The fundraiser and launch event will take place on February 26 from 5-9PM at Damenti’s Ice Bar located at 5 Bowman’s Mill Road (Exit 145, off Interstate I-81, West Hazleton, PA). [Get Google Maps Directions]

The event will feature a screening of the two new videos, hands-on demonstrations, and activities, and a photo booth with our trout puppets from the video. One video will follow Brooky the brook trout as he braves a storm and reconnects with his Auntie Rainbow. It will highlight AMD, blocked culverts, impediments to fish and aquatic life, fish ecology, AMD Treatment, and macroinvertebrate identification.

A take with Seven the Snail at the end of the Askam AMD Treatment System on Nanticoke Creek.

Auntie Rainbow Trout gazing into the clean stream upstream.

Brooky the Trout getting ready for his film debut at the Askam Maelstrom Oxidizer Treatment System on Nanticoke Creek.

Brooky the Trout and his puppeteer getting ready for some lines.

The second video will highlight the EPCAMR Staff taking two students on a tour of a local AMD discharge in South Wilkes-Barre, PA and walk them through how they monitor the locations for flow and chemistry. They will also learn how iron oxide is recycled and collected to create a pigment that EPCAMR processes to be used in various art forms and activities.

The youth actors and Laura are preparing for a scene along the Askam AMD discharge in the Nanticoke Creek watershed.

The students and the trout puppets will be featured in a three-station showcase of AMD Art, AMD Tie Dye Shirt Making, and AMD Chalk Making.

Brooky and Rainbow gather around the AMD Artwork at one of the EPCAMR Showcase Stations in the video.

This is one example of iron oxide pigment used for an AMD Tie Dye t-shirt.

EPCAMR’s Iron Oxide Chalk Making Station featured in one of the videos.

A meet and greet with producer Claudia Meglin, creative director for visual effect of the popular children’s show, Lazytown will also be happening and she will say a few words about working with EPCAMR over the last few years through ISI and funding provided by the Mental Insight Foundation, American Water Charitable Foundation, The Luzerne Foundation, and PA Council of Trout Unlimited’s Forever WILD funds and EPCAMR. Both videos were produced and co-directed by Centone Pictures and Reiner Productions.

Here are some of the crew and cast from the second EPCAMR video.

Here are some of the crew and cast for one of the videos.

There will also be a silent auction featuring some art made with recycled iron oxide from local streams.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to learn more about the organization’s mission and how they can get involved in their local community.

“We are excited to launch these new educational resources and provide young students with the knowledge and tools they need to positively impact the environment,” said Laura Rinehimer, EPCAMR’s Environmental Education Program Specialist. “Through this fundraiser and launch event, we hope to raise awareness and funds to support our continued efforts to educate and empower local children to become engaged locally in their watersheds.”

Since the pandemic, EPCAMR has tried to shift some of our educational focus toward creating short environmental education videos and virtual presentations and curricula that we could share with teachers and students across our region to reach a broader audience when we couldn’t get directly into the schools or conduct the outdoor watershed learning experiences we had commonly done in years past,” stated Bobby Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director. “We involved several excited local youths in the videos, voice actors and puppeteers, as well as all Staff in the combined video productions and aimed for fun, a little comedy, play on words, and some fishy humor.”

EPCAMR invites community members, educators, families, children, and anyone interested in environmental education to attend the event and support their mission. A $5 donation includes admission to Damenti’s Ice Exhibit, Animals on Parade, a drink, and admission to the film screenings. A portion of the ticket sales will be donated to a number of non-profits serving folks in the community and towards the production and distribution of future videos and curricula for local schools and community centers.

For more information about the fundraiser and launch event, or to learn more about the organization and its mission, please visit [EPCAMR.org]. Call 570-371-3523 for details.

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In 2012, EPCAMR built a large mobile kiln for demonstration purposes in environmental education programs to showcase how oxides can be recycled from AMD. Funds were donated to EPCAMR by the Wilkes-Barre Area School District after the kiln construction to continue to use at other local school districts. This kiln and another smaller kiln, built for the Solomon-Plains Elementary School, has allowed EPCAMR to educate elementary students across the EPCAMR Region. The reason for the design was due to the need for a more efficient way of drying metal oxides collected from local mine drainage that is then utilized for education programs to make AMD Tie-Dye t-shirts, Iron oxide chalk, and paint pigment and wood stain for local artists. This project brings EPCAMR a bit off the grid by reducing the utilization of a soil oven, which consumes a fair amount of electricity to dry the oxides for only a small amount of dried oxide.

EPCAMR Program Manager, Mike Hewitt, designed a system that relieves the oven process. The solar kiln runs off of a 45-watt solar panel system and is made out of mostly recycled materials: motorcycle battery, 12 volt computer fan, single pane storm windows, T-111 wooden siding, and 2x4s. The computer fan is run by the solar panels to remove any excess moisture within the kiln. The inside of the kiln is painted black to absorb as much heat from the sun as possible. The larger kiln is approximately 4′ x 6′, with two hinged doors in the back for loading in the oxides. It rolls on wheels for easy outside access. The solar kiln can dry 8 cake pans at one time, as compared to the two cookie sheets the oven can dry at one time. Within 4 hours, on an 80 degree day, the kiln can reach an inside temperature of 120 degrees. The solar kiln can dry 40 pounds of oxides a day, as compared to 1 pound a day using the oven.

EPCAMR places hydroxides that are about 95% liquid rust into the cake pans and allows for the heat energy to dry them naturally. EPCAMR Staff, interns, and volunteers then sifts the oxide powder to remove any leaf litter or sticks and packages it up to be sold through the EPCAMR Online Store. Proceeds from the Store support our education and outreach programs as well as general operations of the organization.

The smaller solar kiln was provided to the Solomon-Plains Elementary School, who are consistently taking part in environmental programs with EPCAMR. There is a great need for environmental education for students within the Wilkes-Barre School District, who are among the lowest poverty level in Luzerne County, PA. The students can now dry and process their own oxides for when EPCAMR comes to conduct education programs. Other local schools, including Greater Nanticoke Area Elementary and Wilkes-Barre Area Elementary, have also seen the solar kiln in action.

A novelty of this project is that it uses zero use of electricity for the project, unless we produce pigments of Anthracite Red or Silverbrook Purple, which need to be dried in the soil oven after the solar kiln in order to get their darker hues. EPCAMR estimates the electricity used to power the soil oven costs approximately $120/year, just to dry the oxide from the Yellow Boy pigment to Anthracite Red. It costs EPCAMR nothing to utilize the solar kiln to dry the oxide to Yellow Boy.

AMD Pigments

The EPCAMR “Mobile Recycled Solar Kiln for Processing and Drying Oxides from AMD” project was funded by the PPL Empowering Educators Grant, in partnership with the Wilkes-Barre Area School District, PA DEP Environmental Education Program, Earth Conservancy, King’s College Environmental Club, Lowe’s, RESTORE, Appalachian Coal Country Team, Office of Surface Mining, and AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service Training for America.

The program involved EPCAMR Staff and interns from King’s College and Wilkes University assisting with the collection of oxides and construction of the solar kilns. Earth Conservancy provides us with the storage for the kiln and access to their AMD treatment systems in Nanticoke and Newport Township for oxides. The Solomon-Plains Elementary 6th grade class and their teachers participated in outdoor field tours with EPCAMR to AMD sites before utilizing the kiln. The students made AMD tie-dye t-shirts for their field trip with the dried Iron oxide they collected on a tour with EPCAMR and have made it an annual tradition that is 3 years strong. More recently, the Greater Nanticoke Area Elementary 4th and 5th grade classes got to see the solar kiln and utilized the Iron oxide from through EPCAMR’s AMD & Art Pottery Education program. Ann Devine and two interns from the PA DEP Environmental Education Program conducted a Solar Race Car Construction Workshop at Solomon-Plains Elementary. Alana Malar Roberts, former PPL Community Relations Coordinator, was was also instrumental in the project.

EPCAMR’s objective was to create a demonstration piece of equipment that would provide under-served elementary school students within the Coal Region the ability to dry Iron oxide from AMD on their own. There were two goals: 1) to go off the grid and be 100% solar and 2) provide students with an opportunity to learn about AMD impacts to their watersheds and find ways to recycle the oxides into many productive uses that are fun and “green”. The benefits of this projects are that students are engaged and introduced to Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math (STEM) principles that meet the PA Standards for the Environment and Ecology.

Students gather with PPL, EPCAMR, and WBAD at Solomon-Plains Elementary to receive grant check

EPCAMR has always been committed to restoring Pennsylvania’s waterways impacted by AMD and abandoned mine lands. EPCAMR plans to build a 3rd solar kiln in the Fall of 2015 with the remaining materials we have left over from the project and provide it to Heights Elementary. This project educates not only students, but teachers on how schools can be a part of the solution by working with EPCAMR. They will be provided with environmental education experiences on local environmental issues that impact their community directly. They will also learn about environmental stewardship and ways they can get involved in stream-side cleanup.

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