Boggs Run Treatment Facility Montour Run Watershed Allegheny County

For the latest round of Growing Greener Watershed Restoration Grants, the Department of Environmental Protection is asking applicants to estimate the economic value and employment to be generated by a project, in addition to the most important value – how much they will cleanup the environment.

While more precise estimates are generated using site specific information, several groups across the state have developed rules of thumb and other information that may help watershed groups generate these estimates for their projects.

Eastern Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation: Robert Hughes and Michael Hewitt have posted an Excel worksheet on the ECAMR website that allows groups to plug in basic information for their project and estimate the economic gain associated with the project.

EPCAMR obtained the basic information for the worksheet for the Fish and Boat Commission and cautioned the information based on 1995 values and has not been updated to reflect the inflation rate.

Contact Michael Hewitt at 570-674-3414 or send email to: hardcoal@epcamr.org .

Fish and Boat Commission: John Arway provided a stream by stream Exel spreadsheet showing estimates of lost recreational (fishing) values for streams impacted by acid mine drainage throughout the state. The estimates have been increased to reflect 2006 values.

Contact: John Arway at 814-359-5140 or send email to: jarway@state.pa.us.

West Branch Susquehanna Project: Amy Wolfe, Trout Unlimited, provided a number of rules that are useful. For example, the Project estimated that for every $1 million spent on abandoned mine reclamation construction projects, approximately 27 jobs are created directly or indirectly.

The total recreational value lost in the West Branch due to impaired water quality is estimated to be $16.4 million per year, conversely the benefit of cleaning up the West Branch. (click here for a copy of the study)

A follow up to this Project study will be a more definitive economic analysis, including a property value study, local benefits of remediation dollars and the benefits of increased recreation.

Contact Amy Wolfe at 570-726-3118 or send email to: awolfe@tu.org .

2/16/2007