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

The post EPCAMR Awards $2,500 in ARIPPA Mini-grants to 3 Community Partners throughout the Region appeared first on epcamr.org.

Stormwater Pipe along S. Main Street entering Nockley’s Tributary

Limestone sand dosing of Stony Brook in 2011 in the Mehoopany Creek Watershed

Tons of trash illegally dumped at the foot of the Avondale Mine Disaster Site in Plymouth Township along the Susquehanna Warrior Trail

Old Forge AMD Borehole entering the Lackawanna River

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organized in 1988, ARIPPA is a non-profit trade association based in Camp Hill PA. Membership is located in both the Anthracite and Bituminous Regions of Pennsylvania and comprised of:

• Independent electric generating plants producing alternative energy and/or steam from coal refuse and
• Businesses associated with the coal refuse – to -alternative energy industry.

Accordingly, ARIPPA is organized to:

• advance the alternative energy electric power production industry,
• encourage education about the generation of alternative energy and related industries,
• promote the environmentally responsible production of electric power,
• promote the utilization of alternative energy electric power,
• endorse the continuity and growth of the alternative energy power production industry,
• assist in meeting this country’s energy, industrial, economic, and environmental needs.

Due in part to ARIPPA member activities, unsightly coal refuse piles and the problems associated with them are gradually disappearing. Thousands of acres of land have been and continue to be reclaimed to a natural state or for productive use and future development. ARIPPA facilities remove and utilize coal refuse from both past and current mining activities, thereby abating acid mine drainage from coal refuse piles. ARIPPA reports that 145 million tons of coal refuse has been processed and converted into alternative energy by their member plants from 1998 to 2008. Further, the technology used to convert coal refuse to electricity, known as Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) technology, produces alkaline-rich ash by-products. There are many beneficial uses for CFB ash including; filling mine pits, as a replacement for lime (for acid mine drainage remediation), for acid mine drainage remediation, as a soil amendment at mining sites, and/or as a concrete additive for roadways.

The unique nature of ARIPPA’s work combined with the desire to coordinate efforts with environmentally oriented groups and governmental agencies symbolize a commitment to improving the landscape and environment of our nation. You can learn more about ARIPPA at: http://www.arippa.org/

The post EPCAMR Awards 4 Regional ARIPPA AMD/AML Reclamation Awards to Improve Local Waterways in the amount of $2500 appeared first on epcamr.org.