WPCAMR 

Western PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation

Quarterly Meeting Minutes 

May 17, 2007

PA DEP, Ebensburg, PA

 

In attendance:

Bob Eppley (President)
LeeRoy Vatter, Indiana CD
Bruce Golden (Staff)
Jim Panaro (Secretary)
Andy McAllister (Staff)
Jeff Gerard (Staff)
Stefanie Chitester (Staff)
Jim Eckenrode, Blair CD
Dave Steele, So. Alleghenies RC&D
Rob Cronauer, Westmoreland CD
Dennis Beck, Cambria CD

Malcolm Crittenden, DEP     
Pam Milavec, DEP-BAMR
Anne Daymut, Indiana CD
Bernie Hoffnar, Bedford CD
Dave Kemp, Somerset CD
Lance Bowes, Venango CD
David Strong, CAC/MRAB/EQB
John Dawes, WPAWP
Dave Mankamyer,  
Kim Lanich, Elk CD
Dave Beale, Armstrong CD

 

 

WPCAMR Business Meeting:
Meeting chaired by Bob Eppley and called to order at 10:10am.

Secretary’s Report (Jim Panaro):
Review of past meeting minutes.  Motion (Vatter/Eckenrode) to accept the minutes.  Passed.

Treasurer’s Report (Bruce Golden for Greg Phillips):
Bruce  read the treasurer’s report.  Bernie asked what funds are liquid and if that is that adequate. Bruce explained that the liquid funds are in the General funds and that there was more in there than in years passed.  Bob also explained that the general funds include funds other than 319 funds, such as donations, etc.
Motion (Beck/Hoffnar) to accept the treasurers report.  Passed.

Regional Coordinator’s report (Bruce Golden):
Bruce began his report with details surrounding the upcoming SMCRA Title IV Roundtable schedule. See Regional Coordinator’s report for additional details.
 Pam Milavec commented that there may be two more roundtables coming up this summer.  Bernie said that there may be two more because there are two legislators who would like to have them. WPCAMR created fact sheets and video for Title IV Roundtables.   According to OSM, Appalachian Clean Stream Funding will be zeroed out for next Federal fiscal year. The 2007 AMR conference planning is coming along for July in State College. Bruce talked about a request from the 319 section for WPCAMR to help identify stream segments that need to be revisited to possibly take off the 303(d) list.

Malcolm offered the idea that perhaps sometime in the future that WPCAMR could have some type of honorary award to watershed groups who have stream segments that have improved sufficiently to be considered for removal from the impaired list. Discussion ensued as to a possible advisory body for Title IV.  Bernie offered the idea that perhaps the MRAB is not the appropriate body to serve as the advisory body for Title IV because only about 4 of the 15 or 18 people on that Board are watershed-oriented people and that there should be a separate body to advise for Title IV.  Bernie suggested that WPCAMR contact the EPCAMR to coordinate if we wish to pursue the idea of a separate advisory body for Title IV. Bruce explained that the AML campaign already authored a letter to DEP regarding the creation of a separate advisory body for Title IV.  Bernie said that WPCAMR should coordinate with the campaign on that. Pam Milavec asked Bruce if he knew if the Department decided that there should be an advisory board and Bruce said that that is not known at this time.
Bruce commented that after the roundtables, he understands that there were plans from the Department for “Focus groups” that will meet once.  Bernie commented that maybe we should pursue contact to see if there’s an advantage to an advisory board.  Several attendees mentioned that other state agencies do or may have interest in Title IV (eg. PFBC, DCED).  Bob asked who would take the lead in forming this coalition of interested parties.  Bruce answered that the AML Campaign could possibly do that but they are not formally organized.  Bernie asked for a recommendation from Bruce.  Bruce said that perhaps WPCAMR and EPCAMR can write the Secretary of their support for the AML campaign in their recommendations. Dave Mankamyer said that the authority of the MRAB can’t cover deep mining.  Discussion ensued as to the wording of the motion. 

Motion (Hoffnar/Beale) was made to generate a letter to Secretary McGinty copying other agencies, that WPCAMR favors having a separate advisory committee composed of separate groups (eg. WPCAMR, DCED, PFBC, EPCAMR, CAC, PACD, RC&D councils) for Title IV actions, motion passed.


 Bernie said basically to word the letter to convey to the Secretary that we would like a broadly-based board to be an advisory board on Title IV. That is the essence of the motion. Bob said to move in that direction as soon as we can.

Bruce asked if there was any formal recommendation regarding Title IV set aside amounts, etc from WPCAMR.  Bernie said that WPCAMR should wait until the roundtables are completed.

Discussion continued about a possible award to a watershed that gets it’s stream de-listed from the 303(d) list.  Bob suggested that a small committee would have to be started to set up the award, what is the award, what it's for, etc. Dave Steele said if we limit it to 303(d) delisted streams you won't have a lot of possible recipients. Bruce said we're basically looking for success stories and also that success stories should also be submitted to Abandoned Mine Posts so we can get that information out.

The following wording for a motion was offered:  In light of WPCAMR’s commitment to aid the Bureau of Watershed Management to locate 303(d) stream sections that may qualify to be delisted, WPCAMR should consider a special award to be granted to watershed groups which have done stream improvement that leads to 303(dO) de-listing and/or which leads to other significant measurable improvement to stream sections. 

No resolution was reached on the matter.

Watershed Coordinator’s report (Andy McAllister):
See report for details.

OSM/VISTA report (Jeff Gerard):
As his final report, Jeff reported on his work for WPCAMR during the past year and thanked WPCAMR.  Jeff also talked about the AMD monitoring guide committee.  Bob said that the AMD monitoring discussion has generated a lot of “good dialogue” between the folks in various agencies/organizations.
See report for details. 

OSM/VISTA report (Stefanie Chitester):
See report for details.

Before the Watershed organization/agency reports, Bob reported that Attorney Bob Ging is verbally the pro-bono attorney for WPCAMR on an advisory basis. He is supposed to return something in writing to WPCAMR.

Conservation District/Agency/Watershed Association reports (All present):
Those in attendance introduced themselves and reported on current and future activities within their respective organizations. 

Short Break at 12:15 until 12:22

 

NEW BUSINESS

Bob said the next order of business is the creation of a nominating committee and asked for volunteers. Elections for the Board will be held in January.  Bruce will be the facilitator.  Jim Eckenrode volunteered to be on the nominating committee along with the officers.  Bruce will send out an email regarding the next steps for the nominations and nominating committee.  

A date for the August quarterly meeting was discussed and either the 5th or 23rd were discussed.  August 23rd was the date finally chosen. The August quarterly meeting will be at the Beaver Conservation District facility.

Motion to adjourn (Vatter)  Meeting adjourned at 13:00

 

Minutes taken and assembled by Andy McAllister.