June 25-26,2015 at the Ramada Inn and Conference Center in State College, PA
Communities...What are they? What makes them ours? Why do we as a watershed community, volunteers, and professionals become so engaged in them, particularly in our coalfield communities across PA? What is being done to take them back and restore them from past environmental mining practices that we are all so concerned about?
Our backyards, neighborhoods, coal town patches, cricks, rivers, streams, fishing spots, hunting grounds, hiking trails, recreational trails, state parks, cities, malls, highways, byways, businesses, local shops, diners, small "mom and pop operations," and last but not least, our friends, family, and neighbors, from all sorts of diverse backgrounds, both culturally and ethnically, make up our communities.
Our communities are where we live, work, play, recreate, entertain, showcase to others, and raise our families.
Activities!
AMR Film Festival
Sustainability Tour
Golf Outing
The Pennsylvania AMR Community...
We as a PA Abandoned Mine Reclamation community, also have come to greatly understand the impacts on our communities from past mining practices. Water polluted by mine drainage, orange, red, yellow, white, green, acidic and alkaline streams, mine pools, flooded stripping pits, abandoned mine lands, dangerous highwalls, haul roads, illegal dump sites, tunnels, drifts, boreholes, adits, shafts, collieries, and tipples make up the fabric of our communities. It is these environmental issues that we've collectively decided as a community to address in a holistic approach: watersheds that reach beyond a single municipal or political boundary.
It's through partnerships that we reclaim our communities!
The Pennsylvania AMR Community may be the most active constituency working on mine drainage issues and supporting the reclamation of our abandoned mine lands in the country, given our strength in the number of Coalitions that make up our PA AMR Community. We are the ones who are taking back and reclaiming our communities in more ways than one. Our ultimate goals collectively are many: clean water, reclaimed viable landscapes, sustainability, improved quality of life, job creation, local economic redevelopment opportunities out of mine-scarred lands, development of new energy sources, hydro-electric energy, geothermal energy, ARIPPA's high tech co-generation plants, re-use of mine pool water to save fresh water reserves, creation of fish hatcheries, and the re-use of metal oxides for multiple markets.
Presentations Posted and Thank You Attendees
Thank you to over 130 attendees of this year’s AMR Conference (up from last year). You were part of an exciting 2-day adventure into the many faceted issue that is Abandoned Mine Reclamation! Our staff here at EPCAMR collected the electronic presentations (where available) and posted them to the site…
Register Now, Less than a Week Left!
Registration Deadline is June 15th, 2015. Registrations after the deadline will be considered “walk-ins” and the fee will be $100. NEW THIS YEAR: “Walk ins” (aka. attendees that do not register through this page before the registration deadline) will not be turned away, but will be charged $100 regardless of…
More Information Added!
Check out the Presentations Page for the newest approved presentations, the Sponsors Page for sponsors that have joined the cause and the Extra Activities Page for a description of the Sustainability Tour stops and the Film Festival videos. We are working on placing the presentations in the appropriate time slots…
Request for Presentations!
With a theme of “Reclaiming Our Communities”, the 2015 Pennsylvania Abandoned Mine Reclamation (AMR) Conference is currently accepting abstracts for consideration. We are looking for presentations that highlight the diverse and unique partnerships that have made Pennsylvania so successful at cleaning up the abandoned mine legacy of water and land…
Planning in Progress!
The AMR Conference Planning Committee is busily planning for the next conference and are happy to announce that the 2015 Pennsylvania Conference on Abandoned Mine Reclamation will be held June 25-26 at the Ramada Inn and Conference Center in State College, PA. The theme is “Reclaiming Our Communities.” Please stay tuned for…
Sharing our Strengths!
Many of us are volunteers and put hundreds of hours into our community without even blinking an eye. Everyone knows someone who knows somebody that can get us something that we need, when we need it. We are the go-to environmental stewards who are the most knowledgeable individuals about our local rivers and streams when it comes to identifying problems and coming up with solutions from within our communities where the institutional knowledge and years of expertise and experience is bountiful beyond belief.
So, this year, we are going to incorporate our ideas, successes, and partnerships into presentations and discussions that will showcase how the PA AMR Community does what it does best, getting our hands dirty, reclaiming our communities.
Stay Tuned...