|
|
Donate Your Time, Talent or Treasures
|
|
Kyra Norton
Student at Bloomsburg University
|
Rayne Brown
Student at Luzerne Co. Community College
|
|
|
AMD Sampling for O&M of Treatment Systems
|
|
Record Sampling Data @
Monitoring Assistance @
|
|
Mine Subsidence Insurance
|
|
|  |
|
Press Releases: EPCAMR has new AmeriCorps OSM/VISTA Volunteer on board
|
|
****FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE****
Contact: Robert Hughes, Executive Director. rhughes@epcamr.org 570-371-3523
Ashley, PA - August 30, 2010 - Wren Dugan to act as the Watershed Community Development Coordinator volunteer for the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation for the next year.
The Watershed Community Development Coordinator serves to enable EPCAMR’S success along with its supporting organizations by building public awareness and involvement through educational outreach and community revitalization projects. The volunteer position cost-shared between EPCAMR, the Corporation for National Service, and the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team, under the direction of the Federal Office of Surface Mining, will also assist with water monitoring , watershed research, and developing projects necessary to help secure EPCAMR additional organizational funding to keep the small staff of two full-time and fully operational and self-sustaining.
Wren holds a B.F.A. from Edinboro University of PA, where she served as Managing Editor of the internationally-award winning art and literary journal, allowing her to build experience with fundraising and events planning, and volunteer organization. With more than a decade of experience with educational programming for children and youth, her personal investment with family roots in Bradford County, and a passion for all things environmental make her an enthusiastic advocate for the reclamation of lands effected by abandoned mine drainage.
Robert Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director stated, “With Wren’s skills in fundraising, marketing, and previous work with children and youth, we feel that she is going to bring those sets of much needed assets to our organization over the next year to help us move forward, during these economic hard times when finding funds, in the non-profit world, are hard to come by.” Robert went on to say, “EPCAMR has just recently begun to update our strategic plan for our organization looking forward three to five years down the road, and Wren is coming in at a time when her ability to help us sort out some of those strategic implementation goals and objectives are going to crucial to the future success of our organization’s development.” In June 2011, EPCAMR will be celebrating its’ 15th year of existence as a regional non-profit environmental organization that has become a state-wide leader in the fight to reclaim abandoned mine lands and to restore streams impacted by abandoned mine drainage. “Wren is going to be able fulfill the role of that third full-time staff person that will be able to help us put together our first 15th Anniversary Dinner and Fundraiser, before her term of service is up next August”, Robert stated.
Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation is a non-profit organization that reclaims abandoned mine lands through partnerships today for a cleaner environment tomorrow.
|
Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation
Wyoming Valley Watershed PRIDE
(People Reaching Into Dumps Everyday)
Cleanup Results
Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR) has completed another cleanup! With the help of 26 volunteers on two Saturday morning cleanups (3/20 & 3/27), EPCAMR has cleaned up a 5.78 acre area along Pennsylvania Ave. and High Street in Wilkes-Barre. In this area we collected and disposed of more than 4.5 tons of municipal solid wastes (plastic and glass bottles, plastic bags, shopping carts, TV’s, air conditioners, children’s toys and strollers, mattresses, furniture, bicycles, etc.). This garbage alone filled a 40 cubic yard roll-off dumpster higher than the brim. Wilkes-Barre City offered assistance by taking almost another ton of recyclable waste (steel woven cables, and various metal objects) to a scrap yard, and 44 tires to a recycler. Pictures are available on our EPCAMR Facebook Fan site Cleanups Photo Album.
Your browser may not support display of this image. EPCAMR would like to thank our volunteers, many of whom were King’s College and Wilkes University students who were members of their respective higher education’s Environmental Clubs, for donating their Saturday mornings and Wilkes-Barre City for providing Public Works workers, and the use of a pickup truck and front-end loader to help out. Petroleum Service Company, Wilkes-Barre Housing Authority, and Luzerne County Rail & Redevelopment Corporation granted us permission to enter their properties, Louis Cohen and Sons (Fellow’s Ave., Hanover Twp.) for providing the dumpster, and OnSite Portable Toilets (Sugarloaf) for a restroom facility for the volunteers. We would like to thank the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority for donating six cases of spring water, and a deal with Jones’ Pizza & Pub (Hazle St. in Wilkes-Barre) for donating pizzas to replenish the volunteers after their hard work.
EPCAMR received a $16,000 grant from the PA Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Waste Management in April 2009. The non-profit has partnered with dozens of local community groups to secure the funding to work on multiple locations throughout the Wyoming Valley and has a 12 year history of conducting community cleanups throughout the Anthracite Region. Also, PA CleanWays has been a partner with EPCAMR over the years and has provided educational materials to community residents to prevent future dumping incidents from occurring. PA DOT provides gloves and garbage bags.
Within the next few months EPCAMR, with the valued help of volunteers, will be ridding Luzerne County of trash, tires, garbage, household wastes, demolition debris, and other discarded items located at several illegal dump sites throughout the Wyoming Valley. The majority of the dumping that goes on in local community open spaces, where apathy is high, access to sites is unlimited, and policing of the sites is virtually non-existent. There needs to be a change the mindset of local residents that illegal dumping will not be tolerated. Robert E. Hughes, EPCAMR Executive Director emphatically stated, “We don’t accept the mentality that it is alright to dump garbage wherever you want just because the landscape has already been scarred by mining. We’re trying to teach our children that this is unacceptable and a quality of life issue for our residents, their health, their children’s future, and the environment. EPCAMR would like to promote the PA CleanWays Adoption Program with local governments and community groups to establish additional signs and cameras to make dumpers more aware that people are becoming more vigilant and on guard in the future.”
EPCAMR would like to recruit additional volunteers for future cleanups to increase our volunteer base within the Wyoming Valley and other restoration projects in various communities to build upon our earlier successes. If you would like to offer a hand, contact Leigh Ann Kemmerer or Robert E. Hughes to learn how to sign up and get notified of more details. Cleanup dates will be scheduled on Saturdays until the end of June 2010. Volunteers can expect to work for at least a 4 hour shift to assist with any of the cleanups. Get more details on www.orangewaternetwork.org or EPCAMR’s Facebook page. Just search EPCAMR on Facebook to become a fan.
|
|
Press Releases: 88 Growing Greener Projects Will Improve the Economic and Environmental Health
|
|
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
04/5/2010
CONTACT:
Tom Rathbun, DEP
717-787-1323
DEP: 88 Growing Greener Projects Will Improve the Economic and Environmental Health of Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG -- Addressing some of Pennsylvania’s most pressing environmental challenges, the Department of Environmental Protection today announced more than $16.5 million in Growing Greener funding for projects that will clean state waterways, restore stream banks, prevent flooding, reclaim mine-scarred lands and reduce pollution.
“During the past seven years, Pennsylvania’s Growing Greener program has delivered more than $237 million to local communities to improve the quality of our waterways, address serious environmental problems at mine sites and make communities more livable,” said Secretary John Hanger. “Growing Greener has also sparked economic redevelopment by providing the tools and funding needed to tackle tough environmental issues and restore the state’s natural resources.”
The funding awarded today includes $12.6 million in Watershed and Flood Protection grants and $3.9 million in federal funding for Non-Point Source Pollution Control grants.
Grants range in size from $6,145 to the Cameron County Conservation District to address invasive species and repair riparian buffers along the Sinnemahoning Creek to $664,500 to the Schuylkill Headwaters Association to design and construct a system to treat the 1.7 million gallon-per-day discharge of mine drainage from the Mary D Borehole into the Schuylkill River.
More than 1,300 Growing Greener Grants have been awarded since 2003. These grants have funded new and innovative drinking water/wastewater treatment systems, dam improvements, open space acquisition, repairs and upgrades of fish hatcheries, wildlife habitat development, acid mine drainage abatement, industrial site revitalization, community parks and recreation projects, acid mine discharge treatment, abandoned mine reclamation, watershed protection, and advanced energy projects through Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority.
The funds are distributed to non-profit organizations, watershed groups and county and municipal governments to address local and regional water quality issues.
A complete list and descriptions of the Growing Greener grants announced today by DEP may be found online at: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/growing_greener/13958/watershed_grants/588895
|
Saturday, May 1, 2010
7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Ramada Inn Conference Center
State College, PA
Please join the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, the PA Department of Environmental Protection, and the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University in promoting the health and future of Pennsylvania’s waterways on Saturday, May 1, 2010.
Citizens from all walks of Pennsylvania’s watershed community will have the opportunity to share their expertise and wisdom, as well as learn from peers. Participants will include community watershed organizations, Trout Unlimited chapters, and sportsmen’s groups, along with environmental professionals from conservation districts, government agencies, academia, and consulting firms.
On Saturday, May 1, the Summit will begin at 8:20 a.m., with one of our keynote speakers. There will be eight breakout sessions, each of which will be offered twice during the morning and will focus on the areas of organizational development and technical assistance.
The Organizational Track will cover topics relating to board development, community engagement, and financial opportunities and diversity. The Technical Track will offer information on Datashed, volunteer monitoring, available resources for community watershed organizations, and the current issues surrounding Marcellus Shale gas well drilling.
Our second keynote speaker will present after lunch. Attendees will then work together to prioritize their expectations for the incoming Governor of Pennsylvania and meet the newest allies in the efforts to renew Growing Greener.
Please come early to enjoy our Friday evening reception featuring appetizers, a cash bar, and opportunities to network with colleagues and other professionals in the display area.
For more information and registration please visit
http://pawatershedsummit2010.wordpress.com/
|
|
Press Releases: Intern to Instill PRIDE into the Wyoming Valley coordinating cleanups
|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 12-8-09
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Leigh Ann Kemmerer, Illegal Dump Site Cleanup Specialist-570-371-3522
Intern to Instill PRIDE into the Wyoming Valley coordinating cleanups
EPCAMR would like to welcome Leigh Ann Kemmerer, a recent graduate of King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science. As a student, Leigh Ann completed a variety of courses ranging from Ecological Statistics, Wildlife Ecology and Management, to Ecotoxicology. Many of the courses were hands-on performing fish population surveys, electrofishing, and benthic macroinvertebrate sampling. She was also a two year member of the Environmental Club at King’s.
She recently completed an internship with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission assisting with various projects utilizing state and federal protocols for water quality sampling, biological, habitat assessment surveys, and launching/retrieving remote monitoring devices on watersheds close to Harrisburg impacted by sedimentation and storm water runoff and on the E. Branch Fishing Creek, Columbia County on acid deposition. Leigh Ann contributed to the development of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) dealing with acid deposition.
She also spent three months studying abroad in Queensland, Australia, a few years ago, doing a range of research techniques in a highly fragmented and endangered mountain-forest ecosystem. The research contributed to long term goals that are major factors in rehabilitation projects in that region.
Leigh Ann previously interned with the Luzerne Conservation District where she completed a Wetlands Delineation Course with the Army Corps. Much of her time was spent with private consultant engineers on inspections with other District Staff in the Erosion and Sediment Control Department, assisted with stream bank assessments and stream corridor damage due to severe flooding occurrences in 2006, and assisted with several workshops including installing backyard wildlife habitats and pond installations.
She also had previously provided volunteer support to EPCAMR during an AMD tour in Luzerne County with youth from the Children’s Service Center from Wilkes-Barre that had not been previously exposed to many outdoor areas throughout the Wyoming Valley. Along with fellow interns, she harvested iron oxide from several AMD sites to use in an EPCAMR Anthrascapes AMD Art Exhibit and for educational outreach programs, including tie dye t-shirts and chalk.
Robert Hughes, Executive Director enthusiastically stated, “Leigh Ann comes to EPCAMR with a background that is sufficient for any intern to enjoys the outdoors, who already has a familiarity with abandoned mine drainage, is someone who doesn’t mind mucking around in orange water and getting her hands dirty, and enjoys spending time with our area youth educating them on water quality and ways in which they can help through volunteer efforts, such as community cleanups.”
Leigh Ann will be designated as the Illegal Dump Site Cleanup Specialist intern for the Winter and early Spring 2010 working 10-15 hours a week helping EPCAMR to plan for the Spring 2010 Cleanups once the snow and ice recede. She will be seeking community volunteers, neighborhood groups, and college students from the Wyoming Valley to participate in these future cleanups. She’ll be preparing press releases, seeking grant opportunities, and working to put together a small display on illegal dumping on abandoned mine lands and the hazards it presents, working with our state-wide partners, PA Cleanways and the PA Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Waste Management.
“I look forward to helping clean up the Wyoming Valley and exposing as many people as possible to the beauty of our area as a reason why history should not be repeated. Keeping garbage out of our streams, keeps future generations safer in our scenic part of Pennsylvania.”
|
|
Press Releases: STAGE IS SET FOR EPCAMRs AMD AVENGERS TO BE AN INTERACTIVE COMEDY
|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact Robert E. Hughes-EPCAMR for details
570-371-3523
September 2, 2009
STAGE IS SET FOR EPCAMR’s AMD AVENGERS AND POLLUTION POSSE TO BECOME AN INTERACTIVE THEATRICAL COMEDY AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION SKIT AT GREATER NANTICOKE AREA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
(Nanticoke, PA) EPCAMR has once again been able to secure a PA Partners in the Arts Grant Program from the PA Council on the Arts and the Scranton Area Foundation to support our environmental education and outreach to local schools on mining impacts in our region. EPCAMR was recently informed that our application for funding was approved for $1408, around half of what was originally requested, nevertheless, a substantial amount to assist us with the development of a theatrical comedy skit and performance involving 4th grade students that will educate them on abandoned mines, anthracite coal, water pollution, mine drainage, land reclamation, and the work of EPCAMR to restore our watersheds and reclaim our land previously impacted by mining. The funds will be used for set and costume designs. Props will be used and created to enhance and make the students more aware, symbolically, of the meanings and representations of various themes of the skit. A project will be purchased to project large colorful pictures of mine drainage, coal mines, mine water, fossils, volcanoes, geologic eras, dinosaurs, swamps, and other images of abandoned mines and real people in our communities making a difference to clean up our environment. A mini-microphone system will be used to narrate the skit and a fog machine will add a fun and cool element of swamp bogs during the times of the dinosaurs to the stage. EPCAMR will probably be looking for a sponsor to help us print up a booklet similar to a PLAYBILL to introduce the audience to the students, their roles, parts, and EPCAMR.
EPCAMR will be receiving its grant award along with other 2009 grant recipients at a celebration and media event on Thursday, September 17 , 20009, at 5:00PM at The Scranton Cultural Center’s Masonic Temple, in downtown Scranton.
The project will entail the creation of backdrops and set designs based on EPCAMR’s hugely popular AMD Activity Book, “The AMD Avengers vs. The Pollution Posse”.
The skit will bring nearly 30 pages from the Activity Book to life on stage. EPCAMR is going to partner with the Greater Nanticoke Area 4th Grade Elementary Class to cast its first production. It is anticipated that it can then be taken to other school districts and potentially nature camps, and performed as a part of our environmental education and outreach programs. Many students will get to become actresses and actors for the skit. The idea is to engage and involve the student body audience as well with interactive role playing and decision making processes based on educational activities and learning experiences contained with the Activity Book.
The students will get to read lines, narrate, act, act silly, come up with impromptu mannerisms for the characters in the Activity Book and make people laugh.
There are several interactive games that will be incorporated into the skit used by EPCAMR in many outdoor field settings in the past. We are hoping to do a dress rehearsal before school lets out in the Summer, possibly for the student body, and maybe at the Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre, if the space is available. A play book for the production will be produced by the students of the Greater Nanticoke Elementary 4th Grade as well.
EPCAMR is reaching out to The Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre, Arts YOUniverse, Costumes by Barbara, Bloomsburg University’s Drama Department, and the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble for volunteer assistance and guidance in creating the unique and creative set designs, backdrops, props, and costume designs. We are also going to encourage the parents to get involved by helping their children create some of the small props that will be assigned to them as a part of the set designs that EPCAMR will be building and creating.
EPCAMR hopes to teach the students how to artistically express themselves, make fun of themselves, and create a fun and educational learning atmosphere based on the combination of art, science, the environment, and local mining history. EPCAMR will evaluate the project by having the students fill out a questionnaire towards the end of the project as to whether or not they enjoyed the experience and learned significantly more information about the impacts of abandoned mines in their community as a result of our program. EPCAMR is targeting the underserved school districts in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties for the effort and are hoping to expand it into the region once all of the bugs are worked out of the skit.
Robert emphasized, “The Greater Nanticoke Elementary School District has always been receptive to any grants or educational programs that EPCAMR could bring to its students over the last 5 years or more, whether it was AMD Tie Dye T-shirts, creating Iron Oxide Chalk, or Watershed Education Tours on AMD. Dr. Scott, one of the school’s principals has always welcomed EPCAMR into its school district with open arms and has been very accommodating to scheduling the programs with EPCAMR. The teachers that we’ve worked with over the years really have enjoyed our Programs and seem to like having us come back from year to year. I can’t see them turning down another great opportunity to continue to educate the students in our community when mine drainage is the worst pollution problem the entire school district is surrounded by in the Newport and Nanticoke Creek watersheds.”
State government funding for the arts depends upon an annual appropriation by the Commonwealth of PA and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Scranton Area Foundation.
|
|
Press Releases: EPCAMR AMD AVENGERS AND POLLUTION POSSE CHARACTERS EMERGE FROM ACTIVITY BOOK
|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: ROBERT E. HUGHES-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; 570-371-3523
SEPTEMBER 1, 2009
EPCAMR MINE DRAINAGE AVENGERS AND POLLUTION POSSE CHARACTERS EMERGE FROM THE ANTHRACITE REGION’S ACTIVITY BOOK COME TO REAL LIFE
(Ashley, PA) As Executive Director and co-creator of the “AMD Avengers vs. The Pollution Posse” Activity Book and the characters and story lines that are contained within the book, during the Fall 2008, upon receipt of the Scranton Area Foundation’s Project Partners for the Arts Project Stream $1691 in funding, EPCAMR began to work with our volunteer AmeriCorps position, Carly Trumann, and co-worker, Mike Hewitt, to think about ways to bring mining history back to life for our youth. EPCAMR has done hundreds of elementary-aged environmental education and arts programs for dozens of school districts across the Anthracite Region over the last 13 years on abandoned mines, mining, geology, biology, aquatic biology, art, and volunteerism in our communities.
Robert reminisced, “back in 2003, I came up with the idea that we needed to be creative in our approach to teaching kids about mine drainage and abandoned mine reclamation, so that it wasn’t technical and super-scientific. We wanted to make our environmental education programs fun, interactive, and exciting, with hands-on learning and outdoor experiences that were related to the local abandoned mine impacts to their watersheds. Mike and I thought it would be awesome if we could get funding to create an activity and coloring book based on different coal mining, water quality, biology, science, and land reclamation themes. Plus, we really wanted to become super heroes for the environment related to the line of work that we were in. What’s the chance of there being any other comic book super heroes fighting for water quality on Northeastern PA’s abandoned mining landscapes? Not even Captain Planet has stopped by!” We worked with several artists and graphic design friends of ours to begin to put the character designs and their traits on paper and it eventually led to EPCAMR purchasing the outright copyrights on all of the characters we created in the activity book, “The AMD Avengers vs. The Pollution Posse” at that time.
Prior to Halloween 2008, EPCAMR was working with a well-respected artist in the Wyoming Valley, and good friend of Robert’s, Kathleen Godwin, another resident of Plymouth Township, and collaborator for the creation of Arts ,a href="http://www.artsyouniverse.com/18.html">YOUniverse, Wilkes-Barre, where a mansion full of talented artists live, teach, work, and inspire other young artists alike. It is the goal of Arts YOUniverse to develop inexpensive art programming for each member of the community. She had assisted EPCAMR with pulling together a two week AMD Anthrascapes Art Exhibit several years ago where we had over 50 artists create pieces or artwork that contained iron oxide in one format or another.
Robert recalls, “I remember meeting Kathleen in 2006, when I was completing my Leadership Wilkes-Barre classes and she had this string with a notepad hanging from the ceiling of Arts YOUniverse where she had told community leaders from the class to sign, if they ever had a passion for art and wanted to make a connection through her. She said she would do her best to make our wishes come through. I signed up and said that I eventually wanted to secure funding to put a comedy play or theatre performance based on our Anthracite AMD Activity Book and create costumes for all of the characters and the stage settings. Not even a year and a half later, after helping EPCAMR to come up with ideas for the grant, we were prepared to submit the application to the Scranton Area Foundation for funding to begin designing costumes and coming up with a draft skit. She came through for me big time! She is one of my most favorite inspiring artists in the Valley.
Although the grant took some time to develop and honing in on a potential funding source, she suggested that EPCAMR talk with Barbara Gavlick, another local artist and costume designer from Luzerne. EPCAMR took her advice quickly and followed up. EPCAMR had initially made contact with Barbara just before the Halloween rush, so we decided after talking on the phone that we would meet up to discuss EPCAMR’s ideas for costume designs for many of the characters that are in our Activity Book, in the late Fall, around Thanksgiving.
After Thanksgiving, EPCAMR took a trip to her Costume Shop on Main Street in Luzerne, and had a wonderful and exciting time going over some great ideas for each of the characters. Robert exclaimed, “You could see the wheels spinning in our heads as we started to come up with fresh and creative designs! We were all smiles at that point.” She wanted to think about things over the Christmas Holidays and meet back up with EPCAMR after the New Year. She asked EPCAMR to write up some of our costume ideas and get them to her in the meantime, which we did.
EPCAMR is sure that if she hadn’t been so busy in the Fall 2008 with the Halloween Season, which was obviously her busiest time of the year, we may have been able to get a few more characters completed with this project before it closed. However, she was able to complete 8 costumes out of the 14 main characters. She left the 4 hardest ones until the end of the project, which were the D-9 Bulldozer, Gobba ‘da Pile, the Limestone Cowboy (Robert’s costume) and Dolomite (Robert’s horse), Swampy (Robert’s co-worker -Mike) and Wart (Mike’s Bull Frog). EPCAMR is going to complete them under a separate project funding stream request.
In June 2009, Barbara was able have EPCAMR pick up the following 5 characters: Fe Rock, Mang Rock, & Silt Rock (The Toxicity Trio), Coal Face, and Filamentous Algae. We began using the Toxicity Trio at a Nature Camp this summer at Hickory Run State Park and the kids loved the costumes. In early August 2009, we were able to pick up 3 more costumes: Brooky the Trout, Pyrite O’Brian, and Al Floc. Towards the end of the month, EPCAMR Staff made a trip to the Salvation Army, where we thought it would be most appropriate to purchase our additional clothing accessories and props for as many costumes as possible and give back to another local charitable non-profit organization in the community. With a puzzled expression on his face, Mike said, “We were like two kids in a candy store with about $100 and we couldn’t even spend it all, yet our cart was full. We got every kind of clothing accessories you we could think of in all kinds of colors. We’re talking colors of the rainbow!”
The skits have been morphed into an idea by Robert to become a comedy play that we’d like to perform on-stage with a willing elementary school from the area, complete with sets, backdrops, additional props, narration by the kids, art in motion, and local children playing each of the characters on stage that will have silly mannerisms and an interactive presence with the kids that aren’t in the actual play. We have gotten a commitment out of a local elementary school principal from the Greater Nanticoke Area’s 4th grade class to participate and we will be following up with the Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre for assistance and receiving set design volunteer assistance from a Theatre Group from Bloomsburg University, where we have a tie, through our most recent summer Environmental Education Specialist Intern, Kyra Norton.
  
|
|
Press Releases: NATIONAL AWARD WINNING MAGAZINE, ORION, HELPS RAISE $ FOR OUTDOOR SUPPLIES
|
|
For Immediate Release:
August, 28, 2009
Contact Robert E. Hughes-570-371-3523
NATIONAL AWARD WINNING MAGAZINE ORION HELPS EPCAMR RAISE $300 FOR OUTDOOR SUPPLIES TO GET KIDS IN CREEKS
Several months ago, as an added benefit to our membership to the Orion Grassroots Network (OGN), ( www.orionmagizine.org )a group that assists grassroots non-profit organizations by providing services that allow them to be engaged in ecological, economic, and cultural changes within their region had challenged EPCAMR to go out and get votes online for a small fundraising campaign to suit our needs. EPCAMR was asked to be a part of the OGN’s newest program, the Wish List, where $300 was going to be awarded to 1 of 5 member groups who had to go out and solicit the most on-line votes over a 30 day period for a project or program that they needed funds to support. EPCAMR had put out the call for help to its volunteer base for votes and was chosen by other OGN members as the top vote getter for our “Kids in Creeks” Campaign to get our youth into abandoned mine drainage streams and healthy streams for outdoor environmental education learning experiences and won by a landslide!
Erik Hoffner-OGN Coordinator, and Scott Walker, Orion Society-Marketing Director helped get set up an on-line funding drive at www.fundable.com , a website that allows people to pledge whatever they can towards a project they care about. These drives are wonderfully risk-free, no one pays anything if the goal isn’t reached in the given time frame of 26 days. Pledges came in over a 3 week period, and we met our goal. The OGN will have helped EPCAMR meet our goal of getting kids wet come this Fall when school starts and our outdoor environmental education programs ramp up.
EPCAMR decided to zero in on things that they needed to better allow their staff of two and occasional seasonal interns to reach more youth who don’t get the opportunities to explore the outdoor environment in formal school settings and have not learned much about local environmental issues plaguing their local watersheds, particularly with abandoned mine drainage in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeastern PA.
EPCAMR needed waders for kids, bug viewers to look at and identify aquatic macro-invertebrate insects (bugs), triangular and vertebrate aquatic nets to catch fish, laminated 3-D bug scans to more closely identify aquatic insects, and a guidebook to the Ecology of Aquatic Insects. All of these supplies for just around $300! We focused on the waders for the most part.
Robert Hughes-Executive Director of EPCAMR, who created the campaign, emphasized, “We focused our campaign on getting waders for the kids to actually get them in the streams, regardless if they are orange-colored or not. They need to experience first hand, in the water, the impacts to the health of the stream ecosystem and the delicate balance it faces when pollution from abandoned mines is all around them. They don’t realize that it is entirely possible for them to be a part of the solution in the future to cleaning up their hometown watersheds, should they go into an environmental field of interest. We tell them that you can’t judge a stream by its color. You need to get in them to discover how to clean them up, if you want to be a part of the solution.” “We want to continue to support place-based environmentalism, related to nature and our environment, and ways in which we can engage our youth to participate actively and not turn their heads away from the past mining scars in our region, but to tackle them head on in the future as we are today!”
EPCAMR was featured in The Orion Magazine in February 2007 as a spotlight member organization.
###
|
|
Press Releases: HISTORIC AVONDALE MINE DISASTER, 140th ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIONS, SEPT. 6th
|
|
For Immediate Release:
August, 24, 2009
Contact Robert E. Hughes-570-371-3523
From the Anthracite Living History Group, Greater Plymouth Historical Society, Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR), Plymouth Township Planning Commission, the Anthracite Heritage Museum, and the Washburn-Avondale Restoration Committee.
HISTORIC AVONDALE MINE DISASTER, 140th ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIONS, SUNDAY, SEPT. 6th
The public is cordially invited to three free-of-charge historical preservation events in Scranton and Plymouth Township that will commemorate the 140th anniversary of the Avondale mine disaster of September 6, 1869, anthracite’s most deadly mining disaster with 110 victims.
10:30 – 11:45 a.m., September 6, 2009, Washburn Street Cemetery, Hyde Park, Scranton
Victims’ memorial program (colors, taps, memorial reflection, and speakers), plus the dedication of refurbished grave stones and the unveiling of a historical marker. 61 of the disaster’s 110 victims are buried at this cemetery, all of Welsh descent. Sponsored by the Washburn-Avondale Restoration Committee.
1:00 – 3:00 p.m., September 6, 2009, Anthracite Heritage Museum, McDade Park, Scranton
Avondale educational and cultural program with speakers, entertainment, literature display, and refreshments. Sponsored by the Anthracite Heritage Museum.
6:30 – 7:30 p.m., September 6, 2009, Avondale Disaster Site, Route 11, Plymouth Twp.
Avondale memorial program (memorial reflections, tributes, and speakers) on the site of the Avondale disaster, immediately followed by refreshments at the Plymouth Township Municipal Building. Sponsored by the Anthracite Living History Group, the Plymouth Historical Society, Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR), and the Plymouth Township Planning Commission. Visitors will be able to view and hear about the progress that has been made over the last year to construct three community gardens at the site, removal of graffiti, construction of a concrete platform for benches that will soon be secured at the site, wildlife habitat enhancements to the site with the addition of some bluebird boxes, and future plans to beautify the location. Additional local financial support and community volunteers are needed to keep the project moving along steadily.
For further information and directions please contact EPCAMR (570-371-3522) or Chester Kulesa at the Anthracite Heritage Museum (570-570-963-4804).
|
|
Press Releases: EPCAMR Staff Makes GIS Presentation at 19th Annual ARIPPA Technical Convention
|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact:
Robert E. Hughes, Executive Director for details-570-371-3523
EPCAMR Staff Makes GIS Presentation on Waste Coal and Anthracite Abandoned Mine Pools Study at 19th Annual ARIPPA Technical Convention in Harrisburg
(Harrisburg-PA)
The EPCAMR Staff, consisting of a two-man road show and jack of all mining trades when it comes to abandoned mine reclamation and mine drainage remediation in Eastern PA, Robert E. Hughes-Executive Director, and Michael A. Hewitt-Program Manager were invited to the ARIPPA’s 19th Annual Technical Convention, in Harrisburg on August 25th, 2009 and they made the best of their opportunity to present. They appeared before the Independent Power Producers Association Board of Directors, who are a state-wide trade association of Co-Generation Facility Operations, product companies, and service providers to that industry that are utilizing waste coal piles to generate electricity that is being sold back to the National Power Grid system, and are reclaiming abandoned mine lands, and helping to remediate future mine drainage problems at sites across the Commonwealth, where these operations are located.
EPCAMR was asked by Jeff A. McNelly, Executive Director, of ARIPPA, and board member of EPCAMR, representing the ARIPPA Co-Generation Industry, to make their highly requested Geographic Information System (GIS) Mapping Tool presentation, called RAMLIS (the Reclaimed Abandoned Mine Land Inventory System) to the Board of Directors, who largely consisted of General Managers from the Co-Generation Facilities across the State, on possible ways that EPCAMR could assist the ARIPPA Plants in the future through possible seasonal water quality monitoring associated with their circulating-fluidized bed boiler ash projects on abandoned mine sites where it is being used as a beneficial use by-product for reclamation in order to fill deep stripping pits in both the Anthracite and Bituminous Regions of PA.
EPCAMR Staff were able to make a 45 minute presentation on dozens of datasets, geographic information system (GIS) layers, which are natural resource points of interest related to abandoned mines such as boreholes, mine tunnel entrances, stripping pits, dangerous highwalls, culm banks, waste coal processing facilities, active mining sites, streams impacted by abandoned mine drainage, watershed boundaries defined by areas that are covered by a community group in a particular region of PA, and water quality data points and databases as well. Much of the presentation focused on the locations of where the Co-Generation Facilities were located in the Anthracite Region, the environmental impacts surrounding those facilities due to past mining practices, mine discharge points, culm banks, stripping pits, and a sneak peak at the underground hydrogeological connections from one mine pool system to another, particularly, in the Western Middle Anthracite Coal Fields.
EPCAMR Staff were able to show 3-D models and video animations of the structural geology of the Buck Mountain marker coal seam and areas above this particular bed in the Mt. Carmel area, that have been mined out to allow the members in attendance to see where mine pool water exists and approximate locations of the elevations of those pools, based on accurate elevations of existing borehole data for the region and the elevations at which AMD flows from abandoned mine tunnels, shafts, slopes, and other boreholes in the area.
Software used by EPCAMR to create the accurate reflection of the underground hydrogeology was able to show underground contour elevations of some of the coal reaching nearly 5000 to 7500’ deep, particularly in the areas of the Sharp Mountain range, outside of Pottsville, where dangerous cropfalls, extend deep beneath the mountain, into deep Anthracite Mines.
EPCAMR informed the ARIPPA members that what they do not have is an accurate reflection of the number of acres being reclaimed by the Co-Generation Facility industry and that is would be very useful to have to assist, not only EPCAMR, but the Commonwealth of PA in reducing the overall numbers of acres to be reclaimed of abandoned mines in PA. There has never been a comprehensive study of waste coal piles in the last decade or more to accurately reflect the amount of materials that are still out on the landscape in PA. There are still nearly 190,000 acres of abandoned mine lands left unreclaimed in PA and over 5,500 miles of streams impacted by AMD. Nearly 11 Million Tons of CFB-ash has being beneficially used at abandoned mine sites throughout PA. Over 2 Billion Tons of waste coal have been burned as an alternative energy fuel source in PA. Approximately 4500 acres of waste coal piles have been reclaimed in the last 20 years. EPCAMR would be wiling to partner with the industry to update those numbers into our GIS RAMLIS System for the cost of the time to put it together. Several industry representatives followed up with the EPCAMR Staff following the presentation and are interested in meeting with them to discuss future possibilities. Cogentrix, in Northampton County, and NEPCO, in Schuylkill County, were two industry representatives who would like to know more about our services. NEPCO is willing to provide EPCAMR with additional mine maps that we do not have at our fingertips to be able to add more accurate information to mining areas around McAdoo and the areas impacted near the Little Schuylkill River and Silver brook Creek, along State Route 309.
Harvie Beavers, Chairman, of the ARIPPA Board, commented at the end of EPCAMR’s presentation to Mr. McNelly, “It was one of the best technical presentations that our Board has seen in a long time, and it was nice to see that these two young guys have found themselves a niche in the reclamation business.”
 
Images: GIS Mine Pool Mapping Files for the Western Middle Anthracite Coal Field in
ArcView (right) and EarthVision (left)
For other details about the presentation, contact ARIPPA directly.
Jeff A McNelly, Executive Director,
2015 Chestnut Street Camp Hill PA 17011
Phone: 717 763 7635, Fax: 717 763 7455 Cell: 717 319 1457
Email: jamcnelly1@arippa.org, Alt Email: office@arippa.org Web: www.arippa.org
|
| |
|
Postal Address...
|
EPCAMR Office
101 South Main Street
Ashley, PA 18706
Phone: (570) 371-3522
Directions
|
|
OSM / VISTA Watershed Development Coordinator
|
Wren Dugan
(570) 371-3522
wdugan@epcamr.org
|
|
Please enter "EPCAMR" as your charity.
|
Check out our Western PA Counterpart!!
|
|
|
|
or 
feeds
