Our Work
All of our work is informed and directed by people who live in Washington and Greene Counties. We work with people around the issues that are impacting them, which typically fall into four pillars: Coal, Oil/Gas & Petrochemical, Economic Justice, and Democracy. Through our work in these categories, our focus is to invest in the leadership of those who are most impacted and to help create communities of people that possess the skills and analysis to advocate for their basic rights to a healthy environment and thriving economy.
Directly below, you can access more information on the different facets of our work, and our blogs appear beneath, beginning with the most recent.
Updates on our Work
by Kirk Jalbert, Manager of Community-Based Research & Engagement, Fractracker Alliance
and Veronica Coptis, Executive Director
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will be hosting a nine-stop “listening tour” to hear residents’ perspectives on environmental justice (EJ). These sessions begin in the western part of the state on April 12th and 13th. The dates and locations of these meetings can be found here. The DEP will also be accepting written comments, which can be either mailed or emailed to DEP-OEJ@pa.gov.
The EJ listening tour follows on the heels of events in May 2016, when environmental advocacy groups questioned the well pad siting practices oil and gas drilling company Range Resources, causing the DEP to announce it would revisit its EJ policies. Such changes would include reassessing how EJ zones are designated and what kinds of development triggers additional scrutiny by the DEP’s Office of Environmental Justice. We wrote about this story, and detailed how present EJ rules fail to account for oil and gas development in June 2016.
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Today, the Environmental Hearing Board issued CCJ and Sierra Club’s petition for supersedeas to protect Kent Run in Ryerson Station State Park from mining. Read our press statement below: Community […]
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Chances are if you’re reading this message, you already know that the Center for Coalfield Justice and the Sierra Club have been fighting for Ryerson Station State Park in front of the Environmental Hearing Board for many years now. After with the loss of Duke Lake in 2005, we have taken action time and time again to prevent Consol from destroying Ryerson.
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For years, we have been fighting side by side with the Sierra Club against Consol’s plans to illegally mine coal from underneath Ryerson Station State Park. There was a three […]
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The Sierra Club and Center for Coalfield Justice (CCJ) filed an appeal of a permit issued by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that would allow Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company (Consol) to mine underneath Ryerson Station State Park, damaging the streams that flow through the area. The groups are asking the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) to halt mining in the park while the appeal is being considered. The appeal comes after the DEP issued a permit to Consol last week allowing the company to perform extensive and destructive longwall mining beneath the surface of two streams – Polen Run and Kent Run – portions of which are within the Park. The permit was issued despite the fact that the application filed by Consol predicts significant damage, notably subsidence and flow loss, to these streams. Since Consol’s destruction of Duke Lake via mining activity nearly ten years ago conservationists argue these two streams are some of the most important remaining water features and fishing spots in the park.
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Starting in 2014, we partnered with the Sierra Club to bring an appeal to a permit that authorized longwall coal mining that predicted severe stream impacts in and around Ryerson Station State Park in Greene County. At the heart of the appeal is whether Consol’s right to longwall mine trumps the protections set forth in the Clean Streams Law, the Department’s mining regulations, and Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
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Dear Supporters,
As we begin our long-awaited trial before the Environmental Hearing Board, I’d like to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you to all of our members who have attended DRYerson Festivals for the past ten years. Thank you to all those who have donated your precious time and resources to support our organization’s fight for environmental justice. Thank you to all those who have shared our message with family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. We could not do this work without you, and for that, I thank you.
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CCJ member, Keith Fullerton is attending the Clean Energy March on July 24th in Philadelphia and explains what it means to participate in these large national gatherings below:
I’ve always felt separated. In my “hometown” of Aleppo Township, Greene County, there aren’t many opportunities for a young environmentalist, such as myself, to express themselves and get support from other like-minded folks.
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The Center for Coalfield Justice held the 10th Annual DRYerson Festival on June 25th at Ryerson Station State Park. The theme of this year’s Festival was: Our Park, Our Streams, […]
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The video above shows subsidence from the Bailey Mine’s longwall mining which has dewatered a section of Polen Run just outside Ryerson Station State Park. There is also footage of the great disruption caused by the company’s attempts to mitigate the damage.
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Please join us in welcoming our two legal interns: Steve Kelly and Katharine Richter. Steve and Katharine are excited to meet everyone and begin working with our members and supporters, so please say hello when you see them in the community.
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