EPCAMR

09/05/2026

Can we pass something to benfit our communities that will help to reduce our utility costs by giving our communities a choice?

For consumers, the benefit of community solar is a potential savings of 5% to 20% compared to the average utility bill, according to Vote Solar. But community solar grids aren’t legal in Pennsylvania — yet. That could change if a community energy bill, which passed the state House this session, also passes the Senate. The current session for the Legislature ends in November.

Read more here.



https://community.triblive.com/news/4119922

09/05/2026

Would those of you who have worked with or have come in contact with Bobby Hughes and his Staff over the last few decades as volunteers, artists, students, interns, professors, professionals, and or friends from the coalfield communities across Appaachia please consider leaving us a brief comment of your thoughts on our organization and impact we may have had in your area? We'd like to share them at our upcoming Annivesary Dinner on September 19th. You can just leave it as a comment here, email it, or leave it under the Review section as a testimonial on our page.

09/05/2026

Great news for historic mine map preservation efforts in Appalachia. We can't imagine the cost for one of these, but the Anthracite Region and us would love to see one of these on our list for Santa one year with all the maps that we've scanned in parts due to the lengths and file size for the PA's Mine Subsidence Insurance Program and the Mine Map Atlas. We utilize the scanned mine maps from the National Mine Map Repository for some of our mine pool modeling and mapping work.

Check out our brand‑new high‑resolution scanners! OSMRE Director Lanny E. Erdos and Acting Deputy Director Tom Shope joined the National Mine Map Repository team to unbox this big win for preserving historic mine maps.

These advanced systems mark a major leap forward in how we preserve, digitize, and deliver historic mine maps that support safety, research, and mission‑critical operations across the nation.

Our team is pushing boundaries, modernizing legacy processes, and embracing technology to better serve communities and partners.

OSMRE continues to innovate—one scan, one map, one breakthrough at a time.

09/04/2026

We appreciate the financial support of The Greenlight Project to help us continue the cleanup of our legacy trash and illegal tires piles around Luzerne County. It was great to see Congressman Rob Bresnahan Jr. and his wife and great friend and supporters of EPCAMR for many years, Chelsea Bresnahan out with our volunteers earlier in the Summer with our volunteers at the Pine Run Cleanup, off Pine Run Road, a Class A trout stream in the Solomon Creek watershed.

Our $1,500 grant to EPCAMR supported the removal and recycling of illegally dumped tires, supporting the volunteers helping to clean up the places we all call home. 💚

09/04/2026

Be sure to check out the Family Innovation Night that we will be a part of next Thursday evening in Berwick. We'll be having youth make recycled iron oxide chalk (Make A Piece, Take A Piece) from legacy mine water that we're cleaning up, view preserved aquatic macroinvertebrates under magnifying bug viewers, and talking about our work to cleanup and restore our abandoned mine lands.

Send a message to learn more

09/04/2026

The Abandoned Mine Reclamation Chronicles

09/04/2026

Yesterday, Bobby Hughes and Maria Gereda took a trip down to see one of our long-time partners and colleagues, Dave Horvath, Park Ranger, that we hadn't seen in awhile that asked us to assess a cleanup area where illegal dumping has been occurring along the edge of the Mauch Chunk Lake Park for a Fall Cleanup. While visiting the park, we also were able to drop off two cigarette butt receptacles for the Park that we awarded to them through the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful mini-grant that we received not too long ago. It turns out that they have a bit of an issue with cigarette butts being tossed aside throughout this beautiful park along the Lake.

Bobby and Dave hadn't seen each other in many years and it was great to catch up. They talked about the famous Chicken BBQs that Jim Clauser, former District Manager for the Carbon County Conservation District at the park. They also couldn't believe how old they have become since last seeing each other. It was funny, yet, wonderful to see old friends get together that haven't seen each other in quite some time and just pick up where they left off years ago.

We're going to look to schedule a small cleanup in the Fall and reach out to Summit Hill Borough to see if they will assist us with the removal of the trash and debris that we will eventually collect and a few tires that we've seen. The area littered is near a trail that historically led to the Carbon County Environmental Education and Wildlife Rehabilitation Center but has been difficult to maintain. It's not a very large cleanup, but it's definitely something that EPCAMR volunteers can handle in a half a day and maybe get some time to enjoy the Park and or visit Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. We want to help our friend Dave and the Park out. Carbon county is in our Affiliate Service area and in EPCAMR's regional coverage area since there are a number of AMD discharges that drain to the Upper Lehigh River watershed. Stay tuned.

09/04/2026

Yesterday we were able to award our partners, the Huber Breaker Preservation Society and their President, Don Kane Jr. with a few surprises. First, they received a $2100 check for interpretive educational historical kiosks for the Huber Miner's Memorial Park funded through our mini-grant program supported by ARIPPA. Bobby Hughes presented him with a scaled 3D model of the Huber Breaker and the colliery grounds printed by EPCAMR and our AmeriCorps Conservation Legacy Stewards Individual Placements volunteer, Ian Padden on our 3D Printer as a gift that he can showcase at their Fall Open House. The model was designed by Eric Zwirnmann, in partnership with John Welsh as a part of our BlueCoal360 project that is tied to the Huber. Finally, we gave him two TerraCycle US cigarette butt receptacles for the fence along the park that were awarded to us through Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful under a mini-grant we received to distribute them to community partners. It was a good day for Don and the Huber Breaker Preservation Society.

09/03/2026

We'll post some photos of the tour from yesterday. This batch, taken by the Earth Conservancy as we travelled around to see the progress on the Nanticoke Creek Stream Restoration and Leuder's Creek Restoration along Middle Road, Clark's Cross, and Front Street in the Hanover Section of Nanticoke were visited as well as the Askam Maelstrom Oxidizer AMD Treatment System along Dundee Road, often referred to as the Dundee Outfall. EPCAMR Staff monitor a number of stream sections within the watershed for flow and chemistry for the Earth Conservancy throughout the year on a monthly basis to monitor progress as the reclamation and stream restoration and abatement efforts continue.

09/03/2026

EPCAMR ED Bobby Hughes and Program Manager Michael Hewitt (both in orange shirts in the photo) led the tour today to several spots around the Wyoming Valley where stream channel restoration, AMD monitoring, and abandoned mine land reclamation projects are either under way or have been completed with a number of state and federal funding sources as well as private funds being leveraged towards the projects. Details are in the previous post with the WNEP-TV link and video story.

The nonprofit Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR) provided a field tour of projects underway in multiple Luzerne County communities on Wednesday for Nathan A. Houtz, the state Department of Environmental Protection’s deputy secretary for active and abandoned m...