Kanjorski Announces $200,000 Brownfields Grant for Earth Conservancy

Hanover Township, Pa. - Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) today joined with Earth Conservancy officials to announce a $200,000 federal grant for the Earth Conservancy to reclaim Franklin Bank, a 13-acre mine-scarred site in Hanover Township. The funding is a highly competitive grant awarded through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.)

"When we started Earth Conservancy nearly 15 years ago, we had a long-range vision of rebirth for land in the Wyoming Valley. We felt that the organization could be successful in restoring the environmentally degraded lands that had been scarred as a result of the mining industry. Once the 13-acre parcel of land at Franklin Bank is restored, it can be used for residential development - a benefit to the community of Hanover Township and stimulation for economic development in the area. I am pleased that the federal government has recognized the Earth Conservancy's commitment to Northeastern Pennsylvania," Congressman Kanjorski said.  

"Earth Conservancy is pleased to have been awarded this grant from the EPA for the Franklin Bank project.  Cleaning up the environmental impacts from past mining activities and making the land reusable for residential development benefits the community on many levels.  We are always appreciative when our efforts to address the impacts of our past mining are acknowledged and supported," EC President and CEO Mike Dziak said.

The Earth Conservancy is a non-profit organization started in 1992 for the purpose of restoring mine-scarred land to usable space for environmental, recreational and residential purposes. Congressman Kanjorski successfully secured more than $20 million in federal money for the Earth Conservancy to purchase more than 16,000 acres of land throughout Luzerne County that were abandoned by a bankrupt coal company. The Blue Coal Corporation had mined the site and left it environmentally tainted in the mid-1970s. The Franklin Bank site has become an eyesore, with rampant illegal dumping and thousands of tons of mining waste.

Three years aGo, Congressman Kanjorski was successful in amending legislation to make mine-scarred lands part of the brownfields spending package thus make several sites in Northeastern Pennsylvania eligible to tap into the $200 million brownfields grant programs. 

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