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MOUNT CARMEL Kathleen A. McGinty looked at home behind the wheel of the big Caterpillar shovelâ as she scooped up the first load of garbage along Snake Road. 
    The symbolic first step by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection secretary launched a massive partnership to clean up this and more than two dozen other illegal dump sites on coal lands throughout Northumberland and Columbia counties over the next two years. 
    The new initiative, Clean Up Our Anthracite Lands and Streams, or COALS, was formally introduced at a news conference Friday morning at the Snake Road site, located in mountainous area between Mount Carmel and Ashland in Conyngham Township, Columbia County. 
    It is enormously inspiring to see all of you come together for a common vision,McGinty said. It is a thrill and an honor for DEP to be a part of this group.
    DEP and nine private partners, including businesses and environmental organizations, have pledged $100,500 to fund the cleanups. The money will be administered by a partnership involving DEP, the Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy and Pa. Cleanways, a Greensburg-based environmental organization that focuses on dumping and littering education and cleanups. DEP will use this program as a model for others in Pennsylvania to follow. 
    The Snake Road COALS project, which officially starts today, involves four dump sites, as do the cleanups scheduled for May 1-7 along Big Mountain Road and May 9-15 in the area of the Whaleback rock formation, both near Shamokin. Twenty-five other dump sites in both counties have been identified and targeted for cleanup over the next two years. 
    DEP will back the efforts in various ways, McGinty said. 
    We are going to be there as a technical resource, helping to create a cleanup strategy, and keeping all of the volunteers safe as they are helping,she said. We are going to put on our enforcement hats and work with state police to catch the offenders,she added.
Additional enforcement efforts to bring illegal dumpers to justice have been under way for more than a month. DEP has issued 14 summary citations, with guilty verdicts in two of the cases and the other 12 pending further court action. 
    We are in this for the long haul, working with everyone to make this area pretty and productive; and, who knows, todays eyesore could be tomorrows economic developments, McGinty said. 
    McGinty scooped up the first load of garbage, but its Shamokin businessman David Kaleta who really got the ball rolling on cleaning up coal lands, and he was acknowledged for it Friday. 
    Kaleta, who leads the local Habitat for Wildlife chapter, led politicians, environmentalists and anyone else who was interested on a tour of coal lands on Dec. 15, hoping to demonstrate just how bad the problem is. 
    State Sen. John Gordner, R-27, speaking at Fridays ceremony, spoke about what he saw that day.
I remember looking at the Whaleback and admiring the view, but standing in waste to do it, he said. This is a great initiative to rectify the problem, he said. 
    Before the press conference, McGinty met briefly with Kaleta and presented him with a $100 personal check to go toward the Whaleback cleanup. 
    It is fantastic for the state, county and local officials to come together to bring this effort forward, Kaleta said. I am very happy the cleanup is taking place. 
    In his comments, state Rep. Bob Belfanti, D-107, stressed the connection between reclaimed land and economic development, while Columbia County Commissioner Chris Young, a noted environmentalist, said he would like to see the program go a step further. 
    I would also like to see legislation to increase the fines and giving the courts the power to have offenders adopt a highway and volunteer to clean it up, he suggested. 
    Michael Mychak, among the magisterial district judges  and a candidate for the office  in attendance, picked up on Young's suggestion. 
    We may be the lowest court in the land, but we are the first line of defense in this area, the Mount Carmel magistrate said. We would love to have the dumpers work on cleaning up the areas, but, as of now, we cannot order them to do so. 
    DEP staff members will begin meeting soon with officials from 18 municipalities in Columbia and Northumberland counties to explain the COALS initiative and enlist support. There will be a focus on education, site evaluation, surveillance and recycling. 
    The Snake Road cleanup will be part of the Great Pennsylvania Cleanup on Saturday, April 23. The statewide effort is aimed at removing litter and trash from state roads, parks, forests, riverbanks, neighborhoods and open spaces. The event is being sponsored and supported by a range of businesses, trade organizations, civic and environmental groups and local and state government agencies.