Pennsylvania’s coal mining history left more than an economic legacy. It left streams. Acid mine drainage, the runoff created when water reacts with exposed sulfur minerals in abandoned mines, has contaminated hundreds of miles of waterways across the state, turning some a rust orange color and stripping them of the aquatic life they once supported for generations. Colcom Foundation lists this contamination among the state’s most pressing environmental problems, one that requires hundreds of millions of dollars in remediation spending to fully reverse the damage done by past industrial activity.

A Grantee Leading Statewide Cleanup

The Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds leads much of that remediation work, and Colcom Foundation counts the organization among its grantees supporting aquatic ecosystem restoration. Their combined effort focuses on rebuilding stream chemistry so that fish and other aquatic species can return to waters that have been unable to sustain life for generations. This work sits alongside habitat restoration, invasive species removal, and riparian buffer planting as part of the Colcom Foundation’s broader portfolio of aquatic and terrestrial conservation grants across western Pennsylvania and beyond.

Colcom Foundation does not fund this work alone. Pennsylvania’s conservation funding draws from state and federal agencies, individual donors, and other private foundations including the William Penn Foundation, the Heinz Endowments, and the R.K. Mellon Foundation. Colcom Foundation’s role fits within that broader network, directing resources specifically toward projects that restore water quality and expand permanently protected land in western Pennsylvania. Remediation of acid mine drainage remains a multi decade undertaking, and the foundation treats sustained private funding as necessary to keep restoration work moving forward in the stretches where public programs cannot fully cover the cost of cleanup, monitoring, and long term maintenance. Colcom Foundation also views this cleanup as connected to its wider mission, since restored streams support the same aquatic habitat and biodiversity goals the foundation pursues through land conservation and species preservation grants elsewhere in the state. Progress tends to be measured in miles of stream reopened to aquatic life rather than in a single completion date. See related link for more information.

Learn more about Colcom Foundation on https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2024/03/12/wvu-led-three-rivers-quest-expands-environmental-research-and-education-efforts-with-colcom-foundation-support