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1808 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1808) – Anthracite coal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthracite) (pictured) was first experimentally burned as a residential heating fuel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel) by Jesse Fell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Fell) in Wilkes-Barre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilkes-Barre%2C_Pennsylvania), Pennsylvania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania), USA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States).

And all those mining operations resulted in prodigious amonts of "culm" (tailings, or waste) stored on multiple sites in the area. Since the stormwater runoff from those culm banks is very acidic, it denudes the landscape. Many years ago, I was Project Manager on a coal culm to steam and electricity plant in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania.

Not only is the waste product from a generation ago utilized to produce clean steam and then electricity, but limestone is injected into the fuel stream during burning. This results in a residue that is alkaline, rather than acidic. This alkaline waste is then hauled back to the areas of the culm banks, and used to treat the soil and renew the landscape.

It's one of the projects I'm most proud of! We're removing those unsightly culm banks, and renewing the landscape, all with one fine project!!

I guess I have been "green" far longer than I've owned the HCH.

Pax,

Fr. John