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Message
We
are working on directing our services and resources to better
address the needs of watershed groups throughout the region. We are eager
to hear your thoughts, ideas, and needs concerning your watershed
associations as well as what you would like to see from ours. We
are also most eager to hear about your projects and successes so we can
share them with the Eastern Coalfield community.
ECRR
would like to begin adding a section to Creek Clips that would feature an
individual watershed group in each issue. As partners in a
common cause, we would like to share information on active watershed
groups throughout the area for better networking and a more concerted effort
in addressing water issues. Please send us information about your
organization so that we may promote your group to all of our readers.
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Chesapeake Clean
Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act: HR 3852
The Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act, a bill [S.
1816] [H.R. 3852], recently introduced by Senator Cardin and
Congressman Cummings is the first realistic and comprehensive approach
to cleaning up the waters of the Mid-Atlantic and the Highlands Region
since the early 1970s. This legislation will go a long way toward
protecting our streams and rivers that are still clean and ensure that
they do not slowly slip away as so many of our other clean waters
have.
This bill, for the first time, establishes a deadline for implementing
restoration activities in the region - 2025. For some this is not
soon enough, but according to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Coalition
this is a realistic deadline, and the legislation provides the means
and the guidance for us to reach this goal.
The legislation significantly expands the amount of Federal grant money
available for restoration activities in the Chesapeake Bay
watershed. This bill provides a thirteen-fold increase over
what was funded for Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration activities in
2009. This amount of over $411 million annually, includes $1.5
billion (over 5 years) in new money to assist local governments to
implement projects to reduce stormwater pollution. Local
governments in West Virginia will be eligible for this assistance
money, which is critical for the local work that communities will
likely be required to do with or without this legislation. West
Virginia counties include: Pendleton, Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan,
Mineral, Berkeley, and Jefferson.
West Virginia has been receiving money through the Chesapeake Bay
Program for the past five years. In 2009 West Virginia's
Headwater State Grant was $500,000. This bill will raise that
annual grant to $2.7 million, with at least $530,000 specifically to
provide technical assistance for agriculture and forestry. This
will be combined with the $2.7 million that West Virginia farmers will
be getting in 2010 through the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative - an
initiative of the 2008 Federal Farm Bill.
West Virginia has never been in a better position to move forward to
restore and protect our waters now, and for future generations.
Fish kills, intersex fish and other genetic aberrations, health
advisories recommending not to eat certain fish, and other problems
related to polluted waters must become a thing of the past.
Supporting the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act is
the best way to ensure a healthy future for our kids and their
environment.
Peter
Marx, Chesapeake Bay Watershed Coalition
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WATERSHED NEWS
DEP May Partner
with Drillers to Clean Up Acid Mine Drainage
Pittsburgh
Business Times - by Anya Litvak
November 6, 2009
The
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and several
Marcellus Shale drillers are hoping to band together to tackle a major
environmental issue by turning the drillers' need for millions of
gallons of water into an opportunity to clean up acid mine drainage.
The department has been in discussions with Range Resources Corp.,
Seneca Resources Corp. and others about a new way to ensure that
Pennsylvania's 5,000 miles of streams and rivers impaired by the
orange, metal-heavy discharge from abandoned mines are kept clean.
Currently, local watershed organizations and the DEP treat mine
drainage using, among other things, state Growing Greener grants that
sunset next year.
"I think there's a crisis looming across the state," said
Mark Fedosick, president of the Montour Run Watershed Association,
whose latest mine drainage treatment system opened on Nov. 6 in Findlay
Township.
Fedosick said he wonders where watershed groups like his will find
funding when the grants expire. Adding to that anxiety is the seemingly
infinite lifespan of an abandoned mine.
"Discharges don't dry up. They're ground water. They're being fed
by streams," said J. Scott Horrell, environmental program manager
with the state's Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation.
At the same time, the natural gas industry is facing a problem of its
own - it needs millions of gallons of water to fracture each well, a
process that involves pumping the water mixed with chemicals into the
dense rock at such high pressure as to crack it and release the natural
gas trapped inside.
Bush's Stream-Buffer Rule for Mining Will Remain Until
2011
By PATRICK REIS of Greenwire
Published: November 2, 2009 in nytimes.com
The Interior Department will leave in place George W.
Bush-era changes to a rule designed to protect streams from
mountaintop-removal coal mining until 2011, according to court
documents filed by the Obama administration Friday.
A new "stream-buffer zone" rule could
"optimistically" be finished by early 2011, Glenda Owens,
acting director of Interior's Office of Surface Mining, said in papers
filed Friday.
Interior will formally announce the start of the rulemaking this month
and open a 30-day window for public comments, according to the court
papers. Then, the mining office will move "as expeditiously"
as possible to finish the rule, but no formal timeline can be set
without knowing the volume of public input, Owens said.
The papers were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia, where environmental groups sued over changes to the
stream-buffer rule, which requires a minimum 100-foot buffer between
streams and mining operations.
The Bush administration granted exemptions to that rule for waste dumps
and other activities that environmental groups say are polluting the
waterways. The groups sued over the changes and hoped the Obama
administration would cancel them. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in
April moved to do so on the grounds that their environmental impacts
had not been adequately analyzed.
But a federal judge in August rejected Interior's authority to do so
without going through a full rulemaking process and accepting public
comment (E&ENews PM, Aug. 12). Environmental groups blasted
the 2011 timeline, saying Appalachia will suffer in the meantime.
Abandoned Mines Would Grow Algae in Mo. Biofuels Project
By KATIE HOWELL of Greenwire
Published: November 2, 2009 in nytimes.com
Backers of algae-based biofuels tout the simplicity of their feedstock.
Sunlight and water are all that's needed to convert carbon dioxide into
fuel.
Now, some scientists are testing the notion that sunlight
might be optional.
Researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology are
planning to grow algae for fuel in abandoned mines using light-emitting
diodes, or LEDs.
"About this time in the conversation, someone usually raises their
hand and says, 'But it's dark,'" said David Summers, a mining
engineering professor. "That's not necessarily a
disadvantage."
Algae need light to produce lipids, or oil, but they work best when
they use only the red and blue parts of the light spectrum and when
they are given time in the dark to process the photons, Summers said.
That is where LEDs come in, Summers said. They can be tailored to emit
only the needed light frequencies, and they can be set to pulse several
times a second at a rate that gives the algae time to absorb and
process the light energy without wasting it.
"When it's sunny, plants are totally saturated pretty early on in
the day," said D.J. Vidt, a graduate student. "Unless they
get shade to process the photons, it's basically wasted energy. We're
just shortening ours from hours to milliseconds ... for
efficiency."
Using LEDs to grow algae is not a new idea. Researchers have been
working on the concept for years, and some startup companies are using
the idea as the basis for their business models.
Full article here.
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
A good model for addressing various challenging water
issues common across the region.
November 3, 2009. President Obama signed legislation that
authorizes $475 million for Fiscal Year 2010 on October 30. Governor
Strickland today thanked President Obama for this significant step
toward the restoration and protection of Lake Erie.
These funds respond to a plan of action prepared by the Great Lakes
States and its citizens in cooperation with 16 federal agencies known
as the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy. This Strategy
achieved Great Lakes wide agreement on what needs to be done to restore
the Great Lakes and President Obama's Great Lakes Restoration
Initiative provides funding to implement these plans.
Funding is available for the most significant problems in the Great
Lakes, including invasive aquatic species, habitat restoration,
non-point source pollution, contaminated sediment clean up, water
quality, and beach monitoring/clean up.
Lake Erie and Ohio has been affected by all of these problems. Projects
and plans have previously been developed by Ohio and cooperating
organizations. The Lake Erie Protection and Restoration Plan, Lake Erie
Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP), the Remedial Action Plans for the
Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Black and Lower Maumee Rivers as well as other
watershed and Basinwide Plans have provided a list of programs and
projects that reflect the needs of Lake Erie as developed with
significant citizen input. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative can
provide significant funding to implement these plans.
Ohio is preparing to move quickly to utilize these funds. A Fact Sheet
and Draft List of possible projects, which includes programs and
projects of state government and partners in Lake Erie restoration and
protection, is accessible at the Commission's website for Ohio GLRI
projects. The list reflects many projects for which funding may be
requested of USEPA and other federal agencies. This list of projects is
a draft, subject to change and requires further input and review before
submission. The projects vary in their length of time from one-to-three
years. The final project list will be developed after the Request for
Proposals are issued.
A website for the Fact Sheet and Ohio GLRI projects has been opened at
lakeerie.ohio.gov/GLRI/ASPX. Any comments can be conveyed to the Ohio
Lake Erie Commission or to the Agency contacts identified on this
webpage. The Fact Sheet and Project List and additional details will be
posted to this website to provide an opportunity to keep the materials
current and up-to-date.
EPA Requests Comments on Survey for Stormwater Rule
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is
proposing a survey to help strengthen stormwater regulations and reduce
stormwater discharges from newly developed and redeveloped sites.
Stormwater discharges can harm water quality through increases in
stormwater volume and pollutant loadings into nearby waterways.
Generally, as sites are developed, less ground area is available for
rain to soak into, which increases stormwater volume. This stormwater
flows across roads, rooftops and other surfaces, picking up pollutants
that then flow into waterways. The draft survey would require detailed
information about stormwater management and control practices, local
regulations, and baseline financial information.
EPA plans to propose a rule to control stormwater from newly developed
and redeveloped sites and to take final action no later than November
2012. In support of this rulemaking, EPA is proposing to require three
different groups to complete questionnaires about current stormwater
management practices: 1) the owners, operators, developers, and
contractors of newly and redeveloped sites; 2) the owners and operators
of municipal separate storm sewer systems; and 3) states and
territories.
The proposed survey will be open for public comment for 60 days
following publication in the Federal Register.
More information: http://www.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/rulemaking
Mining Protestors Sit 4 Hours in EPA Headquarters
VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - Thirteen activists demanding the
end of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia staged a nearly
four-hour sit-in at Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in
Washington, D.C., but left the building without incident Friday.
Some 75 activists with Mountain Justice, Rainforest Action Network and
other groups rallied outside that building while others held protests
across the country, from California to Maine. Their targets included
regional EPA offices and JPMorgan & Chase Co., a bank
environmentalists say is the biggest financier of the destructive form
of strip mining.
The Washington sit-in began about 11:30 a.m. and ended after police
indicated they were prepared to make arrests.
"We didn't want them to spend the weekend in jail, so we sent
people in and they agreed that they proved their point, and they left
voluntarily," said Chuck Nelson, a disabled underground coal miner
from Glen Daniel who said the protests had generated media coverage of
the cause. "We accomplished what we came here for."
The protesters were disappointed they could not hand-deliver a letter
to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who was not in the building. Nelson
said they ultimately delivered it to a staff member.
The EPA issued a statement saying the agency respects the concerns and
understands "the high emotions felt by many Americans."
Under Jackson's leadership, she said, EPA has worked with other federal
agencies to take "unprecedented actions within the scope of the
law ... to ensure the safety and health of mining communities."
Full article here
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GRANTS
Brownfields Job
Training Grant
The
Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act
("Brownfields Law", P.L. 107-118) requires the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish guidance to assist
applicants in preparing proposals for grants. This notice announces the
availability of funds and solicits proposals from eligible entities,
including non-profit organizations to deliver environmental job
training. Applicants must propose to serve a community that currently
receives, or has received, financial assistance from EPA for a
brownfields assessment, revolving loan fund, or cleanup grant, a
targeted brownfield assessment, and/or site-specific brownfields work
carried out under a state or tribal response program.
Proposals sent through the U.S. Postal Service or sent via a commercial
delivery service must be postmarked by December 1, 2009. Proposals sent
via e-mail must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on December 1,
2009.
Support for Environmental Programs in Maryland
The Town Creek Foundation primarily provides grants to
nonprofit organizations that work to promote ecological sustainability
in Maryland. The Foundation focuses on statewide environmental advocacy
and programs that encourage ecologically sustainable policies and
practices on the Eastern Shore, with emphasis on organizations helping
to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay. In addition, the Foundation
supports a limited number of organizations nationally that are working
to reduce the pressure on forests from the paper products industry,
with emphasis on the Southern Appalachian region. The Foundation
reviews letters of inquiry twice each year; the upcoming deadline is
November 20, 2009. Online letter of inquiry guidelines are available on
the Foundation's website.
Freshwater Future. Technology and Insight Grants Available!
Deadline: 12/8/09
Freshwater Future's grants program provides support to activities that
strengthen the role of individuals and community groups working to
protect and restore shorelines, inland lakes, rivers and wetlands.
Insight Grants:
Assistance from Freshwater Future to build capacity of grassroots
organizations, which could include board development, membership
expansion, fundraising, and strategic planning.
Technology Grants:
Funding for technology consulting, equipment and/or software.
For more information and to view the Request for Proposals, go to www.freshwaterfuture.org
Need help deciding how to best spend technology dollars and time to
meet your goals?
Sign up for a free one-hour webinar on Nov. 18th at 12:00 EST to help
you strategically develop your proposal. We will be reviewing web-based
tools such as marketing with websites, Internet newsletters, Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, other social media outlets, blogging, online
discussion boards, viral messages and spreading the word, and how to
host your own content management website with tips and tactics.
Register by November 16th by emailing Cheryl@freshwaterfuture.org.
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EVENTS
Viewing of
"One Water" - Winner of Central Ohio Green Educational Film
Award
Sunday
November 15
7:30pm - 9:00
Canzani Center at the Columbus College of Art & Design
107 N. 9th St., Columbus
Admission is $5, free with student id.
Parking is free in CCAD lots.
Filmed in 15 countries in both hemispheres, the film churns together stirring
visual sequences, compelling expert commentary, hypnotic local music
and a score performed by the world-renowned Russian National Orchestra
to immerse audiences in a direct and exhilarating experience of all
that water means to humanity.
The film highlights a world where water is exquisitely abundant in some
places and dangerously lacking in others, where taps flowing with
fresh, clean water are contrasted with toxic, polluted waterways that
have turned the blue arteries of our planet murky.
One Water leaves audiences with a series of provocative questions that
culminate in one that will impact all of our futures: is water a human
right or a commodity? Through a starkly emotional journey, the audience
is invited to bear witness and encouraged to recognize this major
global crisis as his or her very own.
Geology As We Know
It... Or Do We? Discoveries in "Known" Geologic Terrains
Using Airborne Geophysics Webinar
The Groundwater Foundation is excited to continue its 2009
Webinar Series and invites you to join them for our next webinar on
Tuesday, November 24 at 2 p.m. CST, featuring James Cannia and Jared
Abraham.
Learn
how the US Geological Survey uses a suite of airborne geophysical tools
to map the subsurface geology in selected areas of Nebraska to better
understand the groundwater-surface water relationship and related
hydrogeologic framework. This information can then be used by the
groundwater modeler to improve models for groundwater management. This
project is in cooperation with the local Natural Resources Districts
and the University of Nebraska Conservation and Survey Division.
Date:
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Time: 2 p.m. Central Time
Length: 1 hour
Cost: $35
Registration: click here.
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It Translates...
In this section, I wanted to post some articles that you
may find interesting, though they may not be completely
"watershed related." Enjoy.
By
Sam Adams, Published in the Daily Yonder
Green energy is not
only powering Denmark's homes and appliances, it is powering Denmark's
rural economy.
Poverty in Appalachia
Community
Development Applied Research Seminar Series. Federal Reserve Bank of
Cleveland.
Though substantial
attention has been given to the problem of urban poverty, often
overlooked is the crisis in rural areas, in particular those across the
swath of territory known as Appalachia.
By
CHRISTA MARSHALL published by nytimes.com
"There's 34
states with significant economic leverage to coal, either by mining it,
burning it or shipping it."
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