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.

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.

The post EPCAMR Awarded PennEast Community Connector Grant to Develop Underground Mine Map Prints for Wyoming Valley Municipalities appeared first on epcamr.org.

EPCAMR is in the process of filling three  seasonal temporary outdoor field positions to assist one of our partners, the Earth Conservancy, with maintaining signage, clearing brush, spray painting existing trail markings of various levels of difficulty with different colored spray paint on several publicly accessible trails in the Wyoming Valley over the next month or two. Coordination will be provided by the EC and EPCAMR Staff at the trail locations as to the direction and pre-existing conditions of the low-impact trails and more heavily used vehicle trails.

Gabby Zawacki is one of those seasonal Trail Markers and former Community Outreach Relations Intern with EPCAMR last Fall through May of this year. She will throw on a backpack filled with spray paint and hike steep slopes, carry a backpack weighing up to 20 pounds of field supplies (backpacks, supplies, water, camera, and spray paint will be provided), walk several miles at a time, have an ability to read a topographic or aerial photographic map, have a familiarity with orienteering, not have any difficulties climbing or walking over rocks and outcrops along the trails, be familiar with poison ivy and poison oak, be able to navigate through picker bushes and multi-flora rose, Japanese knotweed, and other heavily wooded areas. Right now, she’ll be joined by Elizabeth Rosser, EPCAMR’s Watershed Outreach Specialist Intern, until we fill our third position. EPCAMR’s happy to have her back to work with us for the remainder of the Summer.

EPCAMR’s newest Seasonal Trail Marker joins us to provide some maintenance on Earth Conservancy’s Trail Systems in the Wyoming Valley and Southern Wyoming Valley through the Summer of 2014.

EPCAMR wants our Seasonal Trail Markers to be very careful of the steep ridges, especially along the Mocanaqua Loop Trail and they should pay specific attention and use caution around wildlife habitats such as possible bear dens and snake areas. EPCAMR expects that pictures will be taken of the trail activities on a daily basis and of natural areas, scenic overlooks, and various points of interest or plants and wildlife along the trails. The EPCAMR Trail Markers will be wearing appropriate clothes and shoes/hiking boots and socks be worn for any trail hiking and will be prepared for quick changes in weather by bringing rain gear, if necessary.  Hydration and energy are also keys to successful hiking. The trails to be marked are as follows on maps that will be provided:

The Mocanaqua Loop Trails              

1. Emergency Access Route
2. Green Loop (8 miles)
3. Blue Loop (7 miles)
4. Brown Loop (6 miles)
5. Orange Loop (2 miles)

The Sugar Notch Trails 

1.         Ridgetop Trail (3.06 miles)

2.         Park Access Trail (0.64 miles)

The Penobscot Ridge Mountain Bike Trail (1.6 miles)

Trail Descriptions and links to the maps from the Earth Conservancy website  

( www.earthconservancy.org )

http://earthconservancy.org/html/mocanaqua_trails.html 

http://earthconservancy.org/Moc_Loop_Map.jpg (Mocanaqua Loop Trails Map)

http://earthconservancy.org/html/sugar_notch_trails.html

http://earthconservancy.org/Sugar_Notch_Map.jpg (Sugar Notch Trails Map)

http://earthconservancy.org/html/penobscot_bike_trail.html

http://earthconservancy.org/Penobscot_Map.jpg (Penobscot Ridge Mountain Bike Trail Map)

The post Gabby Zawacki is Back as a Seasonal EPCAMR Trail Marker!! This Time with some Spray Paint and a Backpack over her Shoulders appeared first on epcamr.org.