Our blogs are written by the staff of the Center for Coalfield Justice, with an occasional guest post. The most recent post appears on top, and others show up below in order of publishing date. You can receive the blogs in your inbox by signing up for our mailing list. Once per month we publish a newsletter, which contains most of the blog posts.
EQT Landowner Town Halls Offer Some Insights
On Wednesday, August 14, 2019, EQT’s new CEO Toby Rice held a landowner town hall at the EQT Rec Center in Greene County. EQT holds 2/3 of the leases in Greene County – a total of approximately 220,000 acres. This was followed with a meeting at Bentworth High School’s gymnasium in Washington County on Tuesday,…
CCJ Members Learn with People from Across Pennsylvania About the Climate Crisis
CCJ staff members Heaven and Veronica, along with members Will Behm, Rick Heinze, Dwayne Thomas, and George Barnhart, attended a state-wide “Climate Equity Table” meeting in Harrisburg on August 20th. The meeting was attended by members and staff of various organizations working across the state on a range of issues from criminal justice to immigrant…
Thanks for a Great Member Meeting!
Our July member and supporter meeting was well attended, with plenty food and good conversation. Thank you to all who came; we enjoyed seeing and talking with each one of you! During the meeting, we heard from Garrett Hoover, a graduate student in biology at West Liberty University who is helping us with water monitoring….
Greene County Draft Comprehensive Plan Needs Revised
At the Greene County Commissioner Meeting on July 19, 2019, the commissioners voted to approve the draft of the county’s new Comprehensive Plan and open the public comment period. This draft Comprehensive Plan will serve the county for the next ten years as a policy guide for future land use and growth management, while also…
What to Ask Your Local Officials When a Well Pad is Too Close For Comfort
The Augustine well pad in Cecil Township has raised a lot of questions for local residents, who recently built their homes where a well pad is permitted to operate, at a minimum required distance from their homes, by part of the same Board of Supervisors that oversaw the permitting of their neighborhood. The people living…
On retirement, and keeping in mind the words of Margaret Mead
The Heinze family Thank you to Rick Heinze, a CCJ board member and supporter, for this contribution to our What’s on your mind? blog series! It’s a little frustrating that my retirement activities aren’t what I dreamed they would be. In my dreams, I was going to visit exotic places, improve my birding skills, learn…
Join PA House Representatives Town Halls
People represented by PA House Representative Puskaric (District 39) and Representative Jason Ortitay (District 46) should be aware of two upcoming public town halls recently scheduled for next week. If you are unsure what district you reside in, click here. In addition, increasing the minimum wage is currently being debated in the state legislature and…
CRDA no. 7 Public Hearing Recap
A Public Hearing for the pending Coal Refuse Disposal Area (CRDA) No. 7 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) water permit was held last Wednesday, July 17 at the Morris Township Community Center in Graysville, PA. The Observer-Reporter and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette attended the meeting (and their stories are linked here with their respective names). …
Statement on Columbia Gas Explosion in Washington, PA
The Center for Coalfield Justice staff, like many in the Washington area, were shocked and scared by the Columbia Gas Pipeline explosion, which destroyed one house and impacted several others, on Wednesday, July 31, 2019. We are waiting with our community to hear news about the five people injured in that explosion and sending our…
Join Us for our Monthly Meeting on July 30th!
Please join us for our monthly meeting for members and supporters (that’s you!) on July 30th. You are the center of our work; without you, we wouldn’t exist. We want to engage more directly in person with you, and so we are offering more frequent member meetings than we were able to offer in the…