Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team comes to Penn State Wilkes-Barre
Posted on Monday, 19 June 2006 (14:27:33) EDT by admin
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LEHMAN TWP. — There is only one problem greater than the poverty plaguing the 13 states comprising the Appalachia region — acid mine drainage.
Dr. T. Allan Comp, director of the federal Office of Surface Mining/VISTA, joined 35 representatives of watershed groups from six states for the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Training Initiative at Penn State Wilkes-Barre last week. The three-day meeting focused on efforts to improve reclamation work on mine lands throughout the eastern U.S.
Comp said such work is critical not only because acid mine drainage is the greatest problem, but also the central core of Appalachia, a region ranging from Pennsylvania to Alabama, is the most damaged ecosystem in the country.
“When it comes to past mining practices, we as a nation celebrated what we were doing then,” Comp said. “In the 1970s, that changed and we began to regulate mining. It’s better now and the watershed groups are increasing to more than 800 across the region. It’s really encouraging.”
The three-day training focused on grant writing, monitoring watershed health, education and outreach and economic redevelopment.
Although the Appalachia region is scarred with different mining techniques, the same problem persists throughout all the states.
As a result, similar remediation techniques can be applied throughout the region, making last week’s conference a vital tool.
“We’re all doing the same work, just in different locales,” said Bruce Golden, regional director of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation. “Within coal country, a lot of our needs are common. This training allows us to share what works so we’re not re-inventing the wheel.”
Comp said much of the training can be used to facilitate efforts of local watershed groups working to clean up streams from past mining practices. One crucial component, he said, is grant writing.
“We need to strengthen the capacity of local watershed groups to raise money to accomplish their goals,” Comp said. “The programs and the grants are intertwined.”
The event was organized by Robert Hughes, regional director of the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation. Hughes said the work of EPCAMR partnering with OSM to fund mine reclamation projects was a major reason why the annual training was held in the area.
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