It isn't news to our community that Pennsylvania's historical unregulated coal mining practices left a legacy of environmental and socioeconomic liabilities for future generations to contend with.

Many of us are also aware of some of the ingenious ways we have dealt with the pollution caused by abandoned mine lands and were able to turn a liability into an asset.

For instance, generating electricity from the flow of abandoned mine drainage or using the geothermal properties of abandoned mine pools to heat and cool buildings are ideas and practices that have been played with in recent years.

But, have you ever made a list of all of the benefits we get from abandoned mine lands? We have, and we produced this new video to explore and highlight some of our favorites.

Click Here to watch the video from the Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation.

Do you have other assets of abandoned mines that you would like us to feature in a future video? Please feel free to share comments and suggestions.

And, if you haven't seen it already, check out "Reauthorize the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund," which is a short video advocating for the continuation of the collection fees associated with the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977.

An action by Congress can extend the collection of fees which pay for abandoned mine reclamation past its expected expiration in 2021.

(Photo: Harvesting iron for use as pigment from the Marchand AMD Treatment System in Westmoreland County.)

(Written by Anne Daymut, WPCAMR, Reprinted from the October 25 Abandoned Mine Posts from the Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation.  Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

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10/31/2016