Public comments are due September 8, 2026.
For more than 30 years, Pennsylvania’s Act 54 reports have documented damage associated with longwall coal mining. Homes have been damaged, water supplies have been lost or contaminated, land has subsided, and streams have been impaired.
Despite decades of evidence, PADEP still cannot show whether most documented damage was repaired. Long-standing problems with stream protection, permit review, public reporting, and damage tracking remain unresolved.
The Citizens Advisory Council’s Act 54 Report Committee is now accepting public comments on PADEP’s 6th Five-Year Act 54 Report, which examines underground mining impacts reported from 2018 through 2022.
Citizens Coal Council has created three individual action alerts to help people participate. Choose the guide that matches where you live and use it to write a comment in your own words.
Choose the guide that fits you
Each guide explains what the Act 54 report found, why public comments are needed, and how to write a focused letter. The guides also include talking points, documented findings, suggested requests, and a simple letter outline.
You do not need to be an attorney, scientist, policy expert, or experienced writer to comment.
If you live in Southwestern Pennsylvania
People living in Southwestern Pennsylvania may have firsthand information that does not appear in PADEP’s records.
You may have experienced damage to a home, well, spring, stream, road, farm, or other property. You may know how long it took to receive a response, whether anyone investigated, whether a repair worked, or whether a problem was ever resolved.
You can also comment if you live near longwall mining but were not personally damaged. You may have observed changes to a stream, road, hillside, public space, or neighboring property. Local knowledge belongs in the public record.
Download the Action Alert for Southwestern Pennsylvania Residents
This guide will help you describe what happened, explain what happened next, identify anything that remains unresolved, and ask for specific changes.
If you live elsewhere in Pennsylvania
You do not need to live in a longwall mining community to comment.
PADEP’s responsibility to protect water, enforce environmental laws, maintain accurate public records, and hold mining companies accountable is a statewide concern. Pennsylvania residents have a right to ask whether required repairs occurred, whether damaged streams recovered, and whether PADEP’s records provide an honest accounting of the program.
Download the Action Alert for Pennsylvania Residents Outside Southwestern Pennsylvania
This guide will help you connect the report’s findings to clean water, public lands, rural communities, government accountability, independent scientific review, or another issue that matters to you.
If you live outside Pennsylvania
People outside Pennsylvania may also have a valuable reason to comment.
You may have previously lived, worked, or studied in Pennsylvania. You may have family, property, or other ties here. You may work on mining policy, watershed protection, environmental law, scientific integrity, or federal oversight. You may also live in another community affected by underground mining and have a useful comparison to offer.
Outside commenters should explain their connection clearly and use their comments to support, not overshadow, the people living with longwall mining impacts in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Download the Action Alert for People Outside Pennsylvania
This guide explains when an outside comment can add value and how to contribute relevant experience, expertise, or a broader policy perspective.
How to use the guides
These action alerts are not form letters. You do not need to use every fact, answer every question, or make every suggested request.
Choose the guide that applies to you, then:
- Explain who you are and where you live.
- Describe your connection to the issue.
- Choose one or two findings that concern you.
- Explain why those findings matter in your own words.
- Ask for one or two specific changes.
- Tell the committee whether and how the five-year Act 54 report should continue.
A short, personal comment can be effective. Six clear sentences with a genuine connection and a specific request may add more to the public record than several pages of copied language.
Review the reports and supporting analysis
You do not need to read every page of the reports before commenting. The action alerts highlight important findings and explain them in plain language.
If you would like to examine the source material in greater detail, you can review:
- PADEP’s 6th Five-Year Act 54 Report
PADEP’s report examines the effects of underground bituminous coal mining on structures, water supplies, land, streams, and other resources from 2018 through 2022. - Broken Streams, Broken System, Broken Trust
Citizens Coal Council’s report places PADEP’s findings in the context of damage documented since Act 54 was enacted in 1994 and examines continuing failures in oversight, enforcement, repairs, recordkeeping, and public accountability. - Citizens Coal Council’s Independent Technical Review
This detailed review examines the report’s data, methods, findings, omissions, and conclusions, including the documented effects of longwall mining on structures, water supplies, land, and streams.
What can you ask PADEP to do?
Your comment can focus on the issues that matter most to you. Possible requests include:
- Use independent experts to prepare future five-year Act 54 reports
- Record whether documented damage was repaired, including cases resolved through private agreements
- Publicly track whether damaged streams and water supplies are actually restored
- Use updated, scientifically sound methods for monitoring stream damage
- Check for Exceptional Value and High Quality streams before approving mining permits
- Update the outdated 35-degree presumption zone used for water-supply damage
- Improve PADEP’s records so the public can see what was damaged and what happened afterward
- Continue publishing the five-year Act 54 report while also providing more frequent online data
- Hold an evening public hearing in Greene or Washington County so affected residents can participate
Choose one or two requests and explain why they matter to you. You do not need to include the entire list.
Submit your comment by September 8
Send your comment to the Citizens Advisory Council’s Act 54 Report Committee by emailing:
Ian Irvin, Executive Director
iirvin@pa.gov
Use “Comment on the 6th Act 54 Report” as the subject line.
Deadline: Tuesday, September 8, 2026
You may copy PADEP’s Bureau of Mining Programs, but do not send your comment only to the Bureau.
Please also consider sending Citizens Coal Council a copy at aimee@citizenscoalcouncil.org. This will help us understand how many comments were submitted and which concerns people raised. We will not publish or share your letter without your permission.
PADEP has the evidence. Now it needs to act.
The purpose of public comment is not simply to acknowledge another report. It is to build a clear record showing that people expect PADEP to correct the systemic failures documented throughout the Act 54 reports.
Whether you live in a longwall mining community, elsewhere in Pennsylvania, or outside the Commonwealth, your comment can help demonstrate that damaged homes, lost water, impaired streams, and incomplete public records cannot be treated as acceptable consequences of doing business.
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