George Ellis, Executive Director of ARIPPA, sent us a note along with the donation stating, “Your passion and dedication to reclaiming and redeveloping lands and streams affected by historic mining practices is admirable and truly makes a significant impact on PA’s environment. Accordingly, ARIPPA is proud to contribute to your AML/AMD efforts by making a monetary donation in the amount of $2500. While it is a relatively small amount, we hope that it will make a difference in the environmental remediation work that you continue to perform. We genuinely appreciate your continuous support and look forward to working with you in the years to come”.

This year, EPCAMR has selected the following recipients for the AML/AMD Mini-Grant Program.

Newport Township CrimeWatch Organization–$500 towards hauling, proper electronics waste disposal, dumpster, and cleanup supplies for a planned 2017 Spring Cleanup (between April and May 2017), on an abandoned mine land area in Newport Township, Luzerne County, PA where up to 40 tires will be removed and 10-12,000 pounds of illegally dumped trash, discarded furniture, construction waste, and household wastes will be removed, in partnership with Newport Township, Newport Township Community Organization, Greater Nanticoke Area Community Garden, Newport Township Police Department, Nanticoke Conservation Club, EPCAMR, and the Spooky Off-Road Club. 50 volunteers are expected to participate. EPCAMR will administer the grant on behalf of the NTCO.

Illegal dumping in Newport Township.

Mehoopany Creek Watershed Association–$800 towards the purchase of lime to be placed on food plots on State Game Lands #57, adjacent to the Mehoopany Creek, Wyoming County, PA  in partnership with the Whitetails Unlimited, PA Game Commission, who will be donating machinery to spread the lime, and EPCAMR. During rain events, lime will eventually reach the stream, having already benefited the food plots, and will increase the pH of the acid mine water entering the watershed. The liming will occur in the Fall of 2016.

Lime pile

Luzerne Conservation District–$700 towards a pressure transducer that will be installed at the Plainsville AMD Borehole in Plains Township, Luzerne County, PA to obtain real-time data that will allow for the Luzerne Conservation District, Plains Township, EPCAMR, and the landowner, Mr. Greg Price, to gain a better understanding of the actual flows, chemical loadings of iron and other trace metals reaching the Susquehanna River, and to help learn more about the underground mine pool complex in that area of the Wyoming Valley. EPCAMR and the Luzerne Conservation District will be taking the lead on the monitoring of the Plainsville AMD Borehole discharge and have developed a feasibility study that they are going to be submitting for grants to perform the necessary background data collection to begin looking at AMD Treatment options and finding ways to improve the water quality of the Susquehanna River.

Plainsville AMD Borehole

EPCAMR–$500 towards the cost of hauling trash to the landfill to cover the tipping fees and for supplies to assist with the third cleanup of Centralia on September 24, 2016, led by EPCAMR Staff, former and current residents of Centralia, Pagnotti Enterprises, Centralia Hose Company No. 1, Wicked Jeeps of Central PA, Joe Sapienza, II, and nearly two dozen other contributors of funds to support the annual cleanup on the abandoned mine lands, roads, and streets throughout the Borough. Dozens of volunteers are expected to turnout at the annual event. Sexy Pig BBQ will be providing lunches for the volunteers. TARGET donated funds towards the cleanup. Community Aid donated funds towards the cleanup and will be picking up any donated clothes that volunteers would like to bring to the event. See the event details here. To donate towards the cleanup, go to EPCAMR’s “Cleanup Centralia for Centralians, Past and Present!” GiveGab Online Campaign!

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Robert Hughes-EPCAMR Executive Director and Andy McAllister-WPCAMR Regional Coordinator accept the $5000 check from ARIPPA

ARIPPA awarded $5,000 in August at their Annual Awards Luncheon and $45,000 in the past to watershed organizations performing Abandoned Mine Land (AML) and/or Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) remediation improvements that are partners of EPCAMR and WPCAMR. Award recipients have included: Allegheny Valley Land Trust, Altman Run-Watershed, Babb Creek Watershed, Blackleggs Creek Watershed, Chestnut Ridge Chapter Trout Unlimited, Clearfield Creek Watershed, Earth Conservancy, Eastern Middle Anthracite Region Recovery, Evergreen Conservancy, Huber Breaker Preservation Society, Lackawanna River Corridor Association, Loyalsock Creek Watershed, Luzerne Conservation District, Mehoopany Creek Watershed Association, Plymouth Historical Society, Schuylkill Headwaters Association, Sewickley Creek Watershed, and the Shamokin Creek Restoration Alliance.

Awards are granted under the guidance and administration of Eastern and Western Pennsylvania Coalitions for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR and WPCAMR respectively). EPCAMR and WPCAMR are the two leading, regional environmental non-profit associations organized to encourage the reclamation, remediation, and redevelopment of lands and streams impacted by past mining practices. “EPCAMR and WPCAMR oversee the solicitation of proposals each year, review them, recommend them for awards, and then provide the selected award winners with checks following the ARIPPA Annual Awards Luncheon in August. Each year we publicize the request for applications a few times a year and usually look forward to at least 4-6 applications knowing that we only $2500 per Coalition to distribute. It’s a very simple application process. I’m surprised there aren’t more applications, honestly. Hopefully in 2015, we’ll get more. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. That hasn’t stopped us from redistributing the donation from ARIPPA at all. 100% of the funding goes out each and every year and we are proud of the projects that we can support on the ground in partnership with ARIPPA,” stated Robert E. Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director. ARIPPA is also represented on the EPCAMR Board of Directors as an Industry Trade Association representative.

The 3 EPCAMR Award Winning Projects for 2014 are as follows:

$ 1300 will go to the Babb Creek Watershed Association (BCWA) for the cost of 1 of the 2 replacement stainless steel runners that are needed for the Antrim AMD MicroHydroPower Treatment Plant.

Corroded Runner at the Antrim MicroHydro Turbine AMD Treatment Plant

New Runner at the Antrim MicroHydro Turbine AMD Treatment Plant

$ 700 will be administered by EPCAMR on behalf of a group of volunteers led by Joe Sapienza Jr., Director of a recent short documentary on Centralia, who sought EPCAMR’s technical assistance to coordinate a large illegal dumpsite cleanup effort, called Cleanup Centralia! on October 25^th, 2014 this Fall to fund the hauling of waste and debris from three locations in and around Centralia, Byrnesville, and along Big Mine Run Road. Cleanup supplies, shovels, rakes, grass seed, wildflower mix, and NO DUMPING signs will also be picked up and housed with EPCAMR.

Illegal Dump Pile in Centralia near the Odd Fellows Cemetery that will be one of the sites cleaned up on October 25th

$  500 will go to the Mehoopany Creek Watershed Association (MCWA) for the purchase of 17 Tons of limestone sand to treat the acidic conditions of the South Branch Mehoopany Creek that will be placed in the Spring of 2015 ahead of the melt of from the Winter.

Rock Vein Construction on Mehoopany Creek

Confluence of the S. Branch and N. Branch of the Mehoopany Creek that will benefit from the limestone sand dosing

Watershed protection and abandoned mine land reclamation are two of the fastest growing areas of community-based collaboration in the Commonwealth of PA. Throughout the country, watershed groups are playing an increasingly prominent role in environmental management. 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 partnership with EPCAMR/WPCAMR are designed to help watershed groups and community groups continue their volunteer efforts toward improving our environment.

Organized in 1988, ARIPPA is a non-profit trade association representing alternative energy plants that remove coal refuse from AML areas, convert it into alternative energy, and beneficially utilize the ash by-product to reclaim thousands of acres of mine-scarred lands and hundreds of miles of formerly dead streams back to their natural state; without any expenditure of tax dollars. To date over 212 million tons of coal refuse has been converted into alternative energy by member plants. Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) technology (one of the cleanest methods available today) is used to convert coal refuse into electricity and an alkaline-rich ash by-products utilized for decades in a highly regulated, safe, and beneficial manner to: fill and reclaim unsafe, abandoned mine lands; to remediate streams damaged by acid mine drainage; amend soil at mining sites, and serve as an additive in concrete/asphalt for construction and roadways.

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 our nation’s landscape and environment.

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