According to Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, there are over 5,000 abandoned underground mines across the state. In fact, abandoned mine lands (AMLs) impact the vast majority of Pennsylvania’s counties, harming the health of people, wildlife, and the economy, as well as our ability to combat climate change.

Highly acidic water containing heavy metals—known as acid mine drainage (AMD)—also runs through these mines and contaminates water sources. Eliminating AML hazards and treating AMD has positive impacts on millions of Pennsylvanians and their local ecosystems.

This is even as the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) recently published a report on the climate benefits of reclaiming abandoned mine lands as well as orphaned oil and gas wells, Superfund sites, and brownfields.

To see an example of successful reclamation of abandoned mine land, reporters are invited to join NWF, Earth Conservancy and the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR) as they lead a tour of the Espy Run Stream and the Askam Borehole Treatment Center.

Speakers will provide detail on the sites, before and after reclamation, and highlight the economic potential of local and federal investment for continued reclamation efforts in Pennsylvania and around the nation.     

  
Participants and media to meet at the Luzerne County Community College Education Conference Center and caravan/carpool to Epsy Run, by the Community College, Campus Center (Building 12) 1333 S Prospect St, Nanticoke, PA 18634, on Monday, October 3, 2022 at 10AM ET.

Speakers include Dr. Elizabeth Hughes, Communications Director, Earth Conservancy;
Bobby Hughes, Executive Director, Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation; Jessica Arriens and Lindsay Kuczera, National Wildlife Federation, Climate Policy team; James Kunz III, Administrator, PA Foundation for Fair Contracting; and Jeffrey Lapp, Chief of the Wetlands Branch, National Wildlife Federation (EPA).

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