Abstract. Pennsylvania enacted an Environmental Good Samaritan Act (PA EGSA) in 1999. The law is intended to encourage landowners and others to reclaim abandoned mineral extraction lands and abate water pollution caused by abandoned mines or orphaned oil and gas wells. The law protects landowners, groups and individuals who volunteer to do such projects from civil and environmental liability under Pennsylvania law. Prior to the PA EGSA, anyone who voluntarily reclaimed abandoned lands or treated water pollution for which they were not liable could be held responsible for treating the residual pollution under Pennsylvania law. This dissuaded people and groups from pursuing these types of projects. Only projects approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) prior to construction are eligible for protections under the PA EGSA. PA DEP has developed a project proposal form for participants and landowners. Each proposal must identify the project participants and landowners, describe the location of the project and the environmental problems that will be addressed, and establish a work plan for the proposed project. The PA DEP evaluates each proposal to determine if the project is capable of reclaiming the land or improving water quality. The PA DEP will also advise participants on any permits that may be required. Once the project is approved, PA DEP will maintain a permanent record of the participants and landowners who are protected under the PA EGSA.

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Abstract. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation (BAMR) implements an Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Emergency Program to address high-priority, abandoned mine land (AML) problems that suddenly occur throughout Pennsylvania’s coal fields. BAMR maintains two field offices: one in eastern Pennsylvania (Anthracite Region) in Wilkes-Barre and one in western Pennsylvania (Bituminous Region) in Ebensburg. Both field offices maintain in-house construction crews with significant equipment available to respond to and address many small AML Emergencies (hazards) such as pothole (or cavehole), subsidences, and mine drainage breakouts. For larger AML Emergencies such as subsidence events causing structural damage to homes, businesses, and roads; mine fires; coal refuse fires; landslides; or other large-scale or complex AML problems, projects are completed by outside contractors. Project designs are completed by BAMR engineering staff. The contractors are then hired through solicitation of bids or proposals with very short timeframes between bid issue and bid opening. Since October of 2010, BAMR has addressed nearly 800 AML Emergencies which equates to approximately 80 AML Emergency projects each calendar year. The average construction cost to address those emergencies was just over $3.25 million per year. Due to the increased precipitation over the Commonwealth the last several years, that number has increased to an average of 86 AML Emergency projects over the last five (5) years (2015–2019) with a record number of 127 addressed in calendar year 2018. The average cost to address those AML Emergency projects over that five-year period was $4.66 million per year. This paper will provide some background on Pennsylvania’s AML Emergency Program, some summary statistics including the annual number and types of projects completed including costs, and also highlight through both photos and video links some typical projects recently completed by the program.