government, he said, the Medicaid funding will be an ongoing problem. He noted that Pennsylvania lost $337 million in federal funds this year and may lose up to $500 million next year.
Governor Rendell offered that he will meet with providers and advocates about future cuts because we will face funding issues for years to come.
Additional specific expenditures the Governor noted include a 10% increase for community colleges and the expansion of adultBasic (which he said was possible because of the settlement with the Blues).
Funding for the State Police is included in the budget, he said, adding that he will assess the need for more troopers, which may include a SWAT team to help Philadelphia address gun violence.
Governor Rendell concluded by explaining that a cut to the corporate net income tax and removal of the net operating loss cap are not included in the budget, but it does include a continuing phase out of the corporate stock and franchise tax.
100 Interested in Preserving the Avondale Mine Disaster Site? 2005-07-06 12:28:04 Join some of Northeastern PA’s most ardent volunteer supporters of
historical preservation, mine reclamation, oral and cultural history
recollections, and knowledge on Anthracite Mining Region History on
DATE:
JULY 14, 2005
PLACE:
Plymouth Township Municipal Building
925 W. Main St., Plymouth, PA (Off Prospect St.)
TIME:
5:00 PM – Pre-Tour the site with Joe Keating and Other Members of the Anthracite Living History Group
6:00- 9:00 PM – A Gathering of Friends and Volunteers Who Are Committed and Need Your Support for the future Preservation of the Avondale Mine Disaster Site
See the Flyer for More Details and the Agenda
99 Live News from EPCAMR on your Desktop 2005-07-05 18:47:03
EPCAMR is proud to announce a new web service…EPCAMR NewsFlash via RSS. This previously under-utilized service has been gaining more popularity and can be a very useful tool to keep you updated in the day-to-day happenings of the EPCAMR and AMD/AML Related News. The technology that allows transmission directly to your computer is known as RSS or Really Simple Syndication. If you have Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox Internet Browsers (others may also apply), you will notice an orange icon in the address bar. This is the link to the news feed, click on it and follow the instructions to add the link to your browser.
The EPCAMR RSS Reader is adapted from the RSS Reader from www.rssreader.com and is ad ware free. The program runs under Windows 98/NT/Me/2000/XP/2003 Operating Systems.
98 CAC to Hold Regional Meeting in Hazleton/Wilkes-Barre 2005-06-17 09:59:06
Source: DEP Daily Updates
HARRISBURG (June 13) — The Citizens Advisory Council (CAC) to DEP will hold this year’s regional meeting in the Northeast region of the Commonwealth on June 21- 23. The meeting includes public hearings in Hazleton on Tuesday evening, June 21, and in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday evening, June 22 and Thursday morning, June 23.
The public hearings will provide an opportunity for residents and organizations in Pennsylvania’s Northeast corner to comment on environmental issues in their area and on the work of DEP.
“Our annual regional meetings allow us to learn firsthand what environmental issues are affecting Pennsylvanians in their own backyards,” said CAC Chairperson Walter Heine.
In addition to the public hearings, CAC members will visit local areas of environmental interest, such as the Waymart Wind Farm, Jeddo Mine Tunnel and several CAN DO and Earth Conservancy redevelopment sites.
CAC is a nonpartisan group of 18 citizen volunteers appointed by the Governor, Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. The DEP Secretary also serves as a member. The Council is legislatively charged with reviewing all environmental legislation, regulations and policies affecting Pennsylvania, and also reviewing DEP’s work and making recommendations.
97 Health Care Plan Reached by Mine Workers Association 2005-06-15 17:04:05
By Josh Krysak , Uniontown Herald-Standard
An agreement reached between the United Mine Workers of America and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association will allow some health plan beneficiaries to breath a little easier, as coverage was extended through the end of the year.
UMWA President Cecil Roberts announced that the two agencies had reached an agreement that would maintain coverage at current levels for all beneficiaries from the 1993 health care plan for mine retirees.
“This is good news for our retirees who are covered by the UMWA 1993 Benefit Fund,” Roberts said Tuesday. “Their health care benefits were on the brink of being drastically reduced in the very near future. With this agreement we have been able to extend the time they have full benefits through the end of the year.”
According to a press release from the UMWA, the beneficiaries of the 1993 fund will receive a one-time hardship payment of $3,350 from the UMWA 1974 Pension fund and then transfer $3,000 of that money toward their health coverage allowing current benefits to remain in tact through the end of the year.
“We are certainly pleased that President Roberts was able to come to this agreement with the association,” said Ed Yankovich, president of UMWA District 2. ” This is not a long-term solution but it does give us more time to continue efforts toward a congressional solution. And now, the money for health care doesn’t have to come out of the retiree’s pockets. ”
This is the second year in a row that area UMWA officials averted a potential crisis in health coverage after working to secure an additional year’s worth of funding for miners for prescription drugs in 2004.
In 2001, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began a trial offering of prescription coverage through the UMWA Health and Retirement Funds, providing more than $100 million in coverage over the past three years for miners. The trial coverage was scheduled to expire last June.
The prescription coverage is an extension of the Medicare prescription drug program, and the Bush administration will increase funding by 150 percent through 2005 for UMWA beneficiaries. As of now, no long-term measure is in place to continue to cover the retired miners.
In 2004, Roberts said that at the UMWA’s top priority was protecting pensioners’ health-care plans.
Local representatives were pleased with the prescription coverage extension, praising lawmakers for averting a nationwide crisis that could have cost benefits for nearly 50,000 workers.
Yankovich said Fayette County will be particularly affected if any health coverage is cut or reduced as the agencies continue to scrapple over the benefits, because the county has one of the largest populations of UMWA beneficiaries in the nation. He said he is hopeful a more long-term solution through ongoing legislation can be reached.
Last year, Roberts announced that the CARE 21 legislation (Coal Accountability and Retired Employees Act for the 21st century), which was introduced in 2002 and passed by the House of Representatives but never made it to the Senate floor before session ended, was being rejuvenated. The legislation is slated to be piggybacked onto a bill extending the abandoned mine reclamation program and could provide a long-term solution for the health care crisis facing the nation’s miners.
Roberts said that if passed, the bill would fulfill the 1992 Coal Act promise of the federal government to provide lifetime health-care benefits to retired mine workers.
The legislation would also lift restrictions that mandate the transfer of funds for just certain beneficiaries and would allow the government to transfer funds to offset the Combined Benefits Fund’s deficit to prevent a cut in coverage.
“This legislation will allow us to keep the promise to retired coal miners and their dependents while continuing to ensure the money is there to clean up the nation’s abandoned coal mines, ” Roberts said in 2004.
“It is a win-win solution for retired miners and America’s coalfield communities, he explained.”
On Tuesday, Yankovich said the CARE legislation is still working its way through congress as legislators work to move the bill forward to provide miners with a permanent benefit solution.
“We certainly appreciate the efforts of Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman John Murtha, who continue to push for this and clearly recognize the need for a long-term solution,” Yankovich explained.
96 State Congressman Wants to Divert More Federal Money to PA for Mine Clean-up 2005-06-13 17:25:57
Saturday, June 11, 2005
BY BRETT LIEBERMAN – The Patriot News, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON – The whipping winds, whiteouts and falling rocks make driving Wyoming’s state Highway 28 a nasty winter experience.
To make it safer, Wyoming officials plan to use $2 million from a federal Abandoned Mine Lands fund.
Wyoming, which has had no hazardous abandoned mines designated for cleanup since 1982, similarly tapped the mine fund in recent years for $7.8 million to build a hospital, $12 million for a high school and $18 million to construct a geology building.
With more than 4,600 high-priority abandoned mine sites waiting to be cleaned up across Pennsylvania at a projected cost of more than $1 billion, some lawmakers are crying foul over how the money has been distributed and over millions of dollars spent on unrelated projects.
“We think it somewhat got hijacked and we have to get it back,” said U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-State College.
Peterson has introduced legislation to shift how federal money is allocated in the Abandoned Mine Lands program, which is due to expire Sept. 30.
The largest abandoned mine problems are in states such as Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. Still, Wyoming gets the lion’s share of the money because the system pays out based on current mining levels instead of need. Wyoming receives $30 million a year from the program.
Pennsylvania receives about $25 million in federal money each year to clean up the worst abandoned mines. But the money is a drop in the bucket.
Through last Sunday, the state has received $665 million since 1980 to clean or pay for work on 456 of the more than 5,000 mines labeled Priority 1 or Priority 2 sites – the most dangerous.
Those totals don’t include most of the quarter million acres of abandoned mine lands, which includes deep mines, strip mines, non-coal mines and quarries across the state that don’t qualify as Priority 1 or 2 sites.
In addition to safety concerns for the 1.6 million people who live within a mile of an abandoned mine, acid runoff has left at least 3,000 miles of waterways sterile or polluted. Among them is the Susquehanna River’s west branch above Sunbury.
“It’s some of the most beautiful country in the East and the streams are sterile,” said Tom Rathbun, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Mineral Resources Management.
Rathbun put the cost of cleaning up all the mines, quarries, acid runoff and other contaminated sites at $15 billion statewide.
Fifty-two percent of available money goes to actual reclamation. Peterson’s bill would direct money away from states such as Wyoming that don’t have a need and use the money for unregulated projects, to where it’s needed.
It’s projected to mean $1 billion for Pennsylvania and would clean up existing high-priority sites that litter the state within 25 years.
Peterson cited the need to address environmental hazards left from the days of King Coal and the safety hazard that last year killed 35 people nationwide, including two in Pennsylvania. So far this year, three people have died in accidents while trespassing abandoned mine sites in Pennsylvania, authorities said.
Under Peterson’s proposal, states such as Wyoming would lose hundreds of millions of dollars. A competing proposal by U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., backed by some Western interests, would steer an estimated $1.2 billion to states such as Wyoming.
While cutting money for abandoned mine emergencies, drinking water contamination and other programs that clean acid mine drainage, it would leave a $566 million shortfall in Pennsylvania after 25 years, according to analysis by the federal Office of Surface Mines.
Cubin’s office did not return phone calls, but she defended her bill in a news release when she introduced it.
“This is money Wyoming could use to build schools or roads or save for a rainy day. Wyoming has lived up to its end of the [Abandoned Mine Lands] bargain and Congress needs to do the same,” Cubin said.
“Wyoming mined coal currently pays for almost half of the [Abandoned Mine Lands] program. Wyoming money shouldn’t be used to clean up Eastern problems,” Cubin said.
Peterson said Cubin’s argument punishes Eastern states for the bad environmental practices of the past.
His bill would also increase money to the Combined Benefit Fund, which provides health benefits to retired coal miners.
Peterson had hoped to negotiate a compromise with Cubin, but there’s been no progress, he said.
During recent meetings in Washington, Gov. Ed Rendell discussed the issue with Cubin.
Peterson’s bill, which has the backing of environmental groups including Trout Unlimited and the Pennsylvania Audubon Society, has 16 co-sponsors, including U.S. Reps. Tim Holden, D-Schuylkill County, Todd Platts, R-York, Bill Shuster, R-Blair County, and six other Pennsylvania lawmakers.
He and Cubin sit on the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the abandoned mine issue.
“It’s going to be a struggle,” Peterson said.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE:
· 1.6 million people live within one mile of an abandoned mine in Pennsylvania.
· Acid runoff has left at least 3,000 miles of Pennsylvania waterways sterile or polluted. Among them is the Susquehanna River’s west branch above Sunbury.
· Three people have died in accidents while trespassing on abandoned mine sites in Pennsylvania this year.
· The state has put the cost of cleaning up all the mines, quarries, acid runoff and other contaminated sites at $15 billion.
Jeanne Clark
Director of Communications
Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture)
412-258-6683 (direct dial)
412-736-6092 (cell)
95 Don’t Forget to Register for the 2005 Minewater Treatment Conference 2005-06-13 17:18:15
This year’s conference on abandoned mine drainage is being held in Pittsburgh, August 16, 17, & 18 with a Free workshop on Passive Treatment Design on the 15th. The conference will have a decidedly technical format with experts from accross the country giving two days of presentations on active and passive mine water treatment technologies and a day of presentations on resource recovery. More information is available at www.treatminewater.com. You can also register for the conference online.
Putting on the conference has been a collaborative effort among ,a href=http://www.treatminewater.com/sponsors.htm>several organizations and agenciesthat are all passionate about cleaning up our waterways from AMD. We think this conference will present an excellent opportunity to advance everyone’s working knowledge on the state of art in mine drainage treatment and resource recovery.
A limited number of scholarships are available to members of Pennsylvania watershed groups to help defray costs. Apply online. Since the decision to attend may depend on receiving an award, we will notify applicants before the registration deadline.
We hope to see you at the conference,
2005 Minewater Treatment Conference Planning Committee
94 State Debates How to Divvy Up Environmental Cash 2005-06-13 16:59:15
Decisions on how to spend $625 million might not come till fall.
The Morning Call
June 4, 2005
By Shira R. Toeplitz
HARRISBURG: It could be a while before Pennsylvania voters see the results of last month’s successful $625 million bond referendum for new environmental programs.
That’s because state lawmakers and the Rendell administration are still trying to figure out which projects they want to fund and whether the state or county governments will decide how the money is spent, before the new bonds are even issued.
And with the state’s budget deadline less than a month away and thorny questions about health care for the needy still unsolved, both sides agree any resolution to the funding questions might have to wait until this fall.
Two-thirds of Keystone voters signed off on the environmental program, dubbed “Growing Greener II,” during the May 17 primary. The money will pay for open space and farmland preservation, watershed protection and abandoned mine cleanups.
Currently counties compete for Growing Greener grants by applying with specific projects in mind. Under some of the proposed plans, counties would receive block grants according to their need, which would be determined by lawmakers.
“My concern is how you go about dividing it between the counties,” said Rep. Jennifer Mann, D-Lehigh, who sits on the House Environment Committee.
“Maybe there is a lot of value in having the local communities have input in how that money is spent,” Mann said. “But how are we going to go dividing it up among counties? In some cases, it has little to do with population.”
Originally started under former Gov. Tom Ridge in 1999, the first Growing Greener programs doled out $645 million to counties through competitive grants. Some lawmakers don’t want that to change.
Richard Fox, a senior aide to Sen. Raphael J. Musto, D-Luzerne, said his boss is “pleased with the way the program is run now” and doesn’t see “any need for significant change in how the grants are distributed.” Musto is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environmental Committee.
House Majority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, said Senate leaders were pushing to let county governments have more control of the funds.
“I see some benefits to [distributing the funds through the counties],” said Smith. “I’m open-minded to it, but I’m not sold.”
Patrick Henderson, a senior aide to the Senate Environment Committee Chairwoman Mary Jo White, R-Venango, said White “wants to make sure Harrisburg does not set up the priorities.” White is “exploring a menu of uses, but then letting the counties decide what’s a priority to them,” he said.
Senate Major Leader David Brightbill, R-Dauphin, is thinking about distributing half of the money through a formula that determines the environmental needs of counties. For example, the formula might calculate the number of acres versus abandoned mines, his chief of staff, Erik Arneson, said.
However the money is distributed, voters and county officials will have to wait until after summer recess to see which projects get funding while lawmakers hold off on the lengthy discussions.
The Rendell administration “doesn’t see any reason to wait,” spokeswoman Kate Philips said. “We’re also not putting any deadline on it either.”
Fox agreed.
“I don’t see any disadvantages to waiting,” he said. “I think it’s important to make sure that the legislation is done right.”
Environmental activists, meanwhile, said they want to see the money doled out as soon as possible.
“Quite frankly, if this was a legislative pay raise, this would be done by June 30,” said John Hanger, president and chief executive officer of the environmental group PennFuture. “This should be treated just as importantly as a legislative pay raise.”
92 Peterson Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Accelerate Clean-up of Hazardous AML Sites 2005-06-13 15:47:13
June 9, 2005
PA Congressman, John Peterson, today released a statement on his proposed legislation (H.R. 2721) to reauthorize the collection fee on each ton of coal mined in the US. to reclaim thousands of hazardous abandoned coal mine sites. Peterson’s bill would strategically direct more funding to hard hit Appalachian states where past coal mining has had its biggest impacts, and less to states having few remaining problems, such as western states like Wyoming. Peterson’s bill is in stark contrast to one earlier introduced by Wyoming Congresswoman Barbara Cubin and West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall which de-emphasizes the long standing problems and hazards of past coal mining practices. The Cubin-Rahall bill would actually steer even more money to Wyoming.
For Immediate Release:
[i]Cubin-Rahall bill Steers More Than $1.2 Billion to Non-Reclamation “Rainy Day” Projects in Wyoming while Neglecting Mine Reclamation Needs of Historic Coal States[/i] [b]Washington[/b] – U.S. Congressman John Peterson (R-PA/5) was joined by a bipartisan coalition of 16 House Members from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee and Maryland to introduce legislation that would reauthorize the Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) program and speed up the reclamation of thousands of hazardous abandoned coal mines across the country.The bipartisan bill would greatly reduce the health, safety and environmental hazards of abandoned coal mines left over from decades of coal mining that took place before Congress passed mining reforms in 1977. Abandoned mines are commonplace throughout Appalachia, particularly in states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia where the majority of America’s coal was mined throughout the industrial revolution and two world wars.
Under the current AML program, mine reclamation dollars are raised through a per-ton fee on coal and are allocated to states based on their current level of coal production. As a result, the majority of funds are directed to states like Wyoming which only recently began mining coal as the industry moved west. Since Wyoming has been certified since 1982 to have no abandoned mine problems, the state has used the millions of dollars they receive from the AML program for building construction, road paving and other miscellaneous projects. Consequently, only 52 percent of AML program funding is currently being used to clean up hazardous abandoned mines. At the same time, states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia are still decades away from completing reclamation work on thousands of hazardous abandoned coal mines. At least 40 people have been killed and many more injured at abandoned mines in Pennsylvania alone over the past 15 years. More than $1 billion is still needed to clean up the 4,600 mines that are dangerous or environmentally harmful, and more than 1.6 million Pennsylvanians live less than a mile from a dangerous mine. Over 3,000 miles of streams and rivers in the Commonwealth are polluted with acid mine drainage. Many of these same hazards exist throughout Appalachia.
Under the Peterson bill, future AML funding would be directed to areas that need it, providing reclamation dollars to states based on their number of abandoned mines that present a public health and safety risk. By refocusing the AML program on its intended purpose of cleaning up abandoned coal mines, the Peterson proposal would clean up all high-priority mine sites in 25 years instead of the 50-60 years that is estimated under the current AML program.
According to Peterson, “This common sense legislation simply asks that the AML program be used for its intended purpose of cleaning up abandoned coal mines, and not to pave roads or fund other ‘rainy-day’ projects. This proposal will greatly improve states’ ability to clean up hazardous abandoned mines in a timely manner. Families in Pennsylvania and throughout Appalachia have lived for too long with the health, safety and environmental hazards resulting from abandoned coal mines, and this bill will finally refocus the AML program on mine reclamation.”
The Peterson bill would raise the minimum state AML program grant from $2 to $3 million, benefiting Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and several other ‘minimum program’ states. In addition, the bill increases funding for the 17,000 retired mine workers covered under the Combined Benefit Fund (CBF) by removing the $70 million cap which currently exists on the amount of interest transferred annually into the fund.
The bill also makes interest earned on the account available for transfer as needed, including $76 million in “stranded” interest from prior years. Under Peterson’s proposal, Wyoming would be fully reimbursed for the $465 million in fees paid into the AML program by companies that mine coal in Wyoming, fulfilling a commitment made under the current AML program. This is despite the fact that 96 percent of Wyoming’s coal is mined on federal land, and 93 percent of the coal mined in Wyoming is sold in other states where American consumers – not Wyoming producers – end up paying the fee.
While the Peterson bill would re-focus the AML program on cleaning up high-priority abandoned coal mines, a competing proposal, the Cubin-Rahall bill, would continue to neglect current mine reclamation needs in favor of maintaining and increasing the ‘rainy day’ fund for Wyoming.
In addition to protecting the multi-million dollar funding stream which currently flows to Wyoming, Cubin-Rahall creates an entirely new $1 billion pot of money for nonreclamation projects, the vast majority of which would also end up in Wyoming. At the same time, Cubin-Rahall bill would cut $120 million from the Federal operations budget which is used for abandoned mine emergencies, drinking water contamination, watershed cooperative agreements, supplemental grants to minimum program states, and the Clean Streams Initiative which is used to clean up acid mine drainage in streams, rivers and
watersheds across the country.
According to an analysis by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM), Cubin-Rahall would steer more than $1.2 billion in non-reclamation funding to Wyoming over the next 25 years, while leaving a shortfall of more than $1 billion for priority mine reclamation projects in states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kansas and Oklahoma. After 25 years, Pennsylvania would still need $566 million and West Virginia would still be $256 million short of completing high-priority mine reclamation projects under the Cubin-Rahall proposal.
The Peterson bill, which would clean up all current high-priority abandoned mines within the next 25 years while saving the program several billion dollars, has already been endorsed by Trout Unlimited and the PA Audubon Society. A similar bill introduced by Peterson last year was endorsed by the Bush Administration, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Ed Rendell, and numerous organizations including the PA Environmental Council.
According to Peterson, “This bill represents the combined efforts of a broad coalition of interests and ideologies – all coming together to do what is necessary to clean-up and reclaim abandoned mines before these sites cause even more damage to our citizens’ health and communities. As this discussion moves forward, we will have to decide whether the Abandoned Mine Lands program is going to be used for abandoned mine reclamation, as was originally intended, or whether it will continue to be a multi-million dollar slush fund for Wyoming.”
In their new endorsement, the PA Audubon Society stressed the importance of mine reclamation, citing our “unique responsibility and cost-effective opportunity to take a leadership role in abandoned mine reclamation, while simultaneously contributing to the survival of imperiled bird populations.” The endorsement continued, “We are particularly pleased that you have acknowledged the need to finish the job of repairing the enormous problems that remain in states like Pennsylvania that fueled this country’s industrial past. To that end, we wholeheartedly agree with your recommendation to distribute funds to states based upon their historic production.”
H.R. 2721, the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program Extension and Reform Act of 2005, was officially introduced by Peterson and a bipartisan coalition of House Members on Thursday, May 26th.
Please go to the [b]NEW[/b] website www.AMLCampaign.org, which supplies background information for the reauthorization effort.
Submitted by:
Bruce Golden, Regional Coordinator
Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation
Donohoe Center, RR 12 Box 202B, Greensburg, PA 15601
http://AMRClearinghouse.org
724-837-5271 bruce@wpcamr.org
91 No Cost Contract for Clean Fill / Quarry Reclamation 2005-06-06 10:59:28
DEP is exploring opportunities to link clean fill disposal needs to abandoned quarry restoration. The idea is to direct unpolluted overburden towards a local need to reclaim an abandoned quarry. There is a no cost contract currently under development by DEP to facilitate the process.
Kenneth Reisinger, has been asked by the DEP waste program to see if the Districts had potential candidates for consideration such as quarries next to schools, highways, or quarries that have been a problem for local government or land owners. Overall there are a lot of things to work through yet but DEP would like to see what immediate needs are out there and how those needs may be met. If you have any candidate areas to suggest, just drop Ken an email with the situation including the location. It would also be helpful to know the property owner so they could be contacted for permission.
89 Residential Development, Access to Funds are Hurdles to Saving Open Space. 2005-05-23 11:15:11 Source: Times Leader, BRETT MARCY bmarcy@leader.net
HARRISBURG , Sprawl is on the horizon.
It’s been slower coming to Northeastern Pennsylvania than some other areas of the state, but rampant suburban development will arrive. And the region may not be ready for it, environmentalists say.
In areas of the Back Mountain, such as Dallas Township, huge tracts of farmland and wooded hills have already been gobbled up by residential development.
“The pressure is coming, and it’s coming from a lot of different areas,” said Robert Hughes, regional coordinator for the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation and an environmentalist. “The Back Mountain areas, that’s no longer the back mountain. It’s sprawl.”
Luzerne County is just now beginning to experience the consequences of rampant residential growth , strained municipal services, overcrowded schools and the loss of green spaces for recreation, farming or simply to look at.
Environmentalists saw a glimmer of hope last week when voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot question allowing the state to borrow up to $625 million for environmental programs in Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed Growing Greener II initiative.
Among the stated goals for Growing Greener II are open space preservation, abandoned mine cleanup, acid mine drainage cleanup and improvements to state parks.
Local officials hope to tap into that new pool of money, but it won’t be easy.
Officials in townships in suburban Philadelphia and elsewhere have worked feverishly in recent years to raise money for environmental initiatives.
In Chester County, more than 20 of the county’s 73 municipalities have passed ballot questions, raising their local earned income tax specifically to preserve open space.
“Time is against us. There’s considerable pressure for development. It’s the critical issue of our day,” said Clifford Lee, chairman of the open space committee in East Nottingham Township, Chester County. “It’s not something that you want to be on the sidelines when it happens.”
East Nottingham residents approved an earned income tax increase for open space preservation, and the township hopes to buy the development rights to 2,900 acres to keep the land forever undeveloped.
Also in Chester County, East Bradford Township residents approved a 0.25 percent increase in earned income tax, which has allowed the township to build a $400,000 open space fund since 2000. The township has used that money as leverage to borrow $12 million. The money has gone to preserve more than 1,000 acres of open space.
“I think we did this just in the nick of time,” said Jack Stefferud, chairman of the East Bradford open space review board.
He warned officials in Northeastern Pennsylvania not to wait until it’s too late to think about saving precious farmland, woodland and open fields. Plus, he said, having local money in-hand will sweeten the pot when municipalities apply for Growing Greener grants.
“If you want to play the game, you’ve got to come to the table with your own money,” Stefferud said. “If you don’t, you’re out of the game.”
Luzerne County has been willing to pony up significant money for other environmental programs in recent years, including its farmland conservation program and the recent purchase of 3,000 acres of land from Theta Land Corp., according to county planning commission Director Adrian Merolli.
In the Theta land purchase, the county kicked in $4 million and the state gave about $1.2 million. Merolli said the county’s share was key to gaining state dollars.
“I think the state did it because they saw the county was serious,” he said.
Some municipal officials say they’d like to pay for some of the costs of improving and preserving the environment, but the financial pressures are too great.
Dallas Township supervisor Chairman Philip Walter said he has watched as acre after acre of farmland disappears in his township, but he said there isn’t much that can be done about it.
“The fact is that most of these things have gotten so far out of hand that we haven’t got into it,” Walter said. “There was a lot of open space and a lot of farms here, and now all of a sudden the farms are gone.”
He said his taxpayers are strapped as it is with rising school district and county taxes. They simply could not bear a tax increase at the township level, he said.
Instead, Walter said municipalities in the region have come to rely on private environmental groups, such as the North Branch Land Trust, which promotes open space preservation in Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, Columbia, Bradford and Sullivan counties. The group works with private landowners to gain the development rights to open land.
Rich Koval, a land protection specialist and naturalist for the North Branch Land Trust, said he isn’t surprised by the reluctance of local officials to commit local taxpayer dollars toward open space preservation.
“It hasn’t been sold up here yet,” Koval said. “Even though we’re seeing a lot of sprawl, it’s not like the southeast … There’s some old politics here, and it’s a tough sell.”
Perhaps, but Luzerne County’s recently adopted open space master plan could be the beginning of a new era of environmental activism. Merolli said the county is considering offering incentives to municipalities that raise money for open space preservation.
“We know that it’s coming,” Merolli said of suburban sprawl. “We’re just trying to stay ahead of the curve.”
——————————————————————————–
Brett Marcy, the Times Leader’s Harrisburg correspondent, may be reached at (717) 238-4728.
88 A GREEN LANDSLIDE 2005-05-19 18:44:30
Source: Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future – PennFuture Facts
Pennsylvania added a new page to its conservation history yesterday when voters approved the Growing Greener bond by a healthy majority. As of this writing (with 99 percent of the precincts reporting), 60 percent of the voters said “Yes” to Growing Greener. That is a robust majority by any political calculation, and it shows how deeply Pennsylvanians value their natural heritage .
Governor Rendell and legislators from both parties who supported the bond question were told by the voters, “Good job!” The voters also made it plain to all legislators that they expect them to implement immediately what the voters mandated. The voters want the Commonwealth to spend $625 million to preserve farmland and natural areas, clean up the damage left behind by unregulated coal mining, and restore polluted streams. And they want the details worked out before the legislature takes its summer break.
Growing Greener passed in 46 of the Commonwealth’s 67 counties, and a look at the vote is something of a political geography lesson. Voters in Philadelphia’s suburban ring counties – Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery – gave Growing Greener an overwhelming 77 percent approval. The “Yes” votes trounced the “No” votes in Delaware and Montgomery counties 79 percent to 21 percent, in Chester County by 76 percent to 24 percent, and in Bucks by 73 percent to 27 percent. Philadelphia’s “Yes” vote came in at 75 percent to 25 percent “No.”
Southeastern Pennsylvanians, both Republicans and Democrats, are clearly alarmed at the rate that farmland and natural areas are disappearing and concerned over their access to clean water. When given a chance, they overwhelmingly support strong environmental protection policies.
The other area of the state that delivered “Yes” votes in the 70 percent range were mining-scarred Luzerne and Lackawanna counties. A significant amount of Growing Greener will go to restore land ruined by coal mining companies that long ago went out of business, and to clean up streams polluted by acid mine discharges. Here again, the voters were crystal clear in their desire for a better environment that will attract new businesses and jobs.
Voters in Monroe and Pike counties in the Poconos are feeling the pressure of fast growing development and also gave Growing Greener solid support. 73 percent of Monroe’s voters said “Yes,” as did 65 percent of Pike County’s voters. In the Lehigh Valley, another region straining under intense development pressure, Northampton and Lehigh counties came in with “Yes” votes in the mid-60 percent range.
Even many voters in Pennsylvania’s conservative “T” – the counties between the metropolitan areas of the east and west plus the northern tier – said “Yes” to Growing Greener. Voters in Blair, Clearfield, Clinton, Fulton, Northumberland, Bradford, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wayne all delivered majorities for Growing Greener. Voters in Centre County, in the heart of the “T” said “Yes” by 66 percent.
In Lancaster County, a majority voted for Growing Greener even as they shot down a library tax, and in Lebanon 53 percent of the voters showed they care about farmland preservation and stream restoration that will be possible with Growing Greener funding.
In the southwest, another area looking for help in cleaning up damage from mining, Fayette and Greene counties both delivered majorities for Growing Greener, and Allegheny County voters favored the bond by 61 percent.
Growing Greener lost by small margins in the northwestern counties of Crawford, Warren, McKean, Venango, Elk, Cameron, and Clarion and in Westmoreland in the southwest. It also lost in a swath starting in Bedford County stretching to the northeast in Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata and Snyder counties. But the real story even in these counties, where the measure was not expected to do well, was how small the margin against Growing Greener turned out to be.
Pennsylvanians are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work with Growing Greener. Our legislators in the Pennsylvania House and Senate should quickly pass implementing legislation that honors the voters’ green mandate
[i]PennFuture Facts is a biweekly publication designed to be a brief, informative and interesting look at a topical environmental and/or economic issue in Pennsylvania. Please visit our website for more information about PennFuture, http://www.pennfuture.org.PennFuture Facts is available for reprint in newspapers and other publications. Authors are available for print or broadcast interviews. For more information, please contact us at 717-214-7920, or info@pennfuture.org.
Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future
610 N. 3rd Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101[/i]
87 Local officials urge voters to OK measure that would help clean up mine lands 2005-05-19 13:29:39
Posted on Fri, May. 13, 2005
Giving it the “green” light: Environmental ballot issue
By BRETT MARCY bmarcy@leader.net
HANOVER TWP. , Tens of thousands of acres of drab, mine-scarred land could one day give way to community parks, new commercial and industrial development and vast, wide open spaces.
And it is within the power of the electorate to free the money necessary for the transformation.
That was the message from state and Luzerne County officials huddled Thursday at an office building in the Hanover Industrial Estates built on an abandoned coal lands.
Officials urged voters to approve a statewide ballot question that would allow the state to borrow $625 million for environmental improvements and conservation.
The referendum for Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed Growing Greener II initiative will appear on the ballot Tuesday, and proponents are making their last-minute appeal to the voters.
“I want to stress that point to the voters of Northeastern Pennsylvania: They can make history on May 17 by making the largest investment in Pennsylvania’s environment,” said state Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, who was joined by state Rep. Thomas Tigue, D-Hughestown.
As he spoke, Yudichak noted that the ground on which he stood was once an unsightly 15-acre abandoned mine site. Growing Greener dollars helped pay to reclaim the land.
Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services constructed a $4 million, 133,000-square-foot office building and parking lot on the spot. The building now houses four companies and about 130 employees.
“If we are going to continue to reclaim the thousands and thousands of acres of abandoned mine land in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we need the Growing Greener initiative,” Yudichak said. “It’s that important to the quality of our lives, to the quality of our economic future.”
About 9 percent of the county’s area is abandoned mine land, according to the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation. That amounts to 43,926 acres of mine-scarred land, stretching across 45 of the county’s 76 municipalities.
Robert Hughes, the coalition’s regional coordinator, said environmental groups around the state have banded together to push for the passage of the Growing Greener II ballot question.
Of the $625 million that would be borrowed for Growing Greener II, about $100 million would go toward abandoned mine clean-up, he said.
“We only get $25 million a year in federal money, and that goes in no time,” Hughes said of the state. “This is an additional shot in the arm for all of our projects.”
Abandoned mines are undoubtedly one of the county’s most pressing environmental and economic concerns, but they are not the only projects in the county that would be funded through the initiative, said Adrian Merolli, director of the Luzerne County Planning Department.
A related issue, Merolli said, is the ongoing problem of acid mine drainage that continues to pollute the county’s rivers and streams, such as Solomon Creek, which is known for its orange tint caused by the mine drainage.
Growing Greener money could also be used to preserve farmland and open space, as well as fund flood protection programs. He also suggested the state Legislature expand the proposed program to include funding for stormwater management projects.
That is why municipalities around the county have given overwhelming support for the ballot question, according to John Blake, director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania office of the governor.
“We in Northeastern Pennsylvania have been victimized in a very serious way by our industrial legacy,” Blake said. “Despite the fact that we built this country on the back of our labor, when the industry met its demise, we were left with acres and acres of waste coal land . . . These are areas that need investment.”
Andy Benyo can attest to that. Benyo is the chairman of the board of supervisors in Hazle Township, where he estimates 3,000 acres of land remain scarred by decades of strip mining.
“We could probably use all that money ourselves,” Benyo said of the proposed Growing Greener II initiative. “It’s a shame . . . You go outside this area, anywhere that didn’t have this strip mining taking place, and you don’t see what we see here. You see the beauty of the land.
“We need this,” he said of the ballot initiative. “We need it extremely badly.”
86 Strategies for Implementation Using Integrated Watershed Planning Workshop 2005-05-11 15:11:05
The Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are cooperating on the development of a technical training program for those involved in the design, review, and implementation of watershed-based plans in support of activities funded under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act As part of this effort, WEF’s Watershed Training Task Force has developed a workshop entitled “Strategies for Implementation Using Integrated Watershed Planning.”
The agenda for the workshop is attached. The Task Force will be conducting a pilot test of the workshop on Saturday, June 25, 2005 at the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia from 12:30-7:30pm. We are currently recruiting workshop reviewers. If you are interested in participating or are aware of Section 319 grant recipients that could benefit from participation, please contact WEF’s Greg McNelly by e-mail as soon as possible. Reviewers will be expected to stay for the entire workshop and provide meaningful analysis and feedback at its conclusion.
This is a free afternoon/evening workshop on June 25, 2005 on technical
tools for watershed planning. It is put on by Water Environment Federation (WEF) to aid in developing a new course. Attendees will provide WEF feedback on the pilot training and then, if they are interested, they can attend the WEF TMDL Conference technical sessions for free also ( WEF can only cover one night’s lodging , however). – Stuart Lehman, EPA NPS Program- Washington, DC
Limited travel assistance is available to state and local officials,
watershed groups, and Section 319 grant recipients. A few complimentary registration to WEF’s TMDL 2005 Conference registrations are also available for workshop reviewers that wish to stay for the conference, which runs from June 26-29, 2005. See WEF’s Website for more information about TMDL 2005.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact:
Avinash S. Patwardhan, Ph.D., P.H.
Chair, WEF Watershed Training Task Force
CH2M HILL
One Harvard Circle
West Palm Beach, FL 33409
Phone: (561) 515-6548
Fax: (561) 515-6502
E-mail: apatward@ch2m.com
85 Growing Greener II COMMENTARY: Vote to Protect Verdant Spaces 2005-05-11 14:06:43
Source: Times Leader
ON MAY 17, voters in Pennsylvania will have an historic opportunity to approve an environmental bond issue that will address three of the Commonwealth’s most urgent environmental problems — acid mine drainage, the loss of working farmland and open space and cleaning up our rivers and streams.
These are not rural or suburban, western or eastern, Republican or Democratic problems. They are problems for all of us to solve and now you can help.
As former environmental agency secretaries who served four governors, we know first-hand the challenges these issues present to Pennsylvania.
And the cost of this initiative is small compared to its potential benefits. In fact, Gov. Rendell and leadership in the Senate and House said they will not propose any increases in taxes or fees to pay for this bond issue.
Severely polluted water from abandoned coal mines is Pennsylvania’s number-one source of water pollution — over 2,200 miles of streams are sterile and unusable and more than 220,000 acres of abandoned mines need to be reclaimed.
These scars from past mining not only damage our environment, they often make our more rural areas of Pennsylvania unattractive for economic development.
Pennsylvania has made tremendous progress cleaning up thousands of acres of abandoned mines and hundreds of miles of streams thanks to a variety of state and federal programs, the modern coal industry and local watershed groups. But much more remains to be done.
The proposed bond issue builds on the progress we’ve made and would accelerate the pace of cleanup to the benefit of hundreds of communities in our coal fields.
Between 1960 and 1990, our 10 largest urban areas grew by 13 percent, but the amount of land we live on grew by 80 percent. In the process, hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland and open space permanently disappeared.
While Pennsylvania created the largest farmland preservation program in the United States and incentives for protecting open space, a significant portion of the funding for the farmland preservation program is coming to an end this year.
The Growing Greener bond issue will restore this funding and help stem the loss of thousands of acres of valuable open land.
The longer we wait to preserve farmland and open space the more expensive it gets.
Pennsylvania’s streams need more help recovering from a variety of other environmental insults. Over 13,200 miles of streams are impaired by water pollution of different types. Natural buffers along streams have been cut down and property damage has increased from flooding because natural floodplains have been eliminated.
To help solve these problems, local watershed groups, county conservation districts, businesses and local governments have partnered with state and federal agencies to promote watershed restoration projects that help eliminate nutrient runoff from farms, plant stream buffers, lower flooding potentials and restored streams that have not seen a fish in 125 years.
The bond issue on the ballot will help to dramatically expand support for projects like these in watersheds all across Pennsylvania.
The environmental problems we outline here affect every one of us because we all need clean water, farmland to grow our food and a clean, healthy environment to promote economic opportunity for our children.
While we’ve made tremendous progress in restoring our environment over the last 35 years, we’re not done yet.
As former environmental agency secretaries who served Democratic and Republican governors, we encourage you to vote “yes” on the environmental bond issue on May 17.
By voting, you have the opportunity to make a real difference in the future of thousands of communities all across Pennsylvania, and a cleaner environment for us all.
——————————————————————————–
This article was signed by: Clifford L. Jones, secretary of environmental resources – 1979-1981 under Gov. Thornburgh; Peter S. Duncan, secretary of environmental resources – 1981-1983 under Gov. Thornburgh; Nicholas DeBenedictis, secretary of environmental resources – 1983-1987 under Gov. Thornburgh; Arthur A. Davis, secretary of environmental resources – 1987-1995 under Gov. Casey; John C. Oliver, secretary of conservation and natural resources – 1995-2003 under governors Ridge and Schweiker; David E. Hess, secretary of environmental protection , 2001-2003 under governors Ridge and Schweiker.
84 May 17 Growing Greener ballot question will help to improve PA’s Environment 2005-05-02 09:44:38
[u][b]Attention Voters[/b][/u]The May 17 Growing Greener ballot question will help to improve Pennsylvania’s environment:
“Do you favor authorizing the Commonwealth to borrow up to $625,000,000 for the maintenance and protection of the environment, open space and farmland preservation, watershed protection, abandoned mine reclamation, acid mine drainage remediation and other environmental initiatives?”
[align=center]- – – – – – – – – -[/align]This bond will preserve working farms and natural areas, clean up streams and rivers, take on serious environmental problems at abandoned mines and contaminated industrial sites, shore up key programs that are dangerously short of funds, and revitalize communities across the Commonwealth.
Learn more at the.[url=http://www.growinggreener2.com]Growing Greener II Website[/url].
80 RiverFest 2005 Set For May 7th 2005-04-08 13:36:39 Saturday, May 7th The Lackawanna River Corridor Association (LRCA), will hold RiverFest-2005. RiverFest encompasses a day-long series of activities including: Canoe-A-Thon – now in it’s fourth decade, the Fourth Annual River Regatta and Eighth Annual Duck-A-Thon.
An exciting new Finish Line site will be located near the new Scranton High School on Olive Street. The new site will connect RiverFest 2005 festivities directly to downtown Scranton. RiverFest means a full day of family fun starting with the well known Canoe-A-Thon, then River Regatta and finally Duck-A-Thon. RiverFest has become a traditional celebration, a rite of spring and an opportunity for the entire community to return to the River in early spring and have fun.
LRCA Board member Jim Frankowski is co-chairing RiverFest 2005 with Thomas McLane, president of McLane Associates Architectural Firm, Scranton.
This year’s Canoe-A-Thon will again feature a 12-mile course and an eight-miler. Launch site for the 12-miler is at Maslyar Park, also known as Laurel Street Park, Archbald. The eight-mile run starts in Mellow Park, Blakely. Rental canoes and kayaks are available at Mellow Park only.
The Fourth Annual River Regatta is a tongue-in-cheek event with entries from the ridiculous to the sublime. Dr. Barry Minora is chairing this event. He notes that entrants need only follow the barest minimum of maritime decorum to enter history.
Duck-A-Thon is pure fun. “Ducks” take to the River and a make mad dash for the finish line. Chance holders wait word to see if they hold the winning duck ticket. Tickets for Duck-A-Thon are available weekends at The Mall at Steamtown, at Everything Natural, Clarks Summit or from any LRCA Board member.
Registration forms and all additional information are available by calling the LRCA offices at 570-207-7608, or visit the Association’s website at www.lrca.org. Interested participants, sponsors or volunteers can also email the LRCA at lrca@epix.net.
79 Grant Announcements from the Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable 2005-04-08 12:50:58 April 4, 2005
Non-Federal Funding Opportunities:
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- Joyce Foundation: Ohio Only
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- McKnight Foundation: KY & TN
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- Conservation Fund
- Patagonia
Federal Funding Opportunities:
- EQIP-USDA
Non-Federal Funding:
JOYCE FOUNDATION: FOR OHIO ONLY
The Joyce Foundation is committed to improving public policy through its grant program. Accordingly, the Foundation welcomes grant requests from organizations that engage in public policy advocacy. Federal tax law prohibits private foundations from funding lobbying activities. The Foundation may support organizations engaged in public policy advocacy by either providing general operating support or by funding educational advocacy such as nonpartisan research, technical assistance, or examinations of broad social issues. The Foundation encourages grant applicants to describe the nature of advocacy activities in their grant applications and reports, so the Foundation can ensure that it is in compliance with federal tax laws. For further information on the relevant federal tax laws, grant applicants should consult their tax advisors. Protecting the natural environment of the Great Lakes region has been a long-time commitment of the Joyce Foundation. The Foundation supports the development, testing, and implementation of policy-based, prevention-oriented, scientifically sound solutions to the environmental challenges facing the region, especially those that center around water.
The Joyce Foundation accepts letter of inquiry. More Information: http://www.joycefdn.org/seekingagrant/seekingmain-fs.html
DEADLINE: April 15th
THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION: ONLY KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE
The McKnight Foundation’s mission is to improve the quality of life for present and future generations and to seek path to a more secure and humane world. The environment program seeks to maintain and restore a healthy environment in the Mississippi River Basin. The overarching goal is to maintain and restore the River by directly increasing land and water protection and restoration, expanding the capacity of other organizations to do this work, and transforming systems that impede progress. The foundation supports the 10 state corridor of the Mississippi Basin. A major objective is too improving water quality.
Letter of Inquiry Deadline: April 15th
More Information: http://www.mcknight.org/environment/guidelines.aspx
CONSERVATION FUND: International Paper Environmental Awards
International Paper, in partnership with The Conservation Fund, recognizes the efforts of people across the country working to protect the future of America’s outdoor heritage.
Each year, the partners honor two individuals whose work demonstrates that a healthy environment and a healthy economy are mutually supportive. The $10,000 awards are provided by The International Paper Company Foundation. You must nominate someone for this award.
Nomination Form:http://www.conservationfund.org/pdf/ip%20conservation%20partner.pdf
DEADLINE: April 15th
More Information: http://www.conservationfund.org/?article=2331
PATAGONIA: Environmental Grants
Patagonia funds only environmental work. We are most interested in making grants to organizations that identify and work on the root causes of problems and that approach issues with a commitment to long-term change. We look for programs with a clear agenda for change and a strategic plan for achieving the organization’s goals. Because we believe that true change will occur only through a strong grassroots movement, our funding focuses on organizations that build a strong base of citizen support. We fund work that:
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- is action-oriented
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- builds public involvement and support
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- is strategic
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- focuses on root causes
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- accomplishes specific goals and objectives
- takes place in communities in which we do business
We support small, grassroots activist organizations with provocative direct-action agendas. We look for innovative groups that produce measurable results, and we like to support efforts to force the government to abide by its own – our own – laws. We help local groups working to protect local habitat, and think the individual battles to protect a specific stand of forest, stretch of river or indigenous wild species are the most effective in raising more complicated issues in the public mind, particularly those of biodiversity and ecosystem protection. Because we’re a privately held company, we have the freedom to fund groups off the beaten track, and that’s where we believe our small grants are most effective. Most grants are in the range of $3,000 to $8,000.
If you are interested send proposals to Lisa Pike at:
Patagonia, Inc.
PO Box 150
Ventura, CA 93002
DEADLINE: April 30th
More Information: http://www.patagonia.com/enviro/grants_app.shtml
Federal Opportunities:
Environmental Quality Incentives Program: Natural Resource Conservation Service
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) was reauthorized in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Farm Bill) to provide a voluntary conservation program for farmers and ranchers that promotes agricultural production and environmental quality as compatible national goals. EQIP offers financial and technical help to assist eligible participants install or implement structural and management practices on eligible agricultural land.
EQIP offers contracts with a minimum term that ends one year after the implementation of the last scheduled practices and a maximum term of ten years. These contracts provide incentive payments and cost-shares to implement conservation practices. Persons who are engaged in livestock or agricultural production on eligible land may participate in the EQIP program. EQIP activities are carried out according to an environmental quality incentives program plan of operations developed in conjunction with the producer that identifies the appropriate conservation practice or practices to address the resource concerns. The practices are subject to NRCS technical standards adapted for local conditions. The local conservation district approves the plan.
EQIP may cost-share up to 75 percent of the costs of certain conservation practices. Incentive payments may be provided for up to three years to encourage producers to carry out management practices they may not otherwise use without the incentive. However, limited resource producers and beginning farmers and ranchers may be eligible for cost-shares up to 90 percent. Farmers and ranchers may elect to use a certified third-party provider for technical assistance. An individual or entity may not receive, directly or indirectly, cost-share or incentive payments that, in the aggregate, exceed $450,000 for all EQIP contracts entered during the term of the Farm Bill.
This program is run through state offices, so contact your state USDA office. There is a significant pot of money set aside for this program, and they are very willing to give it to landowners. This is an excellent opportunity to preserve stream banks and land near rivers.
State Application: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/eqip/EQIP_signup/2005_EQIP/index.html
More Information: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/eqip/
As always all funding announcements and more can be found at the Eastern Coal Regional Roundtable website: www.easterncoal.org
REMINDER: Targeted Watersheds Grants & Water Quality Cooperative Agreements are due soon, more information at www.easterncoal.org, archives!
77 The Latest News Releases from OSM 2005-03-31 10:28:05
For the latest news releases from the Office of Surface Mining, Please visit http://www.osmre.gov/ocnews.htm
76 Pennsylvania Awarded $21.2 Million to Reclaim Dangerous Abandoned Mine Lands 2005-03-29 16:20:27
(WASHINGTON) – Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced that the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining has awarded Pennsylvania a grant of $21.2 million to help reclaim dangerous abandoned mine lands.
The Office of Surface Mining estimated last year that in Pennsylvania almost $1.04 billion worth of high-priority problems remain and more than 1,649,959 Pennsylvanians are living less than a mile from a dangerous abandoned mine site. Thousands more live every day with the environmental impacts of abandoned, un-reclaimed coal mines.
The Abandoned Mine Land program, which provides grants to states to reclaim abandoned mine sites, was scheduled to expire September 30.
Congress extended the program through June 30. “The Abandoned Mine Land program has made thousands of Americans living in the coalfields safer, but the job is not finished,” said Norton. “Even after 25 years of extraordinary national effort, we still have almost $3 billion worth of high-priority hazards to health and safety waiting to be cleaned up. ”
“Our Administration remains committed to reauthorizing AML fee collection authority,” said Norton. “We are working with Congress now to bring reform to the AML program, speed up the elimination of high priority health and safety abandoned coal mines and to provide for the expedited payment of unappropriated balances to certified States and Tribes.”
High-priority AML problems threaten public health and safety and could cause substantial physical harm to persons or property. They include clogged streams and stream lands, dangerous highwalls, impoundments, piles, embankments and slides, hazardous or explosive gases, hazardous water bodies, underground mine fires, surface burning, portals and vertical openings, subsidence and polluted drinking water.
The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) collects fees on current coal mining to fund reclamation of coal mine sites abandoned before 1977.
“The grants we’ve just awarded will give Pennsylvania’s reclamation program some of what it needs to continue working on this enormous problem,” said Norton. “Our administration is working to better protect the people of Pennsylvania and eliminate these serious dangers decades sooner.”
The AML Program award will provide the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) funding for the following AML
activities:
Non-Emergency Administrative Costs ($2,768,291); Non-Emergency Non-Water Supply Project Costs ($13,841,420); Non-Emergency Water Supply Project Costs ($1,449, 070); Appalachian Clean Stream Initiative Costs ($874,180); and Ten Percent Set-Aside Acid Mine Drainage Program Costs ($2,360,697).
Pennsylvania’s FY 2005 grant performance period is January 1, 2005 through December 31, 2007, with the utilization of 111 full time equivalents.
-OSM-
High resolution photos of AML problems are available online at www.osmre.gov.
75 Pennsylvania Awarded $8.9 Million to regulate coal mine reclamation 2005-03-29 16:19:42
OSM funds programs to protect people and environment during coal mining
(WASHINGTON) – Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced that the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining has awarded Pennsylvania
$8.9 million in funding for the state’s regulation of active coal mines.
“This grant, combined with state matching funds, will support Pennsylvania’s program to inspect active coal mines and enforce Surface Mining Act requirements to protect people and the environment during mining and ensure prompt land restoration afterward,” said Norton.
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, the law that regulates coal mining throughout the country, established a coordinated effort between the states and the federal government to prevent abuses that characterized surface coal mining in the past. The Law gives states authority to regulate active coal mining and also fund reclamation of abandoned mine problems. The OSM grant, together with state matching funds, will cover costs of salary and fringe benefits for 246 Pennsylvania employees involved in the regulation of active coal mines.
The total budget for the state’s Surface Coal Program is $17.8 million dollars for the period October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005.
Information about coal mine reclamation is available online at www.osmre.gov
-OSM-
73 Rural Abandoned Mineland Program (RAMP) Update from NCAMR 2005-03-03 12:05:29
The National Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (NCAMR) has been working on the wording for an update revitalize the Rural Abandoned Mineland Program (RAMP) in the event that the AML Trust Fund is not re-authorized or in addition to the AML Trust Fund.
Please use our poll attached to this article to show how strongly you would support this legislation.
Below is the wording: Title: Rural Abandoned Mine Program Act of 2005 (Draft)
Section: — There is to be created a stand along reclamation program called the Rural Abandoned Mine Program (RAMP). The purpose of this program is to reclaim and restore land and water impacted by abandoned coal mining prior to 1977.
Purpose: — The purpose of the program shall be limited to the restoration of land and water resources and the environment previously degraded by effects of coal mining practices including measures for the conservation and development of soil, water, woodland, fish, and wildlife, recreation resources, and agriculture productivity (priority #3 under Reclamation Act of 1977).
Funding: — Although there is no current inventory of Priority #3 sites at present, it is estimated that approximately $30 billion is needed to reclaim these environmental problems impacting our nation. To implement the program, there is authorized to be appropriated, from the general funds, to Secretary of Agriculture such sums as may be necessary. The Secretary of Agriculture shall utilize the services of the Natural Resources Conservation Service to implement this program.
Eligible Lands and Water: — Land and water eligible for the reclamation or drainage abatement expenditures under this title are those which were mined for coal or were affected by such mining, waste banks, coal processing, or other coal mining processes prior to August 3rd, 1977 and for which there is no continuing reclamation responsibilities under state or federal law.
Reclamation of Rural Lands: —
(a) In order to provide for control and prevention of erosion and sedimentation damages from mined lands, and to promote the conservation and development of soil and water resources of unreclaimed mined lands and lands affected by mining, the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to enter into agreements of not more than ten years with landowners, residents, and tenants, and individually or collectively, determined by the Secretary to have control for the period of the agreement of lands in question therein; providing for land stabilization, erosion, and sediment control, and reclamation through conservation treatment including measures for the conservation and development of soil, water woodland, wildlife, and recreation resources and agriculture productivity of such lands. The Secretary of Agriculture shall make such agreement with owners, including owners of water rights, residents, or tenants of the lands in question.
(b) The land owner, including the owner of water rights, residents, or tenant shall furnish to the Secretary of Agriculture a conservation plan setting forth the proposed land uses and conservation treatment which shall be mutually agreed by the Secretary of Agriculture and to the landowner, including owner of the water rights, residents, or tenant to be needed on the lands for which the plan was prepared. In those instances where it is determined that the water rights or water supply of a tenant, landowner, including owner of water rights, resident, or tenant have been adversely affected by surface or underground coal mine operation which has removed or disturbed a stratum so as to significantly affect the hydrologic balance, such plan may include proposed measures to enhance water quality or quantity by means of joint action with other affected landowners including owners of water rights, residents, or tenants in consultation with appropriate State and Federal agencies.
(c) Such plans shall be incorporated in an agreement under which the landowner, including owner of water rights, resident, or tenant, shall agree with the Secretary of Agriculture to effect the land use and conservation treatment provided for in such plan on the lands described in the agreement in accordance with the terms and conditions thereof.
(d) In return for such an agreement by the landowner, the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to furnish financial and other assistance in such amounts and subject to such conditions as the Secretary of Agriculture determines are appropriate in the public interest for carrying out the land use and conservation set forth in the agreement. Grants made under this section, depending on the income-producing potential of the land after reclaiming, shall provide up to 80% per centum of the cost of carrying out such land uses and conservation treatment on not more than one hundred and twenty acres of land occupied by such owner, including water rights owners, residents, or tenant or’ on not more than one hundred and twenty acres of land which has been purchased jointly by such landowners, including water rights owners, residents, or tenants under an agreement under the enhancement of water quality or quantity or on land which has been acquired by an appropriate State or local agency for the purpose of implementing such an agreement; except the Secretary of Agriculture may reduce the matching cost share where he determines that (1) the main benefits to be derived from the project are related to improving the offsite esthetic values, or other offsite benefits, and (2) the matching share requirements would place a burden on the landowner which would probably prevent him from participating in the program: Provided that, however, that the Secretary of Agriculture may allow for land use and conservation treatment on such lands occupied by any such owner in excess of such one hundred and twenty acre limitation up to three hundred and twenty acres, but in such event the amount of the grant to such landowner to carry out such reclamation on such lands shall be reduced proportionately. Not withstanding any other provision of this section with regard to acreage limitations, the Secretary of Agriculture may carry out reclamation treatment projects to control erosion and improve water quality on all land within a hydrologic unit, if the Secretary determines that treatment of such lands as a hydrologic unit will achieve greater reduction in the adverse effects of past surface mining practices than would be achieved if reclamation was done on individual parcels of land.
(e) The Secretary of Agriculture may terminate any agreement with a landowner including water rights owners, operator, or occupier by mutual agreement if the Secretary of Agriculture determines that such termination would be in the best interest, and may agree to such modification of agreements previously entered into herein as he deems desirable to carry out the purposes of this section or to facilitate the practical administration of the program author1zed herein.
(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Agriculture, to the extent he deems it desirable to carry out the purposes of this section, may provide in any agreement herein under for (1) preservation for a period not to exceed the period covered by the agreement and an equal period thereafter of the cropland, crop acreage, and allotment history applicable to the land covered by the agreement for the purpose of any Federal program under which such history is used as a basis for an allotment or other limitation on the production of such crop; or (2) surrender of any such history and allotments.!
(g) The Secretary of Agriculture shall be authorized to issue such rules and regulations as he determines are necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.
(h) In carrying out the provisions of this section, the Secretary of Agriculture shall utilize the services of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
71 Governors and Tribal Leaders Invited To Nominate Projects for Watershed Grants 2005-02-23 12:24:19
News Brief- EPA’s latest development for release: (Washington, D.C. – February 18, 2005)
[align=center]Contact: Enesta Jones 202-564-7873/ jones.enesta@epa.gov[/align]To further protect and restore the country’s waterways, the Bush Administration is calling on the nation’s governors and tribal leaders to apply for the third round of EPA’s watershed grants. The Targeted Watersheds Grant Program was first proposed by the president in 2002 to protect America’s waterways. In its first two years, EPA awarded nearly $30 million in grants to 34 watershed organizations across the country. For fiscal year 2005, Congress has approved $18 million for grants to support community-based approaches and activities to help local water resources — $8 million of which will go directly to grants in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Today’s notice announces the beginning of the 2005 process for the $10million targeted for watershed nation-wide watershed grants.
“Our Targeted Watersheds Grant Program is a shining example of cooperative conservation and environmental innovation,” said EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Water Ben Grumbles.
The 34 watersheds already in the program cover more than 110,000 square miles of the nation’s lakes,rivers, and streams. They represent varied landscapes from the forests of Maine to the tropics of Hawaii;from the sparsely populated areas in Alaska to highly urbanized watersheds of the East Coast. Funds are already going toward restoration and protection projects such as stream stabilization and habitat enhancement, implementing agricultural and stormwater best management practices, and working with local municipalities and homeowners to promote sustainable practices and strategies. The selected organizations were chosen to receive the awards because their projects were the most likely to achieve environmental results quickly. Nominations by the country’s governors and tribal leaders for the third year of grants competition will be due to EPA on or before May 19, 2005. The agency will then evaluate and rank each submission based on a set of criteria outlined in today’s notice. Final selections of the watershed grantees will be announced in late summer. To access the Federal Register notice and other information about the Targeted Watersheds Grant Program go to: http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/initiative/.
69 Bush Plan Could Drain Effort to Clean Up Waters 2005-02-14 18:13:45 Source: Bustillo & Weiss, LA Times (2/9/2005)
For the second straight year, President Bush is proposing to slash federal assistance to modernize aging sewer plants and prevent polluted runoff from tainting rivers and beaches, despite the Environmental Protection Agency’s own estimate that billions of dollars are needed to clean up the nation’s waters. The clean water cuts are by no means the only environmental funding reductions in the Bush spending plan.
The EPA budget would be reduced by roughly 5.6% overall. Energy Department funding for efficiency and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power would be cut by about 4%. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget would be trimmed by 8.3% despite the White House’s recently announced action plan to better safeguard and rehabilitate the oceans. The cuts include a 38% reduction to the National Ocean Service, which works on ocean preservation and exploration, and a near 12% drop in funding to the National Marine Fisheries Service, which works to curb overfishing.
For the complete story visit: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-enviro9feb09,0,4835115.story?coll=la-home-nation
68 National Assoc. Of Abandoned Mine Land Programs Conference CFP 2005-02-14 18:08:53
The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) is issuing a first call for papers to be presented at the 27th annual conference of the National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs (NAAMLP). The conference is scheduled for September 18-21, 2005 at the Holiday Inn in Bristol, Virginia. With the assistance of the NAAMLP and the Interstate Mining Compact Commission, DMME looks forward to an exciting and highly informative conference. Download the CFP Application Here…
67 Using PA’s “Citizen Capital” To Cleanup Our Abandoned Mine Legacy 2005-02-14 17:56:31
By Bruce Golden, Regional Coordinator, Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation
(Note: These remarks were presented as testimony this week by Mr. Golden before the Green Ribbon Commission chaired by Rep. Bill Adolph (R-Delaware) and Sen. Mary Jo White (R-Venango) in Harrisburg.)
Chairman White, Chairman Adolph, and distinguished members of the Green Ribbon Commission, thank you for inviting me to speak before you about one of Pennsylvania’s most chronic environmental problems, acid mine drainage.
My name is Bruce Golden, Regional Coordinator of the Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, a non-profit group whose mission is to advance the cause of abandoned mine reclamation in western Pennsylvania.
Working in concert with county conservation districts, we see ourselves as a helping hand for those groups grappling with local problems caused by past mining practices. In existence for over 20 years, we are a recognized leader in this cause. Our sister organization, the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, is performing similar services in the anthracite coal region.
Years ago, before regulations protected the environment, extensive coal mining occurred throughout much of Pennsylvania. Mining operators minimized costs but in ways that turned out to be disastrous to the environment. Throughout coal country, rust-colored, lifeless waters are testament to a century’s worth of unregulated mining. Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the culprit. Characterized by its acidity and metal content, streams affected by AMD are generally not suitable for drinking or recreation.
We’ve inherited well over 4,000 miles of these seriously degraded waterways, now Pennsylvania’s single worst water pollution problem.
In spite of the magnitude of this problem, a truly remarkable phenomenon is happening in Pennsylvania: AMD impacted watersheds are being transformed into usable and desirable resources.
This renaissance of sorts is not just the story of environmental improvement, but one of the passionate people acting at the local level in partnership with government, business, industry, academia, non-profit organizations and foundations to bring about meaningful change.
It’s also the story of the success of passive treatment systems that have been instrumental in the treatment of AMD. I’ll illustrate with a two examples.
In Somerset and Cambria Counties, a local coalition known as the Stoneycreek River Improvement Project did what many thought next to impossible: in less than 8 years a virtually lifeless AMD impacted river now has 22 species of fish including reproducing trout. The upper reaches of the Stonycreek River are considered to be one of the best reclaimed trout fisheries in America.
Using passive treatment, that fishery extends to downtown Johnstown. People there are now looking to the river for economic growth from tourism, fishing, and white water rafting. Nature has tremendous resiliency given a chance: with only a partial cleanup, the Stoneycreek has made an amazing comeback. This astounding success was only possible through the dogged determination of over 55 active local partners dedicated to the project.
A similar story comes from the heavily mining-impacted watershed adopted by the an href=http://www.srwc.org/>Slippery Rock Creek Watershed Coalitionin Venango, Butler, Mercer, and Lawrence Counties.
Collectively their 12 passive treatment systems process 500 million gallons of AMD per year, enough water to supply 3 cities the size of Punxatauny. They remove enough iron and aluminum annually to construct 200 small pickups. In 11 miles of streams where fish, absent for 100 years, are back and reproducing.
The environmental success is equaled by the success of people and partners who have bought into the process and become involved at many levels. As proof that these projects take on lives of their own, I’ve given you a publication called “Accepting the Challenge” produced by the Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition that eloquently develops this topic. I urge you to examine this very approachable work.
I could go on and on about the successes that are being achieved throughout the Commonwealth by the people comprising more than 150 watershed groups and their partners. The energy and creativity released on projects is often something to behold. These are action-oriented people on a mission to improve their environment. If we could bottle this determination, energy and enthusiasm, we’d make a fortune.
I’d now like to turn to the technologies involved with treating AMD. First a little background. The most common way of treating AMD is to capture it as it exits the mining environment, then neutralize the acids and precipitate the metals as sludge. So-called active treatment methodologies directly add chemicals to the AMD on an ongoing basis in treatment facilities. Although effective, active treatment has not been widely used for legacy AMD problems because of high operations costs.
In contrast, passive treatment mimics nature’s way of treating AMD by using constructed wetlands and ponds, but still uses the strategy of neutralizing acids and precipitating metals.
Since the mid 1990s, passive treatment technologies have taken center stage in our AMD reclamation efforts. This still emerging technology has advanced substantially over the past decade. We better appreciate both the capabilities and limitations of passive treatment.
For instance, operations and maintenance are more important than originally thought, and we know we have to budget for those costs. We also appreciate that passive treatment may not always be the best alternative for every situation. Sometimes active treatment or a combination of active and passive methods makes for the most cost effective solution.
Other innovative approaches to the problem are being explored. For example,
· resource recovery looks to the metals in AMD for their potential economic value;
· in-situ treatment technologies have promise in treating AMD within the mining environment;
· waste streams from other industries may have value in treating AMD;
· marketing mine pool water as a resource to water intensive industries such as the power industry is something we’ve already started to do.
We commend DEP’s leadership role in encouraging these and other innovative approaches in dealing with AMD.
Now let’s turn to funding. Plain and simple, without adequate funding, we stop dead in our tracks.
The people behind these projects have worked very hard and have been very fortunate to obtain the funding necessary for their projects. Funding has come from a variety of sources, but without doubt the standout player has been the existing Growing Greener program.
Without Growing Greener much our successes would simply not have happened. And Growing Greener has been a wonderful catalyst for multiplying value. On average, for every Growing Greener dollar spent, another dollar was matched by project partners.
Pennsylvania is now the recognized leader in its approach to the dealing with AMD. And Growing Greener is the envy of many other states. I like to think of our approach as a triangle, with the sides representing people, technology, and funding. Each of the sides is dependent on the other two. And sufficient quantities of each are needed to make it all work. It’s a winning formula.
In formulating a game plan on how we go about dealing with the abandoned mine reclamation problems in Pennsylvania, it’s useful to examine the magnitude of the problem. Simply put, it’s big, real big. Many billions of dollars will be needed to fully address the problems statewide.
We need to be in this for the long haul. Realistically, even with optimistic estimates of costs and generous funding, it will take many decades to put this behind us (or behind our children and grandchildren). The decisions made in the upcoming months will help decide how many decades it may take.
In the triangle I referenced earlier, funding will always be the element in the shortest supply dictating the rate of progress. From our standpoint we need and can use all the funding that comes our way. The Governor’s Growing Greener II proposal, therefore, merits our support.
I’ll finish with these recommendations.
· The Commonwealth has a treasure in “citizen capital”. Take advantage of the tremendous energy and opportunity to leverage resources that exists with watershed groups and their partners by funding worthy local reclamation projects.
· Continue to invest in new, improved and innovative technologies.
· Protect the investments we make with reclamation projects by providing funds for operation and maintenance. [As a rule of thumb, we use 4% of the construction costs to estimate annual OM&R costs.]
· Work smarter. Strategically apply available resources to projects that will get the greatest bang for the buck. Many watershed groups have completed or are in the process of doing comprehensive watershed assessments that serve as a guide to their reclamation efforts.
· Be patient, but with a sense of urgency. Recognize the magnitude of the problem. Fund at the highest levels possible. Avoid “feast or famine” funding cycles.
I’d like to close with a passage from “Accepting the Challenge” which provides a fitting summary:
“Pennsylvania has the largest inventory of abandoned mine problems in the entire US. No one government agency, business, or concerned group of individuals can hope to restore the entire state. Only through cooperative partnerships, statewide concern, and the innovation of improved treatment techniques will this unfortunate legacy be resolved.”
Bruce Golden can be contacted at the Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation at 724-837-5271 ext. 136 or by bruce@wpcamr.org.
1/28/2005
66 Available Scholarships – Need More Minorities to Apply 2005-02-14 17:25:27
Even if you do not have a college-aged child at home, please share this with someone who does. Though there are a number of companies and organizations that have donated money for scholarship use to minorities, a great deal of the money is being returned because of a lack of interest.
Help to get the word out that money is available. Our youth really could use these scholarships. Click on the links to get to the website that has the grant. If this doesn’t work you will have to type in the Web site address manually or cut and paste.
1) BrainTrack’s Financial Aid Section http://www.braintrack.com/financial-aid-articles
2) Student Inventors Scholarships http://www.invent.org/collegiate/
3) Student Video Scholarships http://www.christophers.org/vidcon2k.html
4) Coca-Cola Two Year College Scholarships http://www.coca-colascholars.org/programs.html
5) Holocaust Remembrance Scholarships http://holocaust.hklaw.com/
6) Ayn Rand Essay Scholarships http://www.aynrand.org/contests/
7) Brand Essay Competition http://www.instituteforbrandleadership.org/IBLEssayContest-2002Rules.html
8 ) Gates Millennium Scholarships (major) http://www.gmsp.org/nominationmaterials/read.dbm?ID=12
9) Xerox Scholarships for Students http://www2.xerox.com/go/xrx/about_xerox/about_xerox_detail.jsp
10) Sports Scholarships and Internships http://www.ncaa.org/about/scholarships.html
11) National Assoc. of Black Journalists Scholarships (NABJ) http://www.nabj.org/html/studentsvcs.html
12) Saul T. Wilson Scholarships (Veterinary) http://www.aphis.usda.gov/mb/mrphr/jobs/stw.html
13) Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund http://www.thurgoodmarshallfund.org/sk_v6.cfm
14) FinAid: The Smart Students Guide to Financial Aid scholarships http://www.finaid.org/
15) Presidential Freedom Scholarships http://www.nationalservice.org/scholarships/
16) Microsoft Scholarship Program http://www.microsoft.com/college/scholarships/minority.asp
17) WiredScholar Free Scholarship Search http://www.wiredscholar.com/paying/scholarship_search/pay_scholarship_search.jsp
18 ) Hope Scholarships & Lifetime Credits http://www.ed.gov/inits/hope/
19) William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship for Minority Students http://www.apsanet.org/PS/grants/aspen3.cfm
20) Multiple List of Minority Scholarships http://gehon.ir.miami.edu/financial-assistance/Scholarship/black.html
21) Guaranteed Scholarships http://www.guaranteed-scholarships.com/
22) BOEING scholarships (some HBCU connects) http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/educationrelations/scholarships
23) Easley National Scholarship Program http://www.naas.org/senior.htm
24) Maryland Artists Scholarships http://www.maef.org/
26) Jacki Tuckfield Memorial Graduate Business Scholarship (for AA
students in South Florida http://www.jackituckfield.org/
27) Historically Black College & University Scholarships http://www.iesabroad.org/info/hbcu.htm
28 ) Actuarial Scholarships for Minority Students http://www.beanactuary.org/minority/scholarships.htm
29) International Students Scholarships & Aid Help http://www.iefa.org/
30) College Board Scholarship Search http://cbweb10p.collegeboard.org/fundfinder/html/fundfind01.html
31) Burger King Scholarship Program http://www.bkscholars.csfa.org/
32) Siemens Westinghouse Competition http://www.siemens-foundation.org/
33) GE and LuLac Scholarship Funds http://www.lulac.org/Programs/Scholar.html
34) CollegeNet’s Scholarship Database http://mach25.collegenet.com/cgi-bin/M25/index
35) Union Sponsored Scholarships and Aid http://www.aflcio.org/scholarships/scholar.htm
36) Federal Scholarships & Aid Gateways 25 Scholarship Gateways from
Black Excel http://www.blackexcel.org/25scholarships.htm
37) Scholarship & Financial Aid Help http://www.blackexcel.org/fin-sch.htm
38 ) Scholarship Links (Ed Finance Group) http://www.efg.net/link_scholarship.htm
39) FAFSA On The Web (Your Key Aid Form & Info) http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/
40) Aid & Resources For Re-Entry Students
http://www.back2college.com/
41) Scholarships for Study in Paralegal Studies http://www.paralegals.org/Choice/2000west.htm
42) HBCU Packard Sit Abroad Scholarships (for study around the world http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/packard_nomination.html
43) Scholarship and Fellowship Opportunities http://ccmi.uchicago.edu/schl1.html
44) INROADS internships http://www.inroads.org/
45) ACT-SO bEURoe “Olympics of the Mind” B Scholarships http://www.naacp.org/work/actso/act-so.shtml
46) Black Alliance for Educational Options Scholarships http://www.baeo.org/options/privatelyfinanced.jsp
47 ) ScienceNet Scholarship Listing http://www.sciencenet.emory.edu/undergrad/scholarships.html
48) Graduate Fellowships For Minorities Nationwide http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Student/GRFN/list.phtml?category=MINORITIES
49) RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS AT OXFORD http://www.rhodesscholar.org/info.html
50) The Roothbert Scholarship Fund http://www.roothbertfund.org/schol
APANA stands for Asian Pacific American Network in Agriculture, a department-wide employee organization in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Note: Ideas/comments and news items related USDA Asian employees are welcome.
2004-2006 Office Bearers
Ram Chandran, President 202-694-5446 chandran@ers.usda.gov Kris Murthy, Vice President 202-690-5646 Kris.Murthy@fsis.usda.gov Sylvia Magbanua, Treasurer 202-720-6488 smagbanua@nass.usda.gov Sheila Sankaran, Secretary 202-694-5010 ssankaran@ers.usda.gov
64 PA Environmental Professionals 2005 Annual Meeting and Conference 2005-01-19 14:18:03
“The Environmental Profession….Past Accomplishments, New Challenges, Everybody’s Future”
When: May 12th & 13th, 2005
Where: Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel Scranton
700 Lackawanna Avenue, Scranton PA 18503, US
Telephone: (570) 342-8300 Fax: (570) 342-0380
For more information or make a presentation follow this link.
The Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel, conveniently located in the heart of downtown Scranton, offers an impressive blend of amenities: Historic site, appealing guest accommodations, captivating Grand Lobby, Four star cuisine.
There will be your choice of Technical Tours or Golf on Wednesday Afternoon May 11th, 2005 with a very special reception that evening in honor of the dedicated PAEP Board of Directors
Please make your hotel reservations early, at the Special Conference Rate of $89.00 per night.
To make reservations at the Radisson call 570-342-8300 or 1-800-333-3333 and ask for: PA Association of Environmental Professionals.
Or you can go on our website and in the special promotional code type ENVIR
63 Governing Green Workshop Annapolis February 4, 2005 2005-01-19 13:37:56
Elected officials invited to bring staff. The Center for Chesapeake Communities in collaboration with the City of Annapolis will sponsor the first in a series of ‘Governing Green’ workshops for local government officials — elected and appointed here in Annapolis. Scheduled for February 4th- 8am to 5pm.
This first workshop will focus on innovative, practical, and cost effective strategies for integrating environmentally sensitive programs into municipal government. Annapolis’s unique community land trust, citizen engagement, green procurement and low impact development guidelines will serve as a models for this workshop. Mayor Moyer, numerous staff and community leaders will participate. A full agenda is available. All will share their experience, and answer questions in a series of panels and presentations,
Since the workshop will be held at Annapolis City Hall participation will be limited. Download the Brochure. Registration is $100. However elected officials can bring a staff guest for single enrollment. For further information E-mail gallenbay@aol.com or call the Gary Allen Executive Director of the Center at 410 267 8595 or register by sending check or purchase order to 229 Hanover Street, Suite 101 Annapolis, MD 21401
62 Anti-coal zealots’ opposition to clean-energy law misplaced 2005-01-19 13:17:04
Posted on Tue, Dec. 28, 2004
In attacking certain coal investments, they actually attack the environment.
By Kathleen McGinty
Pennsylvania now proudly boasts one of the most far-reaching and ambitious renewable-energy measures in the nation. Yet, during final debate on the issue in the waning days of the 2003-04 legislative session, some were willing to sacrifice real environmental progress in their apparent determination to kill the measure simply because it dared to mention coal along with wind and solar energy. Fortunately, progress won the day.
Gov. Rendell recently signed into law a clean-energy portfolio standard that ensures that in 15 years, 18 percent of all of the energy generated in the state will come from clean, efficient sources. The plan, sponsored by Sen. Ted Erickson (R., Delaware) and Rep. Chris Ross (R., Chester), promises dramatically to cut pollution, improve public health, encourage investments in advanced technologies, promote economic development, and cut energy costs.
Tier I of the two-tiered standard requires that 8 percent of electricity sold at retail in the state come from traditional renewable sources such as wind power, low-impact hydropower, geothermal energy and biomass energy.
Tier II of the standard requires 10 percent of our electricity to be generated from distributed generation systems, large-scale hydropower, municipal solid waste, and generation from pulping and wood manufacturing by-products. It also promotes conservation, and (horrifying to some) waste-coal cleanup and integrated coal gasification technology.
In attacking these specific kinds of coal investments, environmentalists actually are attacking the environment. Here’s why:
When acid mine drainage is the state’s leading water pollution problem, opposition to cleaning up and beneficially using the waste-coal piles that contribute to this crisis is anti-environment.
When communities suffer socially and economically because of blighted and scarred abandoned mine lands, opposition to returning these sites to clean, productive use is anti-environment.
When conventional coal-fired power plants are a leading source of air pollution in Pennsylvania, opposition to the new technologies that waste-coal facilities use to reduce air emissions and capture harmful pollutants is anti-environment and anti-public health.
When coal gasification facilities are 40 percent more efficient than traditional coal power generation and therefore that much cleaner, opposition to coal gasification is anti-environment, anti-public health and anti-climate stability.
Being anti-coal is not the same as being pro-environment. Anti-coal, anti-mining zealots fail to recognize – or, more precisely, choose to ignore – the fact that not a single windmill ever has been constructed without iron ore that was mined somewhere to make the frames. Solar panels that provide alternative energy sources to power machines and heat our homes are made from silicon, which comes from sand that, again, was mined from a beach somewhere in the world.
There are 8,529 acres of unreclaimed refuse piles with 258 million tons of waste coal in Pennsylvania. More than 2,200 miles of streams are impaired by polluted mine drainage. There are few uses for waste coal except electricity generation. More to the point, there simply aren’t enough available resources to address this multibillion-dollar problem.
Coal gasification offers one of the most versatile and clean ways to convert the energy content of coal into electricity, hydrogen, and other energy forms. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the environmental benefits stem from the capability to cleanse as much as 99 percent of the pollutant-forming impurities from coal-derived gases.
Waste-coal boilers, using circulating fluidized bed (CFB) combustion technology, cut mercury and dioxins by about 80 percent and 99 percent, compared with conventional bituminous coal boilers. For more than 30 years, the Department of Environmental Protection has collected information so that it can get estimates for all pollutants. These data show that emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide are substantially lower in CFBs than in pulverized coal-fired boilers.
Altogether, Pennsylvania’s clean energy standard portfolio will avoid 9,044,615 tons of carbon dioxide, 78,462 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 21,398 tons of nitrogen oxides each year. Surface waters and rural communities will enjoy additional benefits from reclaimed lands.
Many in the environmental community expressed concern in the last presidential election that fundamental ideologies were displacing facts and science in national environmental policy-making. They may be correct. But if they truly want to fix the problem, they need to start by looking in the mirror.
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Kathleen McGinty is secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
61 NYS DEC Stream Bioassessment Workshops for 2005 2005-01-02 21:31:10
[b]Benthic Macroinvertebrate Identification[/b]August 22 – 26, 2005
NYS DEC Pack Demonstration Forest
Warren County, NY
[i]Classroom instruction on benthic macroinvertebrate anatomy, ecology, and character interpretation as well as field and lab work will occur however, the emphasis will focus on lab work utilizing dissecting microscopes and aquatic keys to properly identify organisms. [/i] [b]Stream Bioassessment Institute 2005 [/b]August 15 – 19, 2005
NYS DEC Pack Demonstration Forest
Warren County, NY
[i]Daily instruction precedes teams working together in the field performing a bioassessment. Data collecting utilizes well-established protocols for physical, chemical, biological, and bacteriological collecting. [/i]Each five-day program takes place in the Southern Adirondack Park among numerous streams, lakes, and wetlands.
Fees: $600.00 per program, which includes all workshop materials, food, and lodging. Complete information is available at: www.hudsonbasin.org then click on workshops.
Each program is limited to 16 participants and early registration is recommended.
60 Audenreid Mine Tunnel Discharge Kickoff 2004-12-31 18:12:59
You’re Invited to help us kick off the construction of the Audenreid Mine Tunnel DischargeRemediation Project
The Catawissa Creek Restoration Association, EPCAMR and the Schuylkill Conservation District would like to invite you to celebrate the commencement of the Design and Construction of a Passive Treatment System for the Audenreid Mine Tunnel Discharge.
Date: January 6th, 2004
Time: 11:00am
Where: Schuylkill County Agriculture Center
The Audenreid Mine Tunnel Discharge is located within the Catawissa Creek Watershed approximately 2 miles East of the town of Sheppton in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The Audenreid Mine Tunnel Discharge is the largest abandoned mine drainage (AMD) discharge within the Catawissa Creek Watershed and the second largest discharge in the entire anthracite region. The design and construction of a passive treatment system for the Audenreid Mine Tunnel Discharge will effectively treat the discharge and restore 36 miles of water quality of the Catawissa Creek.
The Schuylkill Conservation District, in partnership with the Catawissa Creek Restoration Association, received a 1.4 million dollar Growing Greener grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection through Section 319 of the Federal Clean Water Act administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Join us for this event to learn more about the project, celebrate its commencement, and meet the partners responsible for making it possible.
Project Partners:
Catawissa Creek Restoration Association, Schuylkill County Conservation District, Columbia County Conservation District, Butler Enterprises, Paragon Adventure Park, Blue Knob Rod & Gun Club, East Union Township, Department of Environmental Protection, Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, Office of Surface Mining, Susquehanna River Basin Commission, Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Natural Resources Conservation Service, PA Fish & Boat Commission, Hedin Environmental, and RETTEW
For more information, contact Tom Davidock at the Schuylkill Conservation District (570) 622-3742 ext. 120
