Carolyn assisted with the AMD Sampling with the EPCAMR Staff in the Loyalsock Creek Watershed.

EC worked with the King’s College Office of Career Planning to offer King’s students the opportunity to apply for one of two EC Summer 2026 Scholarships. This EC scholarship allows King’s students to gain hands-on experience through an internship which aligns with EC’s mission. Furthermore, the work that students do in this internship counts for three college credits, funded by the scholarship, which helps students work towards earning their degrees. Carolyn has been selected as a recipient of the Earth Conservancy Summer 2026 Scholarship and has chosen to return to work with EPCAMR for this internship opportunity.  You can read about Carolyn’s initial time with EPCAMR in this previous news article. 

Carolyn tells us, “I’m so honored that I was selected as a recipient of this amazing scholarship! I never would have expected that such an opportunity would have been made possible for me so early in my college career. Without this internship, I would have needed to wait until the fall semester of college to return to work with EPCAMR as a Community-Based Federal Work Study student intern. I would have missed getting involved with all the sampling and monitoring that EPCAMR does throughout the summer, which I’ve really wanted to be a part of! Now, thanks to Earth Conservancy, I can focus on getting out in the field without worrying about falling behind with course work!” 

“I really like how this internship is run differently from my other college courses. There are virtually no assignments, except for updating my supervising professor, Dr. Brain Mangan, on my tasks and activities each week. Instead of me taking a midterm and final exam, Bobby has to complete a midterm and final assessment of the quality of my work. It’s more like I’m giving him homework! I’ll have to work hard so that he has only good things to say about me!” Carolyn joked. 

Carolyn organized the Holy Cross Day of Service EPCAMR AMD Tie-Dye Activity on Campus in Wilkes-Barre just before the Spring Semester came to an end with Bobby and Maria.

Carolyn mentioned, “In all seriousness, I’m very grateful to have been chosen for this opportunity. There are a lot of people who helped me secure this internship. Dr. Brian Mangan, who is the Director of the Environmental Program at King’s and my supervising professor for this internship, informed me of the opportunity and encouraged me to apply. I am so thankful for his unwavering support. The Office of Career Planning was extremely helpful in the application process, answering any and all questions I had. They were also partly responsible for deciding which students would be awarded the scholarship, so I’m grateful they chose me. EPCAMR has my gratitude for welcoming me back so soon after I finished this semester’s Community-Based Federal Work Study with them. I look forward to continuing to be a part of the EPCAMR team! And finally, a big thank you to Earth Conservancy, who proposed and funded this scholarship. This scholarship truly reflects their efforts to increase involvement in similar causes to their own.”

Carolyn attended the Schuylkill River Watershed Congress at Alvernia College in Reading to be a Room Facilitator, along with Maria, while Bobby was there to present.

Bobby stated, “Carolyn has been a valuable member of the EPCAMR team through her involvement in the Communit-Based Federal Work Study Program. It is very beneficial to us, since we often do not have the funds to create paid internships, unless grant funds are budgeted and can be allocated to support the internship positions. The students are paid through the Work Study Program, I serve as their Supervisor and Mentor, and they follow our activity description of tasks and work projects that we are currently working on during the time that they are with us. She will continue to get lots of hands-on learning and applied science activities during her internship over the next 12 weeks. This scholarship from Earth Conservancy is wonderful for her and for us. They have been a very strong advocate and supporter of our work over our entire time we’ve existed and we’ve been a part of their work in many capacities and still are. Carolyn already works very well with the rest of the Staff and our community volunteers and has already gained a lot of knowledge on the work that we do in the region to assess and restore our watersheds impacted by legacy AMD. She’s been very instrumental in helping to categorize my Google Contacts list to help EPCAMR target reaching out to vendors and partners of ours to invite them to attend our Fall 30th Anniversary Banquet and Dinner/Reception to celebrate this amazing milestone of ours. That’s no easy task with over 7000 contacts to be sorted and labeled,” Bobby joked.

Carolyn lives in Shickshinny, at the southern part of the Wyoming Valley, where we are working on completing a Coldwater Conservation Plan for the Shickshinny Creek, Rocky Run, and Paddy Run watersheds. She’s familiar with the area and is currently reaching out to the Shickshinny Historical Society and Museum’s Director, Jimmy Bach, to research any historical mine maps of the area that EPCAMR can scan and utilize in our report. Jimmy has an amazing YouTube collection on the site and his History with Jimmy videos are great! We’ve offered to scan the maps for Jim and provide them to him digitally for allowing us to borrow the maps and scan them to get them into our report and possibly into the Mine Subsidence Insurance’s (MSI) Mine Map Atlas and PA Historical Underground Mine Map Inventory System (PHUMMIS). We will be scheduling some days in June for additional stream and culvert assessments in both the Shickshinny Creek and following up with our partners in the Bowman’s Creek watershed too! Welcome back Carolyn! 

The post Carolyn M. Phillips, returns to EPCAMR, sponsored by an Earth Conservancy Summer 2026Scholarship appeared first on epcamr.org.

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.

EPCAMR Staff will be conducting a watershed assessment on Abrahams Creek beginning in the Spring and into the Fall of 2017 in order to identify and sample tributary streams to determine the fishery health of the entire watershed. The Staff will be conducting a multitude of different testing methods within the streams, such as water quality and flow monitoring, bug sampling, aquatic organism passage surveys at culverts, analyzing land use impacts, conducting visual habitat assessment and sedimentation and stream bank erosion surveys. EPCAMR hopes to communicate their plans, as well as gather information on local drainage and water-related issues within this area prior to beginning the assessment to incorporate local
concerns into the development of the Coldwater Conservation Plan for Abrahams Creek.

The Coldwater Heritage Partnership is a collaborative effort between the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited (PATU) and the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds (FPW). EPCAMR received a $5000 grant to complete the Coldwater Conservation Plan. In recent years, the organization has previously completed similar assessments on the Laurel Run watershed, Solomon Creek watershed, and Bowman’s Creek watershed.

The funds will be used by EPCAMR to:
● Gather existing data about the coldwater ecosystem;
● Identify potential impacts, threats, problems and opportunities to coldwater streams;
● Formulate a plan of action for proposed conservation and protection strategies; and,
● Build community awareness and support for the conservation of coldwater streams.

The purpose of the Coldwater Heritage Partnership (CHP) is to provide leadership, coordination, technical assistance, and funding support for the evaluation, conservation and protection of Pennsylvania’s coldwater streams. For more information on the CHP program please visit www.coldwaterheritage.org

“EPCAMR is interested in speaking with municipal officials, road department supervisors, residents who have streams in their backyards that are a part of the watershed and may not even know about the connection to the larger watershed, locals with a knowledge of the history within the watershed, and community groups with information the fishery aspects of the Creek in order for us to build into the Plan as many local concerns and recommendations for fishery improvements and watershed restoration efforts that could be funded under future grant opportunities,” said Robert E. Hughes, EPCAMR’s Executive Director. “EPCAMR is really interested in working together with private landowners that have streams and tributaries that flow into the Abrahams Creek watershed to identify problem areas that we can include in a final recommendations report for the Coldwater Conservation Plan that could lead to other funding opportunities, should they be willing to partner on future restoration projects from a trout fishery perspective and to deal with other water related issues. Permission to access areas to walk the stream channels are paramount to the success of completing a proper and thorough Conservation Plan for the Abraham Creek,” said Hughes.

1870 Map of Swoyersville and Kingston Twp.

“We are really looking for residents, community groups, and municipal officials to come out to the meeting from the following municipalities that are located within the Abrahams Creek Watershed. Franklin Township, Dallas Township, Exeter Township, Kingston Township, West Wyoming Borough, Exeter Borough, Swoyersville Borough, Wyoming Borough, and Forty-Fort Borough. Many of the municipalities have already previously supported the grant prior to its submission by EPCAMR and we have been in communication with most of them,” said Gavin Pellitteri, Watershed Outreach Specialist for EPCAMR.

ABOUT EPCAMR: Formed in 1995 by concerned Conservation Districts, EPCAMR represents a coalition of watershed organizations and reclamation partners. Members range from individuals, to the active anthracite mining industry and co-generation power plants, to non-profit organizations, 16 county Conservation Districts and other organizations in the anthracite and bituminous coal region of eastern PA that are involved with abandoned mine reclamation issues and serves almost 1 million residents. The general purpose of the organization is to encourage the reclamation and redevelopment of land affected by past mining practices. This includes reducing hazards to health and safety, eliminating soil erosion, improving water quality, and returning land affected by past mining practices to productive use, thereby improving the economy of the region. EPCAMR continues to not only reclaim mine lands but provide environmental education programs to both local education systems, coalfield impacted municipalities, and underserved communities.

For more information, please contact EPCAMR at (570) 371-3522 or info@epcamr.org .

The post EPCAMR to Hold Open Public Information Meeting about Abrahams Creek Watershed Issues and Development of a Coldwater Conservation Plan appeared first on epcamr.org.

EPCAMR will encourage our volunteer participants from our new RECLAIM Crew and others to bring us bags of used clothes that we can then add to our bins for additional weight and eventual distribution to the thrift stores around the region run by Community Aid. Potential cleanup sites that we are looking at targeting in 2017 are in the City of Wilkes-Barre (Spring Run), City of Nanticoke (Nanticoke Creek), Sugar Notch Borough (Sugar Notch Run), Newport Township (Newport Creek), Centralia Borough (Centralia-where we have led 3 successful cleanups over the last several years), and possibly, along the Delaware & Lehigh Rail Trail, in partnership with the North Branch Land Trust, who just recently acquired the rail bed from the Earth Conservancy, within the Laurel Run watershed. EPCAMR just recently completed the Laurel Run Coldwater Conservation Plan for the entire watershed and are aware of the illegal dumping along the rail corridor from our assessment of the fishery and surrounding landscapes. EPCAMR has many existing partners in all of the communities already and look forward to working with them again this year, including the City of Wilkes-Barre, City of Nanticoke, Newport Township, Newport Township Community Organization, Newport Township CrimeWatch Organization, Wilkes University, King’s College, Earth Conservancy, Sugar Notch Borough, Luzerne Conservation District, and the North Branch Land Trust, to name a few.

EPCAMR is a Non-Profit Partner with Community Aid and has bins placed throughout the region where donations of gently used clothes, toys, and other items can be dropped off. Jeff Crum, EPCAMR Community Volunteer, and employee from Community Aid, has assisted in finding locations for proper bin placement over the last year several years and has been a tremendous help during our Centralia Cleanups. EPCAMR is constantly looking for additional bin placements with local small businesses or areas where large lots are available. If you are interested in hosting a bin for EPCAMR, and becoming a nonprofit and charitable partner, click here for more information.

By partnering with Community Aid, non-profits agree to allow Community Aid to place a clothing collection bin on their property or other locations visible to the public. Easily recognizable, Community Aid bins are tan and feature three helping hands. The donated clothing in the bins is removed several times each week and sold in Community Aid thrift stores. Based on the weight of the clothing in each bin, the non-profit is awarded with a quarterly cash donation per pound.

In addition, partners receive free clothing vouchers (Care Cards) for the needy in their area, which can be used in one of Community Aid’s thrift stores. Following six months of partnership, the organization is eligible to apply for a grant of up to $5000 during announced grant application periods. Partnerships are also open to local businesses. When a business agrees to place a clothing bin on their property, EPCAMR would encourage that they choose us to receive the quarterly donations from that particular bin. Business partners have found that allowing a Community Aid bin on their property demonstrates their interest in the community while drawing more foot traffic to their business. The partnership between Community Aid and EPCAMR have meant that we have been able to continue to improve the quality of life for individuals and families in our local coalfield communities.

Trash picked up from the Green Trail along the Mocanaqua Loop Trail on the Pinchot State Forest Lands, outside of Lee.

“At some point, EPCAMR, our partners, and our volunteers are going to be able to say that we’ve cleaned up and maintained hundreds of cleaner and greener environmental landscapes throughout the coal region that have been littered for decades until someone decided to care enough to do something about the historic problem. EPCAMR had decided many years ago that we were going to be that “someone” and build the partnerships necessary with other local non-profit organizations, conservation groups, State, County, Local, and Municipal entities to reclaim these abandoned mines and the stream and rail corridors that had become the dumping grounds for far too long!” exclaimed, Robert E. Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director. “EPCAMR has a 20 year history of reclaiming past mining landscapes and leveraging funds from multiple sources to successfully complete projects like this on the ground with community volunteers. It’s very hard not to get behind an effort in these communities like this when everyone else is behind you, supports your cause and mission, and looks forward to getting out there and getting their hands dirty for the benefit of their own community, their neighbors helping neighors, and for the protection and reclamation of the environment.” emphasized Robert. Planning on these cleanup efforts will begin after the New Year with Staff during their monthly meetings. Stay tuned.

The post $5000 in Illegal Dump Site Cleanup Funds Awarded to EPCAMR by Community Aid 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.

Peek-A-Bug collection being displayed at the Bear Creek Charter School Earth Day Program at Camp Kresge

The new “Macros on Ice” samples will be used, along with the older ones, for future environmental education programs. The old plastic vials contain a mixture of distilled water and alcohol to preserve the aquatic insects. The vials sometimes leak, causing the samples to dry out. EPCAMR has nearly 120 vials of macro invertebrates that have been used at hundreds of environmental education programs throughout the coal region.

Previously, the vials were placed in a bug viewer to magnify the macros only from the side. The specimens could not be viewed from the top of the viewer. The 3-D two-way viewers can be used for a variety of objects, including leaves, flowers, and of course, macro invertebrates. The viewers have a top lens that enables the students to view a specimen at 6 times its size, while the lower lens views a specimen from the underside at 4 times its size. The 3-D two-way viewer is a perfect observation tool for both the field and the classroom. It is very durable and kid-friendly, as are the vials.

DragonFly Nymph on ice!

“Macros On Ice” in the mold

The new samples are created by pouring clear polyester casting resin into a mold, resembling an ice cube tray, that holds duplicate macro invertebrate samples from the Peek-A-Bug collection. The resin is then left to harden. At this time, there are 24 “Macros On Ice”. These samples can now be viewed from the top, bottom, and sides of the bug viewers.

New EE materials created by Haley and Mallory

EPCAMR Interns are also working on new educational materials to go along with the new samples, including a Pollution Tolerance Index, a macro invertebrate fact sheet, and an EPA macro invertebrate adaptation information sheet. These sheets are laminated for outdoor environmental education program use.

Macro invertebrates are the “canaries of the coal mines” in our rivers and streams. They are great indicators of stream health and ecology, fishery health, and water quality. EPCAMR not only collects these macro invertebrates for use in our educational programs, but also for stream assessments, to determine stream health of AMD and non-AMD impacted waterways.

The post EPCAMR Interns create “Macros on Ice” to compliment EPCAMR Environmental Education Programs appeared first on epcamr.org.

Jessica Johnson begins her first day as Watershed Outreach Intern reviewing, scanning, and cataloging historic Anthracite mine maps.

Jessica Johnson is majoring in Environmental Studies with minors in Biology and Geography. She will be receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in May of 2015. She was born and raised in the Wyoming Valley and has lived in Nanticoke her entire life until recently moving to Scranton. Moving from a small city to a slightly larger city has been a bit of a culture shock. She’s still adjusting to the faster-paced lifestyle, as well as the larger population. All of her life she knew that she wanted to do something special that would help change the path that this planet has taken due the hands of mankind.

She remembered back in high school at Greater Nanticoke Area, saying, “I always wanted to work for a non-profit environmental organization in the area that is dedicated and passionate about their cause. Working with EPCAMR has fulfilled that dream for me. With this internship, I hope to gain a better understanding of the conditions of the land in my hometown and the surrounding areas and what is being done to improve it. I am looking forward to gaining hands-on experience in the field that will allow me to get out in the community and contribute to protecting and restoring the environmental landscapes that have been mining-impacted in our region. I am especially interested in seeing, first hand, the effects coal mining has had on Northeastern PA and getting to visit abandoned mine lands, rivers, and streams that have been impaired by abandoned mine drainage to get an up and close physical understanding of what past mining has done to our rivers, streams, and land.”

When not in classes, Jessica enjoys being outdoors any chance she can get. Her favorite Spring/Summer activity is exploring 7 Tubs Nature Area, which has just recently become a part of the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry, Lackawanna State Parks Complex, after having been under the ownership of Luzerne County for years, with little improvements to the land. Two years ago, EPCAMR led a group of volunteers to clean up the Nature Area. Jessica likes to get lost deep in the woods and try to find her way out using what she’s learned in her Botany and Geography courses.

During her 2013 Fall semester,  her class took a week-long trip to the Chesapeake Bay, hosted by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It was a great experience where she learned about some of the damaging effects the Susquehanna River has on the Bay and that our mining-impacted areas do play a role in some of the pollution downstream.

Jessica dropping a trap in the Chesapeake Bay as a part of her Fall 2013 field course experience

“It made me realize what an impact our area had on others around it, even as far away as Maryland and Virginia. This is even more of a reason for us to do our best to improve the communities in which we live and what we have, to make a better future for generations to come,” she proudly emphasized.

Amanda Hamstra, EPCAMR Watershed Outreach Intern 

Amanda Hamstra currently lives in West Pittston, PA. She is a Senior at King’s College with a major in Environmental Studies and a minor in Professional Writing. She will be graduating in May of 2015. She enjoys writing, reading, and any outdoor activities, especially camping. She hopes to obtain a career where she can be outdoors to help preserve forests and wildlife and teach others the importance of nature. She also hopes to publish novels and scientific articles one day.

She heard about EPCAMR through King’s Career Planning Office. We’ve sponsored many interns from King’s College over the years. Amanda learned about abandoned mine drainage through courses she had taken and it sounded interesting to her, so she decided to contact Mr. Hughes to set up an interview. Amanda and Jessica were in many of the same classes and both went on the Chesapeake Bay outdoor field experience in the Fall of 2013.

Amanda goes on to say, “I expect to broaden my knowledge about AMD, water pollution, mine land reclamation, and environmental education and to learn how EPCAMR is making a true difference on the negative impacts to the environment with positive solutions. The field work should give me a better understanding about the impacts of AMD and help me network to learn more about the efforts of EPCAMR and other environmental organizations in NEPA.”

Robert Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director, goes on to say, “Jessica and Amanda will have a very busy semester this coming Spring before they graduate in May. They are joining EPCAMR when we will be in full swing with a variety of projects. As all interns have done before them, they will have the opportunity to dive right in and get their hands dirty in AMD and immerse themselves in as much of the workload to gain the most experience out of the internship. I stressed to them on the first day the importance of paying attention to details, learning the acronyms that are constantly affiliated with the community groups, government agencies, and authorities we work with, picking up on skill sets, learning how to write technical documents, and learning how EPCAMR Staff develops budgets and partnerships to put together our restoration and remediation projects throughout the region. It’s my hope that they take the initiative to truly understand just how much effort a group like EPCAMR has to go through to get a project successfully on the ground and funded and what it takes to develop those relationships with people from our coalfield communities throughout Northeastern and North Central PA in the name of clean water and for the protection, preservation, and reclamation of our land and water, impacted by past mining practices.”

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PA EnviroThon

Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR), a non-profit organization, established in 1996 to encourage the reclamation and remediation of land and water impacted by past mining practices on abandoned mine lands in Eastern Pennsylvania Coalfields will be joining students at the 2013 PA Envirothon to increase their awareness of abandoned mine drainage and innovative, cutting edge 3D modeling of the underground mines throughout Pennsylvania.
The remnants of coal and non-coal mining are evident in our environment throughout the Commonwealth. In fact, the largest contributor of nonpoint source pollution in our state is Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD) with over 5,000 miles of streams impacted throughout PA.
Through partnerships with conservation districts; watershed groups; schools and colleges; other non-profit and cooperative grassroots efforts; active industry and local, state, and federal government, EPCAMR efficiently uses our resources, collaborative technical treatment, and remediation technologies, and is at the forefront of developing 3D models that reflect the underground mines, geology, and mine pools beneath our abandoned mine lands to assist in restoring Pennsylvania’s vital watersheds and communities impacted by abandoned mine lands.

At this year’s State Envirothon’s Tuesday evening program, we are going to be a small part in helping to restore our streams by carrying EPCAMR’s workload on our backs, literally. EPCAMR will utilize iron oxide it has recovered, harvested, dried, and processed into a recycled powder from mine drainage that impacted streams in Northeastern PA to create AMD Tie-Dye T-shirts. EPCAMR has tie-dyed over 15,000 T-shirts in the last 10 years alone with students, the general public, conference attendees, campers, and at environmental fairs and workshops throughout NE and NC PA.

This year, EPCAMR is going to make shirts with state Envirothon participants using the 2013 Pennsylvania Envirothon T-shirts. Every shirt that we make removes a small amount of iron oxide from our rivers and streams to help restore them and to showcase the potential use of iron oxide as a pigment product that has value on the clothing market. EPCAMR worked with PA EnviroThon Program Coordinator Lorelle Steach to write an article on our participation in this year’s PA EnviroThon Event at Juniata College on May 21st and May 22, 2013; See the publication at http://www.envirothonpa.org/documents/2013WinterUPDATES.pdf

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