In the News
STREAM Act keeps pace with pollutionThe Scranton Times-Tribune
Scranton, PA,
August 2, 2022
Recently, the U.S. House passed the Safeguarding Treatment for the Restoration of Ecosystems from Abandoned Mines (STREAM) Act, to allow 30% of the money to be placed in reserve. The bill was sponsored in the House by Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright of Moosic and Republican Rep. David McKinley. Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Scranton and Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana sponsor the Senate version.
More than half a century after most underground coal mining ended in Northeast Pennsylvania, the pollution just keeps on coming. Once mine operators turned off the pumps that kept the mines dry enough for miners to work, many of those mines filled with water. Now, around the clock, those abandoned mine works dump untold amounts of polluted, often discolored water into streams and lakes across Pennsylvania. In Duryea, for example, the banks of the Lackawanna River, near its confluence with the Susquehanna River, are a deep shade of orange due to the constant flow of water from a closed mine. |