Joining us on September 8, 2026 as an AmeriCorps VISTA, in partnership with Conservation Legacy Stewards Individual Placements, is Kali Mellin. Kali is an anthracite region local, having been born and raised in Jermyn, Pennsylvania. A graduate of West Chester University of Pennsylvania in December of 2021, Kali holds a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in STEM-H (the H stands for Humanities!). Her degree comes with three minors: Biology, Geography, and Science Education. She also holds a Certificate in Desktop GIS from Pace University as of 2025. Kali will serve as a Stewards VISTA: Digital Mobilization Coordinator for a one year term with the goal of building capacity for EPCAMR to expand their education and awareness efforts in relation to abandoned mine lands reclamation, watershed assessments, and abandoned mine drainage (AMD) monitoring of flows, chemistry, and macroinvertebrate populations and stream health around the EPCAMR Region. Storytelling about our work and building databases of regional artists that we’re looking to pull together in the future to utilize our iron oxide pigment to create enough pieces of work to hold an Art Show highlighting the various mediums used for art will are just two examples of service work that are in her Volunteer Activity Description (VAD).

Graphic by Kali Mellin. A rundown on how her position falls under all of these different organizations at one time.

EPCAMR actively works toward the reclamation and redevelopment of land affected by past mining practices. This includes reducing environmental hazards to health and safety and returning land affected by past mining practices to productive use, thereby improving the economy and livelihoods of those living in the region.

EPCAMR’s current initiatives include, but are not limited to, illegal dump site cleanups (with tire recycling!), Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful “Open Your Eyes to Litter” Program for elementary students, participation in Trout in the Classroom through a partnership with PA Fish and Boat Commission and PA Council of Trout Unlimited, and water quality monitoring programs such as that at the Rocky Run Headwaters in State Game Lands 260.

Clip originally from The Times-Tribune, October 2009. Scan courtesy of Scranton Public Library.

Kali’s first impression of EPCAMR was in October of 2009 when they attended Lakeland Elementary’s “Water Festival” and introduced 4th grade students to AMD with iron oxide tie-dye. She was re-introduced during the pandemic year of 2020 through a Facebook post from PA Environment Digest, then followed EPCAMR’s Facebook page to keep up with the great work they were doing locally with hopes to get involved. Building a career in an environmental field has been the natural progression of Kali’s life; she grew up in Pennsylvania’s forests, streams, and ponds getting dirty and, most importantly, asking questions. Most recently her education has continued through volunteering as a Penn State Extension Master Watershed Steward and substitute teaching at her local high school. Both opportunities have offered a wealth of experiences to “teach the teacher”! Kali considers her insatiable thirst for knowledge a main personality trait.

“I’m looking forward to assisting EPCAMR in serving my community by participating in education and outreach and building capacity by creating, improving, and expanding the reach of EPCAMR’s educational and informational materials” says Kali. “This opportunity allows me to use my strengths in research and organization combined with my passion for improving environmental literacy to serve my community in a way that can cause great impact.”

Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director went on to say, “I just love finding out that there are students that still remember pivotal core memories of working with us over the last 3 decades when we had conducted an outdoor environmental meaningful watershed experience when they were in elementary or high school and come to find that they continued to have a passion for the environment as they got older. Knowing that Kali was a part of a program that we ran 17 years ago is heartwarming and makes me feel very proud and happy to know that she’s found a way back to EPCAMR in this capacity as an AmeriCorps with us. She’s a coaltown kid herself. She can relate. She’s lived it and is still living with the legacy and now gets to play an active role in helping us to address these environmental issues within our most underserved communities by helping us build capacity, provide environmental education opportunities, and encourage environmental stewardship of our youth, much like I did for her when she was younger at Lakeland Elementary as a part of the Watershed Festival. She’s a natural teacher and I can see that already in her. I told her she has the same name as my only granddaughter, except she spells it with a C and not a K, and she has a lot more sass to her at the ripe old age of 6, and she gives my oldest and only daughter, Hayley, a run for her money. I’m looking forward to her service term with us over the next year and am excited that she’s hear with us. She’s off to a great start and has already become certified in our NAACC Stream Continuity Aquatic Organism Passage training program for when we go out and assess culverts and bridges for aquatic passage as a part of our development of coldwater conservation plans.”

Formed in 1995 by concerned conservation districts, EPCAMR represents a coalition of watershed organizations and reclamation partners. Members range from individuals to the active anthracite mining industry and co-generation power plants, to non-profit organizations, 16 county conservation districts, and other organizations in the anthracite and bituminous coal region of eastern Pennsylvania that are involved with abandoned mine reclamation issues. Counties covered by EPCAMR in Northeastern and North Central PA include: Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Dauphin, Lackawanna, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wayne, and Wyoming. As of the last census (2020), the population we serve equates to approximately 1.7 million people. 

The post EPCAMR Brings on Kali Mellin as AmeriCorps VISTA Digital Mobilization Coordinator through Conservation Legacy and Stewards Individual Placement appeared first on epcamr.org.

This means Pennsylvania must increase our energy supply to keep costs down – and the
cheapest and fastest type of energy to deploy is renewable energy, namely solar and energy
efficiency measures.

Many households that go solar or use energy efficient measures save hundreds to even
thousands of dollars a year – and organizations that consume a lot of energy can save tens of
thousands a year or more.

Our Executive Director, Bobby Hughes, is a volunteer with Energy Independence for Pennsylvania and has been writing Op-Eds and been posting information to various social media groups to talk about Solar Energy in PA. We’ve done a lot of research on assessing solar suitability for abandoned mine lands. See our Assessment Report co-authored and written by LaBella Associates and EPCAMR back in 2024.

We are presenting and giving the Energy Independence for PA Presentation to our EPCAMR Board Members for their review and further digestion after the meeting on August 20th, 2026, so that they can take it back to their communities and see if it’s something that might be of interest to their members of the community groups, watershed associations, and Conservation Districts that many of them represent. Check out the Energy Independence for PA website for resources and ways that you might be able to save money for you and your families as homeowners and for businesses and non-profits.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mark is one of 18 service members chosen to participate in the first class of the newly established “Energy Communities AmeriCorps,” part of a national effort to revitalize coal communities.

EPCAMR is the first organization in eastern Pennsylvania’s Northern Appalachian Anthracite Coalfields – and currently one of only two nonprofits in the Keystone State – to host a service member as part of the innovative Energy Communities initiative. Other service members will be based at nonprofits in communities from West Virginia to Wyoming.

“It’s a small world here in Northeastern PA. Six degrees of separation seem to always come into play. Mark’s resume and experience over his career were a perfect match for EPCAMR when I developed the Volunteer Activity Description (VAD) for the Community Development Coordinator position that he will fill,” said EPCAMR Executive Director Bobby Hughes, who is Mark’s supervisor.

Jones

“He’s joining us at just the right time,” Bobby added. “He understands and has lived in the coal region long enough to have seen many of the same positive reclamation, restoration, and diversification of economies on the landscape of our former abandoned mine lands that was once dominated by a single industry: anthracite coal mining. He’s covered EPCAMR projects at his previous job with The Times Leader newspaper and was familiar with our work, and my instinct told me that his affinity and background working with many nonprofits that I was already very familiar with was a huge determining factor in my selection of him for the volunteer position.”

Mark will serve through Dec. 3, 2025. He and his fellow service members will strive to leverage and bring resources to their respective coal communities to spur job creation, support economic revitalization, and address environmental degradation.

The service members will focus on projects that build capacity of nonprofit organizations, local economic development districts, and other organizations. They will carry out activities such as conducting community needs assessments, organizing public meetings, assisting with grant writing, providing outreach on tax incentives and other federal resources to support economic development, increasing public awareness about training and employment opportunities, and educating residents about hazards associated with abandoned mine lands.

“I am privileged to be a small part of this much-needed effort to transform coal communities that historically helped to power our nation’s growth and development but, which, sadly, still bear the scars of those intensive mining activities,” said Mark, of Kingston.

A Pennsylvania native, Mark graduated in 1991 from Penn State University. He formerly worked as a print journalist in places including suburban Phoenix, Arizona, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He started a civic journalism project at The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre to strengthen the area’s nonprofit safety net; the project was later recognized with a public service award by the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Most recently, Mark was employed by The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, based in Scranton.

AmeriCorps developed the Energy Communities AmeriCorps project in partnership with the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization (Energy Communities IWG), which serves as a hub for federal coordination and stakeholder engagement to spur economic revitalization and support workers in distressed energy communities.

The Energy Communities IWG has so far launched seven Rapid Response Teams to align federal resources in communities experiencing recent or imminent economic downturns. AmeriCorps members will work closely with these Rapid Response Teams to engage local government, business, and nonprofit stakeholders in each energy community.

Energy Communities AmeriCorps is funded through a unique multi-agency public private partnership with support from members of the Energy Communities IWG – the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Conservation Legacy, the project’s sponsor, is a longstanding AmeriCorps partner with extensive experience working in coal communities. Over the past 22 years, Conservation Legacy has engaged more than 1,200 AmeriCorps members in supporting economic development and revitalization in energy communities in Appalachia and the Intermountain West. These members have secured $41 million in grants and in-kind resources, recruited 100,000 volunteers, trained 16,000 community members in water quality monitoring, and improved 3.2 million acres of land.

EPCAMR, which got its start in 1995, encourages the reclamation and redevelopment of land affected by past mining practices. This includes reducing hazards to health and safety, eliminating soil erosion, improving water quality, and returning land affected by past mining practices to productive use, thereby improving the economy of the region.” For additional information, including how you can get involved, visit epcamr.org.

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The Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR) is sponsoring an AmeriCorps State and National Member Volunteer, Morgan Romanowski, until September 5, 2025, through a partnership between the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation & Enforcement (OSMRE),  AmeriCorps, and the Stewards Individual Placement Program (SIPP), a Program of Conservation Legacy. We’re proud to be a national non-profit partner in Pennsylvania.

“EPCAMR is excited to have Morgan on board for this next year to assist us as a volunteer to help us out with the numerous projects we have on our plate right now. We are striving for additional funding to provide increased organizational capacity for our organization. It’s been very difficult to secure funding to support full-time employment of a number of positions with EPCAMR through grants. Ultimately, we have to manage a large number of them to keep ourselves sustainable over the long-term. We’re very humbled to have been chosen once again for this position after speaking with a colleague of ours, April Elkins-Badtke, Executive Director for Stewards Individual Placements-East, in Beckley, West Virginia.” Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director and Morgan’s Supervisor, stated.

Back in June 2024, I had discussed with April our desire to host and sponsor a position or two if funding was available and Northeastern PA would be considered as a part of the larger Energy Community Areas in Pennsylvania. EPCAMR had worked with previously a number of years ago to support and host two other Office of Surface Mining Reclamation & Enforcement (OSMRE) AmeriCorps volunteers and an 8-week summer internship position that turned into a year-long AmeriCorps Volunteer In Service to America (VISTA) position in 2020, funded through the Foundation for PA Watersheds and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)  Yolande Norman, Division Chief at OSMRE, has approved the placement of two national service members at EPCAMR! We are excited to be a part of the Energy Community AmeriCorps Program (ECAP) this fall to provide capacity to communities that are working hard every day like us to make our communities more resilient and able to enjoy a much better quality of life. EPCAMR is currently recruiting for the second Community Development Coordinator VISTA position that can be found at MyAmeriCorps,” Bobby passionately stated.

As an OSMRE AmeriCorps Fellow, Morgan will follow the similar paths of many of our previous seasonal internships, except instead of 12 weeks, it will be for 52 weeks! She has the flexibility to perform any tasks that pertain to abandoned mine land (AML) mapping, water quality monitoring, environmental education, outreach, and storytelling. EPCAMR will be creating some story maps on the work that is happening around the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, AMLER funding, and more that we are working on for the OSMRE. This position can be in the field, in AMD, in streams, in the woods, on public lands, and or gathering data, creating geographic information system (GIS) maps, assisting community watershed groups, conservation groups, Conservation Districts, and EPCAMR regional partners to advance our mission or reclaiming abandoned mine lands and restoring watersheds impacted by legacy abandoned mine drainage (AMD) pollution,” Bobby explained.

Morgan was measuring the strike and dip at the headwaters of Nanticoke Creek in the rain along Holly Street just on the other side of the road heading downstream.

Morgan graduated from Wilkes University on May 18^th 2024, with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and a minor in Geology. She is from Scott Township, Lackawanna County, just outside the Northern Anthracite Coalfields, in the Lackawanna Valley. During her time at Wilkes, she worked on a research project with her friend Hope Mullins and senior partner, and Dr. Karimi, PhD, that involved tracking the disappearing waters on the Nanticoke creek into mine pools below the surface, entitled, Feasibility Study Using Saline Tracers And Electrical Surveying To Track Disappearing Stream Waters In Luzerne County, PA. EPCAMR and the Earth Conservancy had provided her Professor, Dr. Boback Karimi, PhD, with some some surface and underground mine maps that were useful to their project. She also interned with the Department of Environmental Protection’s Clean Water Program from summer of 2023 up until she graduated in 2024. She has plenty of experience with some of the typical field monitoring equipment that EPCAMR uses already. 

The SIPP program is sponsored by the Conservation Legacy, a nonprofit that is dedicated to funding environmental stewardship throughout America. EPCAMR is looking forward to working with Patricia “Trish” Urquiza Silva, Program Manager, for the SIPP.

EPCAMR has developed a 1-year Project Plan outlining the volunteer project goals to be worked towards during Morgan’s time of service. Some of these projects include assisting in fundraising efforts, developing various resource maps using GIS, scanning and cataloging underground mine maps, watershed assessment work, monitoring water quality within the EPCAMR region, and providing educational experiences to underserved youth, camps, and school districts in the region as funding allows.

“I am looking forward to working with EPCAMR to help provide environmentally sustainable solutions to underserved communities within the eastern Pennsylvania region impacted by abandoned mine lands, whether it be through environmental education and outreach, creating GIS maps, conducting field assessments, or writing grant proposals,” said Morgan.

Severe streambank erosion along a section of the Nanticoke Creek showing a steep, highly eroded area with tree roots exposed and extreme undercutting of the bank.

One project she looks forward to is assisting EPCAMR with the monitoring of water quality, AMD, mine pool elevations, flow loss points, and stream flows within the Nanticoke Creek watershed in partnership with the Earth Conservancy. The Nanticoke Creek experiences flow loss from water flowing into mine pools beneath the surface. EPCAMR and Earth Conservancy will be continuing to conduct monitoring of the Creek and the local mine pool to help with their $17.5 million dollar Nanticoke Creek Watershed Restoration funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and other funding sources.

Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director, flying their DJI Mavic 2 Dual Enterprise drone upstream and over the abandoned culm banks and legacy Anthracite spoil material in the dry stream channel along Nanticoke Creek’s headwaters where the Earth Conservancy will be reclaiming the site and putting the creek back up on the surface.

“I am excited about working on this particular project because it is a continuation of the research work I completed for my senior project at Wilkes University. Í have seen firsthand how the flow loss affects the Creek and how the water is negatively impacted from its journey through the mine pools until it eventually resurfaces through the Askam Borehole where abandoned mine drainage (AMD) impacts the lower reaches of the Nanticoke Creek and where an existing AMD Maelstrom Oxidizer Treatment System is in placed operated and maintained by the Earth Conservancy and monitored by EPCAMR.

The Maelstrom Oxidizer AMD Treatment System on Nanticoke Creek along Dundee Road owned and operated by the Earth Conservancy and monitored by EPCAMR.

Askam AMD discharge into the Nanticoke Creek along Dundee Road in Hanover Township, Luzerne County, PA.

It’s used as a outdoor environmental education learning center for experiential learning opportunities and tours throughout the year. Restoration of the stream channel help to reduce the formation of AMD downstream,” said Morgan.

Brookie the Trout, one of EPCAMR’s two puppets tagged along for an AMD Tie-Dye Workshop with the Lackawanna River Conservation Association and PA American Water, at their annual Water Camp in Peckville, PA at the Valley Library.

Morgan also looks forward to participating in the various education and outreach programs that EPCAMR provides which includes, but is not limited to, tabling at community environmental events, water camps, and AMD tie-dye workshops with the trout puppets.

“I cannot stress enough the importance of environmental outreach and education within a community. By providing educational outreach programs, EPCAMR is filling a gap that most elementary schools and high schools have in their education programs when it comes to the environmental sciences. Their trout puppets and Environmental Education Streamside Hub webpage complete with videos, activities, and teacher curriculums and lesson plans is phenomenal and every teacher and environmental educator should be looking into it and using what they can in the classroom since the information that is on the site meets PA State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. They are also spreading awareness of the issues that are caused by the abandoned mine lands that are right in people’s backyards,” said Morgan.

Morgan has already been a volunteer with EPCAMR since April of 2022 when she completed a Non-Tidal Streams Protocol Training with EPCAMR, where she learned about how to properly assess roads, bridges, pipes, culverts, and crossings for aquatic organism passage. The online training portion was in partnership with the UMass Extension, in the Center for Agriculture, Food, and Environment, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC).

The top of the Falls on Little Shickshinny Creek on State Game Lands 55 not far from the parking lot along Shickshinny Valley Road where the bedding plane of the rocks across the creek create an opening before the long drop to the plunge pool below.

“This fall, Morgan will be joining some of the EPCAMR Staff in the field to conduct aquatic organism passage surveys of many of the roads, bridges, culverts, and pipes in the Little Shickshinny Creek watershed, Paddy Run, and Rocky Run tributaries on the State Game Lands 260 and 55, in the southern tip of the northern Anthracite coalfields in the former Salem Coal Company and Stackhouse Colliery area and along other publicly accessible areas where the streams and their tributaries cross over these infrastructure features to determine how passable they are for fish and aquatic life. She will survey 20 culverts in the field with the EPCAMR Staff and Bobby, who is a volunteer Lead Observer Coordinator 1 for the NAACC and she will then become certified as a Lead Observer in Aquatic Organism Passage (AOP) through NAACC. She will be very busy over the next year. These projects mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg,” Bobby Hughes jokingly stated.

Looking downstream at the Falls on Little Shickshinny Creek on State Game Lands 55.

The post EPCAMR Welcomes and Hosts AmeriCorps State & National Member Volunteer Morgan Romanowski For A Year of Coalfield Community Service appeared first on epcamr.org.

Figure 1. Aspect Raster Layer of a portion of the Northern Anthracite Coalfields

Suitability Layer of a portion of the Northern Anthracite Coalfields related to Solar within coalfield communities and the potential siting on formerly reclaimed abandoned mine lands

The post The Just Transition Fund Awards EPCAMR $25K Planning and Outreach Grant to Reach New Partners in the Solar Markets to Discuss Future Development Opportunities on Reclaimed Abandoned Mine Lands in PA Coalfield Communities appeared first on epcamr.org.

Congressman Matt Cartwright joins EPCAMR in congratulating our regional organizations in obtaining $50,000 in NFWF Federal Funding to assist in planning, assessing, and working towards the restoration, assessing areas for the removal of sediments and coal silts, identifying stormwater management issues, and assessing eastern brook trout and American black duck habitat for wildlife habitat improvements projects.

“When mining companies picked up and left Northeastern Pennsylvania, they weren’t held accountable for polluting our rivers and streams, and they left our communities to pick up the tab,” said Cartwright, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “I don’t believe our friends and neighbors should be on the hook financially for a problem they didn’t create. It’s why I’ve always fought hard to boost funding for initiatives like the Chesapeake Bay Program, money that is being put to work to help dedicated advocates like LRCA and EPCAMR clean up the pollution and restore our communities to new glory. These resources will allow for more projects that will leave a legacy of clean water and air for generations to come while lessening the burden on homeowners in our area today.”

Bernie McGurl, Executive Director of the Lackawanna River Conservation Association (LRCA) talks about the Leggett’s Creek greenway and stream restoration planning project.

“We are very pleased with the opportunity to fully develop the greenway and stream restoration plans for this stretch of Leggetts Creek. We will finish construction designs and permitting for a number of projects to begin stream channel restoration, address the impacts of coal mining and urban stormwater, and design recreational trail and stream access sites to enhance the quality of life for neighborhood residents and visitors. We expect to make progress on a range of projects that we will continue to build upon in the years ahead to bring about the restoration of this reach of Leggetts Creek,” said Bernie McGurl, Director of LRCA.

“EPCAMR is looking forward to assessing these historic mining-impacted watersheds along the eastern flank of the Southern Wyoming Valley in partnership with the local governments, community partners, and wildlife and conservation organizations,” said Bobby Hughes, Executive Director of EPCAMR. “We will develop recommendations and a plan following the assessment and monitoring within these watersheds that will lead to future implementation projects that will help our communities to reclaim, remediate, and restore areas that are critical to improving the old infrastructure, improve the water quality locally, and eventually the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay.”

Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director explaining to the audience at the Nay Aug Avenue Natural Playground Pavilion the scope of the work that will be completed along the watersheds on the eastern flank of the Southern Wyoming Valley using a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) watershed map created by his staff.

“After nearly 200 years of mining impacts to Northeastern Pennsylvania, worthy projects like this will receive important funding. This funding helps us better understand where our polluted waters are and how they can be cleaned up.  Most importantly, these projects present potential opportunities for recreation and economic development, so important for the future of our region,” said Jacqui Bonomo, President & CEO of PennFuture.

Jacqui Bonomo, President & CEO of PennFuture speaks at the press event to highlight the great work that EPCAMR and LRCA are doing in NE PA. PennFuture, LRCA, and EPCAMR are all members of the PA Choose Clean Water Coalition, who are many of the 250 leading environmental groups within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed from multiple states who advocate and work towards having clean water within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, a National Treasure.

As part of the fiscal year 2020 appropriations process, Cartwright successfully increased funding for the Chesapeake Bay Program by $12 million, to a total of $85 million in Fiscal Year 2020. That included a $6 million increase to the Small Watershed Grants Program, for a total of $18 million in FY2020, which is funding the projects that LRCA and EPCAMR will oversee and manage. These federal programs aim to improve the water quality and habitats of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries through the Small Watershed Grants (SWG) programs. They also can help lessen the burden on homeowners, who often have to pay “stormwater fees” imposed by municipal governments as the Commonwealth works to meet its obligation to restore our watershed.

The Leggetts Creek Greenway Project, managed by LRCA, addresses environmental concerns such as a compromised ecosystem lacking in biodiversity caused by the region’s anthracite coal mining and commercial residential development. The funds will be used to install bank stabilization measures, manage stormwater runoff, and run a monitoring and management program to maintain project efficiency.

EPCAMR will use its grant to fund their initiative, the Wyoming Valley Chesapeake Bay Tributary Field Assessments and Monitoring. The project will recruit volunteers to aid in restoring local natural resources impacted by past mining and provide hands-on field training and observation skills to identify sedimentation, stormwater, and aquatic organism passage in the Wyoming Valley. They also plan to develop and recommend conservation, watershed, and habitat management plans and implementation projects to guide landowners, organizations, and local governments in restoring areas for successful conservation outcomes.

The awards are distributed through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and awarded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).

The post Cartwright Joins Advocates (EPCAMR and LRCA) for Announcement of $100,000 in Federal NFWF Funding to Clean Up Area Waterways appeared first on epcamr.org.

Since that time, the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR), a 25 year regional environmental non-profit organization based out of Northeastern PA’s Anthracite Region, has continued to provide feedback and continued support to legislators and potential co-sponsors of the bill. We have been in collaboration with National and State experts in the reclamation and administrative processes that are paramount and essential to strengthen the bill and its effectiveness in seeing to it that reclamation and economic development of our abandoned mine lands get reclaimed.

EPCAMR providing students with a tour of the Old Forge AMD Borehole that pollutes the lower 3 miles of the Lackawanna River since the early 1960s.

There needs to be even broader support for HR 4248 (Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act Amendments of 2019) that needs to be extended to 2036 that was introduced by Congressman Matt Cartwright. It currently has 28 co-sponsors. EPCAMR is a part of a group of organizations in PA that are in the PA Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Campaign that is a no-budget, no-letterhead group of organizations and individuals advocating for policies and programs that benefit the coal-impacted communities of PA and beyond.

EPCAMR would like to see the Abandoned Mine Land mandatory distribution funds be exempt from sequestration under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act and have the funds that have been sequestered during the Fiscal Years 2013-2018 be returned for utilization by States impacted by abandoned mines.

EPCAMR supports the waiver language being added into the Senate version of the RECLAIM Act because it will be key to the successful implementation of its passage. The funds should be allocated to distressed communities as a priority. We support extensions of projects knowing that the permitting process, review process, weather, construction site conditions, market conditions, executing contracting agreements, and grants can take some time to become fully executed. This does not mean that potential projects should become bogged down in bureaucratic and administrative paperwork to slow down the implementation process to get the money on the ground and shovels into the ground. We believe there should be a reasonable amount of time for the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Field Offices to review, vet and approve project proposals so that they don’t overlook details in the permits or put unnecessary pressure on Staff or reduce opportunities for stakeholder involvement.

PA and other States and Tribes will incur costs to implement the RECLAIM Act and the Reauthorization of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which needs to be extended another 15 years, at least, to address our concerns with abandoned mine lands and polluted mine water from abandoned mine drainage (AMD). A portion of these funds is important for our agencies to utilize to plan, design, construct, and administer projects. Contracts that will go out for bid will also create more local jobs for the economies that need the infusion of additional work opportunities in multiple service sectors that will help to reduce unemployment and the loss of even more employment opportunities that we currently are experiencing since the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread in the Spring, not only affecting the health and lives of our communities but their jobs, businesses, and livelihoods as well.

EPCAMR led a tour of PA Congressmen, Senator John Yudichak, and supporting partners, including the State PA DEP Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, Swoyersville Mayor, Keystone Reclamation Fuels Management LLC, Olympus Power, Northampton Generating, and Staff to the Swoyersville Culm Bank Pilot Reclamation and Community Athletic Area Project in Luzerne County, for a press conference and media event on the need for the continued support and co-sponsorship of the RECLAIM Act and Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act Reauthorization Amendments of 2019.

We believe that public meetings are likely not required for every project, however, we do encourage engagement with community stakeholders of a proposed project prior to State agencies submitting proposals to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for approval. This will ensure accountability and oversight on the local level, which includes the ability to request a public hearing and that the public is notified through local newspapers, the internet/agency websites, and through email notification. These methods of communication are important to community stakeholders and residents. The opportunity to submit comments and request a hearing, if necessary, within a reasonable time-frame promotes transparency and accountability.

The Hughes Family out on a hike on a former abandoned mine site that is now a recreational area that has been taken in by many outdoor recreational enthusiasts due to COVID-19 for family time and to reconnect with nature.

More and more people during this pandemic have been escaping to nature to just get away and relieve some stress and to calm themselves down from the anxiety that COVID-19 has created in our communities to where it has led to the point of mental exhaustion. People, like myself, have gone to refuges that were formerly abandoned mine lands that are now green spaces and trails within the lower Wyoming Valley to take my children for walks, to hike, to get back to nature and out of our stay at home orders and somewhat restricted environments of our homes.

Ethan Hughes enjoying the outdoors after hiking along the Penobscot Ridge Mountain Bike Trail constructed by the Earth Conservancy and funds from the Abandoned Mine Land Trust Fund to reclaim the former mine site in Wanamie, Newport Township, Luzerne County, PA.

A photo of a natural area that has grown up around the former AMD Wetlands Treatment System operated by the Earth Conservancy, along Dundee Road in Hanover Township, Luzerne County, PA.

Reclamation of our abandoned mine lands and improvements to restore the water quality of our rivers and streams that have been devastated by the impacts of our past mining legacy can now become destinations and outdoor recreational opportunities while creating jobs at the same time to reclaim and restore them. The time is now to pass these bills and move Appalachia and other coal impacted communities forward across the Country. Place RECLAIM Act and the AML Reauthorization Act in a near term stimulus-related recovery package.  Representatives Matt Cartwright (PA-08), Debbie Dingell (MI-12), Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Alan Lowenthal (CA-47), Deb Haaland (NM-01), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE-At Large) and Ruben Gallego (AZ-07) urged House Leadership to include a “Restoration and Resilience Jobs” program in future economic recovery packages back in May of this year signed by 79 members of Congress. Please get your legislators to co-sponsor both important bills.

Bobby Hughes, Executive Director-EPCAMR

(This letter without photos has been submitted to several newspapers for consideration for publication in their Letter to the Editors digital and print media sections.)

The post Pass the RECLAIM Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act Amendments of 2019 appeared first on epcamr.org.

EPCAMR’s grant coordination will be conducted in the Fall of 2020 with students from the Wilkes-Barre Area School District as we continue to work with Mike Corcoran, who has been a long-time partner with EPCAMR on many grants over the last few decades.  Mike will help to decide which classes can participate in the grant in the Elementary School System.

“This grant will help us build stewardship for our watersheds in our local youth and their families. We recognize that children are our future leaders, so it is crucial to teach them about local environmental issues and help them understand they have the power to directly help,” says Environmental Educator at EPCAMR, Laura Rinehimer, who is leading the project. EPCAMR Program Manager Michael Hewitt added, “It’s important for kids to understand what they do. Their habits can greatly impact our environment and society, in general. If we learn good habits early, it’s not so hard for us to change them later.” 

The original grant, which consisted of students going on an interactive field trip and leading their own action project, needed to be changed due to Covid-19. Instead of being able to physically take students to locations in our watersheds, EPCAMR will be creating boxed kits to send to the students with everything they need for a virtual tour. Accompanying videos will be created to allow students to “visit” the locations from the safety of their homes. These boxes include an informative guided nature journal, an original board game created by EPCAMR staff, and other materials to complete science exploration activities. Laura Rinehimer stated, “We want the kits to be a hands-on way for children to have fun exploring and learning about their local environment so that they can fall in love with nature in their own communities and feel empowered to protect it.”

Students from the Bear Creek Charter School learning about how to identify macroinvertebrates with EPCAMR.

The kits will teach children about the different types of pollution impacting our watersheds, emphasizing abandoned mine discharge (AMD) leading to iron oxide deposits in our water. This is harmful to aquatic life, coating the gills of small fish, inadvertent drinking of the polluted mine water by small animals, reducing light needed for photosynthesis in aquatic plants and algae, and leading to sediment buildup which smothers food sources and spawning beds. The emphasis, however, will be about the solutions to our environmental problems. Michael Hewitt stated, “We find it important to treat mine drainage and other nonpoint source pollution at its source in the headwater tributaries to limit the impacts of dead zones and sediment downstream and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay.”

EPCAMR Executive Director Bobby Hughes with some excited and enthused fellow students from the Heights Murray Elementary School in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District at an outdoor Environmental Education Program at Francis Slocum State Park.

Students will learn about active and passive treatment systems used to reduce the AMD entering our waterways. They will also learn about ways to directly help keep our waters clean, such as protecting and planting riparian buffer zones, conducting streamside cleanups, and making their voices heard in future environmental litigation. Cleanup materials will be included in the kits so that students can make a difference in their own communities. Families are encouraged to send footage of litter cleanups so that EPCAMR can compile them into one video showing the powerful synergistic impact of many people making small positive changes.

Students on an AMD Tour to the Audenreid AMD Treatment System in the Catawissa Creek Watershed.

Executive Director of EPCAMR, Bobby Hughes said, “EPCAMR teaches area youth that their local neighborhoods are a part of nature and the environment when they don’t often see “outside” as a part of their watershed address. We do our best to give them our place-based education philosophy. Our goal is to provide them meaningful outdoor learning experiences so that they can connect with their surrounding landscapes. No matter where they live in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District they are indirectly tied to the Chesapeake Bay through the Susquehanna River and its headwater tributaries.” 

Contact Laura Rinehimer, EPCAMR Environmental Educator for project details @ 570-371-3522 or lrinehimer@epcamr.org.

The post Chesapeake Bay Foundation Awards EPCAMR $5000 Watershed Education Experience Grant to Provide Virtual Watershed Tours in a Box to Wilkes-Barre Area School District Students appeared first on epcamr.org.