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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 3, 2019 05:03 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Scott E. Hutchinson |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | ARIPPA 30th Anniversary |
| In the very near future, I plan on introducing a resolution recognizing the week of June 10-17, 2019 as ARRIPA’s 30th Anniversary of Producing Environmentally Beneficial Alternative Energy. Organized in 1989, ARIPPA is a non-profit trade association representing environmental remediation companies operating alternative energy Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) plants that remove polluting coal refuse piles from Abandoned Mine Land (AML) areas, convert it into alternative energy, and beneficially utilize CFB ash to reclaim environmentally damaged areas back to their natural state. Since 1989, ARIPPA has removed and converted over 225 million tons of coal refuse into alternative energy, reclaimed over 7,200 acres of formerly damaged mining-scarred lands, and restored more than 1,200 miles of formerly dead polluted streams. Coal refuse (also known as waste, gob, boney, or culm) is a legacy of the pre-1970’s coal mining industry that currently scars the land and pollutes waterways across Pennsylvania. ARIPPA members eliminate public health and safety hazards produced by coal refuse piles, which can spontaneously combust emitting ground level pollutants, leach acid mine water and other hazardous substances, and are major sources of land, air, and water pollution. Without these privately financed and operated ARIPPA plants, the full cost of remediation would fall to the taxpayers. Thousands of people are directly or indirectly employed by ARIPPA member plants, and live, along with their families, in communities within close proximity of these alternative energy plants. The surrounding communities, lands, and streams have experienced vast environmental and economic improvements due mainly to the decades of hard work and dedication these workers and the coal refuse to energy industry have provided. ARIPPA plants also provide a downstream environmental benefit of improved water quality throughout Delaware, Susquehanna, and Ohio River Watersheds. In addition to its positive environmental and economic impact and its contribution to producing environmentally beneficial alternative energy, ARIPPA has also donated thousands of dollars to various deserving volunteer watershed and conservancy groups performing Abandoned Mine Land (AML) and/or Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) remediation improvements. Adoption of this resolution is necessary to show our appreciation for ARIPPA’s 30 years of dedicated service in this Commonwealth, producing environmentally beneficial alternative energy, cleaning up abandoned mine sites, and helping to create jobs. I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this important resolution. If you have any questions regarding this resolution, please contact Nathan Akers in my office at 787-9684 or nakers@pasen.gov. |
Introduced as SR155