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.

Apply now for the $5,000 ARIPPA AML/AMD Award.  EPCAMR and WPCAMR have partnered with the Anthracite Region Independent Power Producer’s Association (ARIPPA) to offer a competitive award to watershed organizations working on Abandoned Mine Land (AML) and/or Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD) remediation projects. Grants at a maximum of $2,500 will be awarded to at least one eligible environmental organization or Conservation District in the Anthracite Region and one eligible environmental organization or Conservation District in the Bituminous Region in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania actively working on AML/AMD issues. Grant proposals should be for on-the-ground AML/AMD construction projects with a completion date between August 2016 and August 2017. Proposals are due July 8th. The amount granted is dependent upon demonstrated need. Applying organizations must support the mission of ARIPPA, including the removal and conversion of waste coal into alternative energy and the beneficial use of CFB ash for AML/AMD reclamation. You can obtain the official Request for Proposals and supporting documents here.

The post 2016 ARIPPA Award Request for Proposals and Other News from the Waste Coal Industry appeared first on epcamr.org.

Video by Michael Hewitt

Article By Paul Golias, Correspondent

The massive water pools under the Wyoming Valley are both a potential blessing and a curse.

The topmost level of the stratified 274.3 billion gallons of water is useable for industrial and commercial applications. The water could be purified for drinking if a drought emergency required such actions. That is the blessing.

The curse is the potential for subsidence is the pool is so dramatically disturbed that the ebb and flow of water causes surface problems ranging from flooding to serious subsidence that damages homes and businesses. Additionally, tapping the topmost strata of water would leave polluted water for potential future uses.

“Is there a danger? Yes.” said Robert Hughes, Executive Director of EPCAMR. “We need to focus on quality and stratification,” he said.

We know more about the water pool today than any period in the history of heavily-mined Wyoming Valley due to the extensive pool mapping work of EPCAMR. Hughes said EPCAMR used surface mine maps, underground mine maps, and cross section maps withing municipal boundaries obtained from the now-closed Federal Office of Surface Mining Folio Maps. The maps had been housed in the Stegmaier Building, Wilkes-Barre.

In addition, EPCAMR staff has monitored mine pool levels through boreholes around the Wyoming Valley. Unfortunately, some of those boreholes are being paved over.

Michael Hewitt, EPCAMR Program Manager, said a borehole in the Hanover Industrial Park was recently paved over during construction of new roads in connection with a major warehouse project there.

The borehole, Hewitt said, was near a sewer cover on the shoulder of the road. He could easily take readings of the Huber Colliery pool in that borehole, he said.

“We are down to 22 boreholes in the Wyoming Valley,” Hewitt said. The 15 that have been lost include three paved over in Exeter Borough and three more in Plymouth Borough, Hewitt said.

Hughes said it is vital to focus on the importance of the water pools due to the interest by natural gas producers in using mine water for fracking, the process that uses water under pressure to fracture the underground shale deposits that hold natural gas.

At the same time, plans for the PennEast Pipeline are unclear and EPCAMR has warned that a pipeline placed in the alluvial material atop the mine water pools could impact the pools, depending on the depth of the pipeline. Also, barrier pillars that separate the pools are in play, Hughes said.

The alluvial material, mainly sand and gavel, has been dubbed The Buried Valley of the Susquehanna. The alluvium is at various thicknesses under the Susquehanna, such as 142 feet at the levee in Wyoming. There are many veins of coal mapped under the Susquehanna and the entire valley, Hughes said. The withdrawal of water and the disturbance of the pools poses “a risk for mine subsidence,” he said.

Hughes recommended that people who do not have mine subsidence insurance consider obtaining a policy. He estimated only 10 percent of Wyoming Valley homeowners have such insurance.

Meanwhile, EPCAMR is providing municipalities in the former anthracite mining area with free mining maps to assist in community planning, coping with possible natural gas pipeline placement, and with mine subsidence issues.

Ironically, a $5,000 grant to the agency from PennEast Pipeline’s Community Connector Grant Program made the project possible. PennEast said it links with not-for-profit organizations to support safety, environment and education, and energy sector workforce development.

Hughes said the top 20 feet of water in the pools is “relatively clean.” The next 30-40 feet gets murkier and sediment increases at lower depths until the bottom of the pool where the water is “blackest of black,” he said.

Some mine water flows into streams and acid mine drainage projects have been underway for years. EPCAMR has been involved in those as has Earth Conservancy, where EPCAMR has its offices.

The water can flow back and forth between pools, across barriers left in place by mining companies as boundary lines. Some barriers were removed when one company bought another, Hughes said.

Using historical data and current water measurements, EPCAMR arrived at the staggering 274.3 billion gallons estimate for the mine pools under the valley. That does not include the Butler Mine Pool for which data is lacking.

Mine water is being used for geothermal energy development and industrial processes. The ARIPPA co-generaltion plant in Schuylkill County uses mine water to cool a tower. Frackville Wheelabrator uses mine water to runa  stream generator that heats and cools the state correctional facility at Frackville.

Earlier this month, Kenneth M. Klemow, professor of biology and environmental sciences at Wilkes Unviersity, and colleagues released a report on the potential impact of natural gas drilling on surface water, such as streams, creeks, and rivers. The predictive model did not prove drilling impacts on streams but it did project vulnerability.

Hughes said much more work needs to be done to study the mine pools, including how they impact surface water. He said a regional approach is necessary, an approach taken in a landmark 1949 report on underground water in area mines by Steven Ash and others of the Bureau of Mine, U.S. Department of the Interior. EPCAMR used Ash’s data in its calculations.

Hughes is on Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection’s Pipeline Infratructure Task Force’s Environmental Protection Workgroup to address pipeline infrastructure and development concerns related to abandoned mines.

The post Water under Wyoming Valley a Blessing and a Curse appeared first on epcamr.org.

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.

EPCAMR staff and colleagues review underground mine maps from the Wyoming Valley

EPCAMR intends to utilize these funds for staff time and printing costs of the mine maps for each of the municipalities within the Anthracite coal measures, such as Wyoming Borough, Jenkins Township, Plains Township, and Shickshinny Borough. If there are any municipalities, central to Wyoming Valley, that would like to host a few workshops to aid in conducting the underground mine map outreach component of the grant, please contact Robert at (570) 371-3523.

“EPCAMR is skilled in interpreting surface and underground mine maps and would like to continue to provide technical assistance to the public and our local governments. We also have the printing capabilities to produce large maps, which are easy to view,” says Robert.

Large maps are available for review at the Pittsburgh Office of Surface Mining (OSM), where many maps were transferred, following the closure of the Wilkes-Barre Regional Office several years ago. Maps are also available at Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation (PA DEP BAMR) and the PA DEP Regional District Mining Office Bureau of Deep Mine Safety in Pottsville, PA. Due to the condition, size, and continual use of the maps by these state agencies, a large majority of the maps generally stay within these offices.

Underground Mine Map

EPCAMR has been able to acquire a large majority of the OSM Folio maps in digital format over the last few years and are still actively acquiring maps under a 3-year grant agreement with the PA DEP Mine Subsidence Insurance Program. EPCAMR staff scans, catalogues, geo-references, and digitizes the maps for public use. Nearly 10,000 maps have already been approved by the PA DEP and posted to the PA Mine Map Atlas. However, our scope of work requires us to take certain map collections, based on specific storage locations of the maps. The PennEast Community Connector Grant will allow us to focus on some of the maps that we have already processed. Many municipalities do not have the staffing, expertise, funding, or printing capabilities to acquire the maps needed for their own planning efforts or efforts of the public seeking information about the underground mine or surface maps.

EPCAMR staff catalogues the data collected from these maps in the Pennsylvania Historic Underground Mine Map Inventory System (PHUMMIS). This database contains information relevant to past and present underground mining throughout Pennsylvania, including, but not limited to, maps, indices, mine locations, and the like. The information contained in this database has been compiled from various sources and, as a result, neither the DEP or EPCAMR can guarantee its accuracy. The DEP and EPCAMR assume no responsibility for the accuracy of information contained in the database. The DEP and EPCAMR disclaim any responsibility for any actions, or lack thereof, taken in reliance on the information contained in the database. Users agree that the DEP and EPCAMR employees, officers, agents, and contractors are not and will not be liable for any damages or losses of any kind, resulting directly or indirectly from the reliance on the information contained in the database.

Figure 1.

EPCAMR is an advocate for the environment and protection of land and water resources that have been adversely affected by past mining practices throughout Northeastern and North Central Pennsylvania. During the grant review process, the Selection Committee identified a number of strengths in our proposal. EPCAMR is an advocate for safe practices when it comes to the construction of the pipeline in the chosen area. Given the Wyoming Valley’s past mining and flooding history, we recommended redirecting the pipeline around the Valley, however, PennEast still chose to fund EPCAMR, based on our merit to provide valuable technical assistance to the downstream communities in the Wyoming Valley.

The sets of maps that will be provided to local municipalities will ultimately provide PennEast with geologic and hydrogeologic conditions of the proposed pipeline crossing area. EPCAMR was very upfront with PennEast at the initial public hearing and in our comments to the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC). PennEast may have difficulty finding a safe river crossing for placement of the 36-42 inch transmission line. “EPCAMR has a means of researching the conditions of the underground mine workings in the Wyoming Valley to make a determination as to what lies beneath not only our homes, but our river as well. This funding could not have come at a better time for EPCAMR, when funding sources are getting harder and harder to come by. We feel privileged for the opportunity to provide these valuable technical services to our local governments in need of this information. EPCAMR staff seeks funds from all types of sources that will allow us to work in the best interest of the public,” explained Robert.

Alisa E. Harris, Head of Government and Community Affairs, mentioned in her award letter to EPCAMR that “the PennEast Pipeline Company, LLC, is pleased to support your efforts and we look forward to building a strong partnership to advancing our mutual commitment to environment and energy education. Community engagement is important to PennEast. The Community Connector Grant Program is another excellent opportunity for us to support the communities where we operate and where our employees make their home.” The PennEast press release can be found here.

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Paul Dunay III, EPCAMR’s newest Staff member working on 3 screens on his first day as our GIS Technician under our recently funded Mine Map Grant

EPCAMR is proud to announce that one of several positions has been filled part-time internship, by Paul P. Dunay III, as a GIS Technician to assist us with beginning to process mine maps and other mine related information into electronic formats and 3D images.  The project that EPCAMR is working on with the Commonwealth of PA is to process information that is either owned or under the control of the PA Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP), EPCAMR, or form private coal company or other collections. As a result of work that will be done by Paul and other interns, processed mining information will be available for use in computer systems that allow the information to be provided to the public in a fraction of the time it takes to provide them with unprocessed information that should have been made available to the public many years ago.  The processed information can be used by property owners and developers, by EPCAMR for our own purposes in mapping the Anthracite Coal Region’s underground mining areas and mine pool complexes, and by the PA DEP to further enhance the electronic systems that deliver mining information and abandoned mine information to the public to contribute to safe and economic mining practices as well as more informed decisions on where to locate, build, or buy a home or business, for instance. In addition, the work that Paul and other EPCAMR Staff will be doing for the next 3 years, the information in electronic form establishes permanent records that will not deteriorate over  time, that can be further processed and stored without the need for costly filing and warehousing.

EPCAMR is the ONLY non-profit regional environmental organization in PA to recently receive a 3 year Mine Map Grant in the amount of $342,143 to hire 3-4 additional part-time interns that have already been working with EPCAMR over the last several years who were working on other Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and abandoned mine related projects and work that are experienced, proficient, and are now going to have the opportunity to work nearly full-time, up to 30-35 hours/week. Two more GIS Technicians are expected to be hired by the Fall of 2013 and a GIS Specialist will expand EPCAMR’s organizational capacity to fulfill the grant obligations of scanning, geo-referencing, and digitizing historic mine maps and other image files need to be archived and converted to a digital and electronic medium. 9 other Major Universities and Colleges across PA received a grant in this first round of funding. EPCAMR has put itself in a very unique position as a State-wide leader and has the expertise in the interpretation of underground mine maps, mapping underground coal measures and mine pools, and has over 22 years experience in the reclamation of abandoned mine lands and the remediation of abandoned mine drainage (AMD) across PA. EPCAMR will be undertaking the complex assignments of scanning, geo-referencing, and digitizing mine maps and images from the Pottsville District Mining Office, the Wilkes-Barre PA DEP’s Bureua of Abandoned Mine Reclamation (BAMR), EPCAMR’s own private collection, and are going to be working in partnership with the Earth Conservancy, to see if they would like us to bring in their mine map collection at a much higher resolution than they currently have for the Blue Coal Corporation’s collection that is housed in the same Office Building as EPCAMR.

“Mining information is needed by the residents and developers of the mining regions of PA to make informed decisions whenever a house or building is built or purchased, when roads, schools, or other public facilities are constructed, AMD treatment systems are constructed, or when mining and reclamation operations are conducted.  The information is vital to the economic activity and vitality of PA and to the public health and safety of the residents of the mining regions and those working in or visiting these areas,” Robert Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director emphatically stated. “Here in the Anthracite Region, particularly with the closure of the Federal Office of Surface Mining’s NE Regional Headquarters that used to be located in the Stegmaier Building, in Wilkes-Barre, where the original mine map folios and other related historic archival information used to be housed for the public to view, EPCAMR felt that we had a niche and obligation to continue to dig a little deeper into our work in the Region and propose to continue to do this type of technical assistance for our mining communities as a public service, fulfilling our mission and goals of our organization.” he stated with a passion. Special State funds are financing the Mine Map Grant under the authority of the PA Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act, the Bituminous Coal Mine Safety Act, and the Mine Subsidence Fund regulations set forth at 25 PA. Code Section 401.51. Details about the programs within the Commonwealth of PA that will utilize the information that EPCAMR will be providing can be found at www.pamsi.org

Paul is a 2009 graduate of Tunkhannock High School in Wyoming County and a recent May 2013 Keystone College graduate with a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Biology with an interest in GIS. His previous internship experience was with the Susquehanna County Conservation District, a partner in the EPCAMR region conducting Administrative reviews of Erosion & Sedimentation Control Plans, conducting site inspections and field investigations, and with the PA Fish & Boat Commission, where he used GIS to locate the mouth of tributaries to identify private property owners to seek permission to access the streams to conduct electro-shocking and fishery population data under the Unassessed Waters Initiative. He has tutored students as well as taught GIS labs first as volunteer tutor and then eventually became a paid GIS Instructor at Keystone College. He has experience in applied GIS techniques to create interactive web maps and is very proficient in ArcGIS v9.3 to 10.1.

Robert stated, “This previous experience is going to allow Paul to jump right into the scanning and geo-referencing of the mine maps with very little training needed and that is a bonus for EPCAMR. One thing that I look at right off the top when a resume is submitted looking for internships or work is what previous internship experience or work experience does a person have in the areas that we need. If they don’t have that experience, the resume gets moved down the pile a little further, while others like Paul’s floats to the top. This is yet another reason why obtaining internship experiences early in one’s collegiate career is vitally important. Don’t look at the internship for how much of a stipend you will get, look at in terms of how much first hand experience and knowledge will one gain that will make you more competitive and stand out among those around you that are also looking for the same opportunity.” Paul’s other hobbies and interests are in computers, obviously, playing the guitar, and he is a Black Belt Instructor in Martial Arts. Robert jokes, “At least, we know that if the EPCAMR Staff is in the field and are approached by, let’s say a black bear, that we can count on Paul to be our safety guy and allow him to confront the bear first in his defensive fighting stance while Mike and I play dead.”

“Doing GIS is one of my favorite things to do. Even though it is only considered a tool, I find it to be much more than that. I like to look at it from a deeper perspective. I was attracted by the GIS work EPCAMR was doing in the Lackawanna Valley trying to decode and map the underground mine pools that were associated with the Scranton-Metro Mine Pool Complex. The 3D mine mapping project allows me to use my skills in GIS to help PA Coalfield communities, map, and clean up the rivers and streams impacted by AMD. AMD is a serious problem in our area and I want to become a local part of the solution and keep my talents in this region. The work in GIS that Robert and Mike, along with the other interns at EPCAMR is excellent and not being done by anyone else with the level of technical expertise and knowledge that these guys have. I want to add to that knowledge base as well as absorb some of that institutional knowledge that this reputable and respectable regional non-profit has to offer to increase my level of understanding of the mining region of Northeastern and NorthCentral PA, where I grew up and now have been giving an opportunity to become a part of the solution.” Paul stated with a sense of excitement on his face.

The post EPCAMR Brings on Paul P. Dunay, III, GIS Technician to Assist with 3 year-$342,143 PA Mine Subsidence Insurance Mine Map Grant appeared first on epcamr.org.

Generated More Than 70 New Ideas Including EPCAMR’s Innovative Way to Map Underground Mine Pools in the Anthracite Region of PA in 3D

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 6, 2013

For further information:
Bill Hall/Director
Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center
814-933-8203 / billhall@psu.edu

Ben Franklin’s Shale Gas Innovation Contest Generated More Than 70 New Ideas!

STATE COLLEGE, PA – Last fall, The Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (www.sgicc.org) announced its second annual Innovation Contest. The deadline for participation was February 1, 2013.   Like last year’s very successful competition which received more than 50 applications, this year’s statewide contest turned out to be of great interest and generated more than 70 new ideas.  A total of $75,000 in prize money is being offered, and three winners will be announced in the spring.

Bill Hall, SGICC Director, noted that the quality of the applications was very high. “We received even more applications than last year, and many of the concepts are really impressive.  Topics covered the entire gamut of the shale gas play from down-hole extraction, pad protection and environmental safety, water and wastewater focused technologies, data management concepts, and even included multiple downstream gas and NGL utilization technologies. We are excited to start the vetting process to select the best concepts.”

A list of finalists will be selected by the end of March, 2013.  After making presentations to a panel of judges, three winners will be chosen at an event held in May.  An announcement regarding the date, time, and location will be circulated once all the details have been finalized.   

The Shale Gas Innovation Contest was co-sponsored by Ben Franklin Technology Partners (http://www.benfranklin.org), ANGA (www.anga.us), Acorn Energy (http://acornenergy.com), Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (www.cabotog.com), CONSOL Energy (www.consolenergy.com), Chesapeake Energy (www.chk.com), The Dow Chemical Company (http://www.dow.com/), First National Bank (www.fnb-online.com ), Little Pine Resources (http://littlepineresources.com), the Marcellus Shale Coalition (http://marcelluscoalition.org),OSCOMP Systems (http://www.oscomp-systems.com/) and Praxair (www.praxair.com).
For questions, contact Bill Hall at either 814-933-8203 or billhall@psu.edu.

EPCAMR has submitted its work on mapping in 3D the mine pools for the Anthracite Region of Northeast PA and is one of the 70 applications being considered.

About the SGICCThe Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation and Commercialization Center (www.sgicc.org) is designed to harness innovation and new technologies as a means to maximize the economic return to Pennsylvania’s citizens from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.  The Center’s goal is to increase sustainable employment and wealth creation in Pennsylvania that has the potential to outlast the initial exploration, production and transportation of natural gas from the formations.  The Center will also identify, support and commercialize technologies and early-stage businesses that enhance responsible stewardship of the environment while properly utilizing this transformative energy asset. 

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