EPCAMR - Local officials urge voters to OK measure that would help clean up mine lands

Posted on Fri, May. 13, 2005

Giving it the "green" light: Environmental ballot issue

By BRETT MARCY [email protected]

HANOVER TWP. – Tens of thousands of acres of drab, mine-scarred land could one day give way to community parks, new commercial and industrial development and vast, wide open spaces.

And it is within the power of the electorate to free the money necessary for the transformation.

That was the message from state and Luzerne County officials huddled Thursday at an office building in the Hanover Industrial Estates built on an abandoned coal lands.

Officials urged voters to approve a statewide ballot question that would allow the state to borrow $625 million for environmental improvements and conservation.

The referendum for Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed Growing Greener II initiative will appear on the ballot Tuesday, and proponents are making their last-minute appeal to the voters.

“I want to stress that point to the voters of Northeastern Pennsylvania: They can make history on May 17 by making the largest investment in Pennsylvania’s environment,” said state Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, who was joined by state Rep. Thomas Tigue, D-Hughestown.

As he spoke, Yudichak noted that the ground on which he stood was once an unsightly 15-acre abandoned mine site. Growing Greener dollars helped pay to reclaim the land.

Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services constructed a $4 million, 133,000-square-foot office building and parking lot on the spot. The building now houses four companies and about 130 employees.

“If we are going to continue to reclaim the thousands and thousands of acres of abandoned mine land in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we need the Growing Greener initiative,” Yudichak said. “It’s that important to the quality of our lives, to the quality of our economic future.”

About 9 percent of the county’s area is abandoned mine land, according to the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation. That amounts to 43,926 acres of mine-scarred land, stretching across 45 of the county’s 76 municipalities.

Robert Hughes, the coalition’s regional coordinator, said environmental groups around the state have banded together to push for the passage of the Growing Greener II ballot question.

Of the $625 million that would be borrowed for Growing Greener II, about $100 million would go toward abandoned mine clean-up, he said.

“We only get $25 million a year in federal money, and that goes in no time,” Hughes said of the state. “This is an additional shot in the arm for all of our projects.”

Abandoned mines are undoubtedly one of the county’s most pressing environmental and economic concerns, but they are not the only projects in the county that would be funded through the initiative, said Adrian Merolli, director of the Luzerne County Planning Department.

A related issue, Merolli said, is the ongoing problem of acid mine drainage that continues to pollute the county’s rivers and streams, such as Solomon Creek, which is known for its orange tint caused by the mine drainage.

Growing Greener money could also be used to preserve farmland and open space, as well as fund flood protection programs. He also suggested the state Legislature expand the proposed program to include funding for stormwater management projects.

That is why municipalities around the county have given overwhelming support for the ballot question, according to John Blake, director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania office of the governor.

“We in Northeastern Pennsylvania have been victimized in a very serious way by our industrial legacy,” Blake said. “Despite the fact that we built this country on the back of our labor, when the industry met its demise, we were left with acres and acres of waste coal land . . . These are areas that need investment.”

Andy Benyo can attest to that. Benyo is the chairman of the board of supervisors in Hazle Township, where he estimates 3,000 acres of land remain scarred by decades of strip mining.

“We could probably use all that money ourselves,” Benyo said of the proposed Growing Greener II initiative. “It’s a shame . . . You go outside this area, anywhere that didn’t have this strip mining taking place, and you don’t see what we see here. You see the beauty of the land.

“We need this,” he said of the ballot initiative. “We need it extremely badly.”