Robert Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director, receives the $5,000 donation on behalf of EPCAMR & WPCAMR

In the past, applications were submitted for AMD projects, educational efforts, outreach and awareness programs, operation and maintenance of AMD treatment systems, and educational signage, among others. These projects help the AMD impacted watersheds. All applicants support ARIPPA and their mission to remove waste coal piles in our communities, convert it into renewable energy, and reuse the coal ash at mine reclamation sites. The groups awarded funding maintain diverse partnerships and secure various funding sources to complete projects with EPCAMR and WPCAMR. All of the applicants want clean water, an improved environment, and a better quality of life for their communities and the fisheries they are working to protect across Pennsylvania.

In Eastern Pennsylvania, EPCAMR awarded three projects for the year of 2015. First is the Mehoopany Creek Watershed Association (MCWA), who will be receiving $800 to cover the cost of 50 tons of high calcium carbonate limestone sand needed to treat the acidic conditions of the south branch of Mehoopany Creek, which is not only impacted by AMD, but also acid rain deposition in the headwaters.

Limestone sand pile

Askam AMD Treatment System

Second is the Earth Conservancy (EC), who will be receiving $1,200 to design and build a wayside environmental education exhibit for the Askam AMD Borehole Maelstrom Oxidizer Treatment System, located in Hanover Township, along Nanticoke Creek. EC will partner with students and teachers from the Wilkes-Barre Area School District to create several points of interest and design elements at the AMD treatment site to be used by students throughout the Wyoming Valley that take tours provided by EPCAMR and EC. The students will tour the site, while learning about the AMD treatment system, mine pools, abandoned mine land reclamation, wetlands, wildlife habitat. They will then design the content and locations of the exhibits.

Third, and finally, is the McGlynn Learning Center, who will be awarded $500 to partner with Home Depot to build bluebird boxes for abandoned mine lands and AMD sites throughout the Wyoming Valley, as well as for their own community housing developments.

Bluebird box

McGlynn Learning Center youth

The funds will be used for transportation, supplies, and the creation of EPCAMR’s iron oxide wood stain to paint some of the bird boxes, while others will be painted. These bluebird boxes are being donated by Home Depot and will be used to allow for increased wildlife habitat and diversity of bird populations within their complexes and out on some of the AMD sites that will be visited by the students. The McGlynn Learning Center has been serving vulnerable children since 1988. The Center provides after-school funding for tutoring, recreational, and cultural activities at no cost to the children or families that live within the low-income housing town homes. EPCAMR has a long history of supporting the Center that goes back nearly two decades.

Remediation projects are costly and long-term endeavors, with costs averaging between $10-20,000 per acre, according to the Pennsylvania Mining Reclamation Advisory Board. The ARIPPA Reclamation Awards are designed to help watershed groups continue their volunteer efforts toward improving our environment.

Organized in 1989, ARIPPA is a non-profit trade association representing alternative energy plants that remove coal refuse from AML areas, convert it into alternative energy, and use the ash byproduct to reclaim thousands of acres of mine-scarred lands and hundreds of miles of formerly dead streams, without any expenditure of tax dollars. To date, over 212 million tons of coal refuse has been converted into alternative energy by member plants. ARIPPA uses Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) technology, one of the cleanest methods available today.

The unique nature of ARIPPA’s environmental efforts, combined with the desire to coordinate these efforts with “hands-on” environmentally-oriented groups and governmental agencies, symbolizes its commitment to improving the nation’s landscape and environment. Updates and further information on the “coal refuse to alternative energy” industry can be found by using the links below.

Website:                             www.arippa.org

LinkedIn:                            www.linkedin.com/ARIPPA.org

Facebook:                          www.facebook.com/ARIPPA.org

Twitter:                               www.twitter.com/ARIPPAORG

YouTube:                             www.youtube.com/user/environmentalrenewal

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As the iron is exposed to oxygen, it falls to the bottom of the stream as thick orange precipitate, coating the sides and bottom of the channel and impacting native wildlife species. The Maelstrom Oxidizer injects large amounts of air through a series of tubes, allowing the iron to drop out of the water more quickly, this reducing the area coated with orange sediment, or Yellow Boy. However, the system does require the use of electricity, which can become a long-term maintenance cost issue for the Earth Conservancy.

This November 2013 photo shows the Askam AMD Treatment facility under construction.

In October 2011, EPCAMR was contracted by the Earth Conservancy to conduct a baseline study in order to test water quality, determine insect populations, and conduct a visual habitat assessment. The study, which took place over a period of two years from November 2011 to January 2013, showed that the Askam #1 and #2 have a combined typical flow of around 2000 gallons per minute with an average of 30 mg/L of iron. This means that 807 pounds of iron oxide are deposited into the Nanticoke Creek from this discharge alone daily.

This chart shows the amount of water flowing through the Askam #1 and #2 boreholes over a 2 year period. The flow can vary from 9000 gpm to 0 gpm.

One of two of the Askam AMD Boreholes spewing mine drainage into the Nanticoke Creek along Dundee Road just east of Loomis Park in Hanover Township

The data gathered by EPCAMR allowed staff to analyze and compare existing water conditions to previous baseline historic water quality data. After the construction project is completed, EPCAMR will continue to assess and monitor with 7 main services to be rendered. EPCAMR will first research, collect, summarize, and analyze existing baseline historic water quality data from reports, studies, assessments, projects, and remediation efforts in the Nanticoke Creek Watershed. Comparisons to historic water quality data will allow for a better understanding of how well the treatment system is working and how effective it is when compared to past water quality reports. Secondly, EPCAMR will be taking photo-inventory and descriptions of all Field Sites and Geographic Locations using GIS/GPS.

Located just off of Route 29, the Askam Treatment System would take up a proposed 61,650 square feet.

In addition, EPCAMR will perform Visual Stream Assessment and continued Water Quality Monitoring of the Nanticoke Creek Stream Habitat Corridor west of Middle Road to Loomis Park both pre & post construction of the treatment system, Areas that will be assessed within these areas include: Nanticoke Creek upstream of the Askam Borehole (instream), the Askam AMD Borehole Discharge, Nanticoke Creek downstream of the Askam Borehole (instream), and the Loomis Discharge along Dundee Road. EPCAMR will continue to assess the completed Askam Treatment System up to 1 year after completion. Along with assessment of water quality, EPCAMR will continue to take Biological Stream Samples in order to assess the presence and health of macro-invertebrates, fishes, and amphibians both upstream and downstream of the Askam Borehole. EPCAMR will perform water flow monitoring of Nanticoke Creek pre & post construction of the Askam AMD system. Assessing water flow will allow EPCAMR to determine the loading of iron, acidity, and alkalinity upstream and downstream of the borehole, at the Askam treatment system, and at the Loomis Discharge. Finally, EPCAMR will complete a final report compiling all of the data gathered over the course of the year long assessment period. All of EPCAMR’s services for the Askam AMD Treatment System will allow for continued monitoring of the area to assess stream health while providing an accurate picture of the effectiveness of the treatment system.

Once EPCAMR is finished with stream assessment and water quality testing, they will continue to be involved with the Askam Borehole Treatment system in order to use it as a resource for education and outreach on the impacts of AMD and the benefits of the Askam system. Using this will allow EPCAMR to provide insight to the local community and create and promote activities related to AMD treatment systems in partnership with the Earth Conservancy. “EPCAMR appreciates Earth Conservancy’s willingness to allow us to utilize this site and many others as outdoor environmental education classrooms throughout the year, otherwise, our students in this area will have learned very little about the mining impacts and the eventual treatment system processes that are improving our local waterways”, Robert Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director enthusiastically stated.

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