On today’s episode of The Confluence: SpotlightPA reporter Ed Mahon explains why the Justice Department alleged that eight Pennsylvania counties’ courts may have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it applies to people with opioid use disorder; the executive director of the Mountain Watershed Association tells us why federal infrastructure funding could also help clean waterways that are polluted by abandoned mine runoff; and a look at how severe weather patterns are impacting local businesses.
Justice Department says some PA counties may have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act
(0:00 - 9:03)
Some courts in Pennsylvania might have violated federal law by telling people to stop taking addiction medications, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. It's in a letter to the state court system warning of possible legal consequences.
“They are alleging that Pennsylvania, the entire court system, has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA], which includes protections for people with disabilities and those disabilities protections include people with opioid use disorder,” says Ed Mahon, investigative reporter with SpotlightPA.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved three drugs to treat opioid use disorder: methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. Medical research has shown using these medications saves lives and has effectively treated those with opioid abuse disorders.
Mahon spoke to Sonya Mosey, who was on probation and participating in a treatment program that prescribed her Suboxone, which contains buprenorphine. At the time, in 2018, Mosey was doing better, but learned she would have to stop taking Suboxone when her supervision was transferred to Jefferson County.
In 2018, the president judge of Jefferson County’s court of common pleas banned anyone on probation, who wasn’t pregnant, from using certain medications to treat opioid use disorder.
Mosey told Mahon, “Honestly, I knew I was going to relapse and was probably going to die.”
The president judge lifted the ban on using those drugs soon after Mosey and another complainant sought legal support.
In the Justice Department’s recent letter to state courts, seven other counties were named as having or recently having problematic policies, including Allegheny, Blair, Butler, Clinton, Delaware, Northumberland, and York.
Mahon says the significance of this letter is it gives people in the court system a legal tool to push back against a probation officer or drug court, should they try to restrict their access to opioid use disorder treatments. It also lays out updates to the state court system.
“There are a number of changes they [courts] need to make to ensure that these protections do exist for people in this situation, including staff training, a new complaint process, new policies,” says Mahon. “We don't know yet what's going to be the result… But potentially they could have, you know, sweeping changes across the state or sweeping new requirements for these courts.”
Abandoned mine runoff treatment could be boosted by federal infrastructure funding
(9:08 - 17:13)
Pennsylvania is receiving $245 million from the federal infrastructure law to help clean up abandoned mines. The commonwealth is receiving more than a third of the total $725 million going to 22 states and the Navajo Nation.
The money could be used to treat water polluted by abandoned mine discharge, among other things.
“The way that I like to think about abandoned mine drainage … is actually something I have learned from Indigenous nations, and that is, they see the coal seam as the liver of the Earth,” explains Ashley Funk, executive director of the Mountain Watershed Association. “When you take out that coal seam, it means that the water traveling underground no longer is being filtered in the way that it has in the past, … And the water is then exposed to a number of different minerals, which can then change the chemical composition of that water.”
The Mountain Watershed Association has worked for years to treat abandoned mine discharge, which can have negative consequences on streams, aquatic health and human health.
Funk says her organization has spent over $9 million installing five different abandoned mine drainage treatment technologies, and is developing its sixth.
“The really critical thing with these funds, too, that a lot of people are advocating for, is that some of the funds get put into a ‘set aside account’ so that they can be used for maintenance of these systems even after they're installed, because these discharges will flow in perpetuity.”
Funk says she’s seen estimates that the federal funding could cover up to a third of the total funds needed to address abandoned mine issues, nationwide.
“The issue is that discharge never stops flowing. For as long as we're going to be here on Earth, because of the issues with coal mining in the past, we’re going to have to treat these abandoned mine discharges in perpetuity,” says Funk.
Some businesses are now taking climate risk mitigation into account
(17:17 - 22:30)
Winter storms have been severe this year in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, like the one in early February that brought snow and freezing rain.
The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant looks at the connection with climate change and how it's impacting businesses.
The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA’s daily news program. Tune in Monday to Thursday at 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators take an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here or wherever you get your podcasts.
