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Allegheny Enterprises to clean up Cameron County abandoned mine
By KYLE MILLIRON
Era Reporter
kylem@bradfordera.com
Allegheny Enterprises Inc. will soon begin cleaning up nearly 300 acres of abandoned mine lands in Cameron County after the state Department of Environmental Protection issued a permit Friday to allow the mining company to start reclamation efforts.
Tom Rathbun, a spokesman for DEP’s Office of Mineral Resources Management, did not know exactly when the Jefferson County company would begin operations in Lumber and Shippen townships, but added that the cleanup efforts are crucial to improving water quality along the Portable Run, Reed Hollow Run and Sinnemahoning Creek watersheds.
According to a statement from the DEP, the Reed Hollow mine was abandoned in the 1960s before the advent of modern regulations that require mine operators to restore mine sites.
Rathbun said when water and rainwater combine with the mine’s exposed coal seam, sulfuric acid is created. This acid drains into nearby streams and filters into the groundwater.
“When the acid flows down the stream, that acid leaches all the metals from the rocks as it flows through,” he said.
Acidic water is more difficult — if not impossible in some cases — to support life such as fish and plants. It can also create hazards for anyone drawing water from the watersheds through springs or groundwater wells.
But these are not the only hazards created by abandoned mines. Cliffs and depleted vegetation are also associated with mines that have not been reclaimed.
Allegheny Enterprises will restore the mine sites to the original contours and plant new vegetation, the permit stipulates.
To address the polluted water, the mining company will construct a passive mine drainage system. This system uses a series of ponds, lined with limestone, into which the stream water flows. The limestone ponds help buffer the water by reducing its acidity. As the water becomes less acidic, the metals fall out of the water and deposit along the limestone.
Eventually, the limestone has to be replaced but, Rathbun said, it can usually last 10 years or more.
In exchange for rehabilitating the mine lands, Allegheny Enterprises can access the coal in the mines, but some have argued that since mining created the problem, additional mining would not be appropriate when trying to clean up the area.
Rathbun refuted this saying that modern mining practices are more environmentally friendly than in the past.
“The problem was caused by no regulation during the 1960s,” he said. “New regulations have cleaned up the mining industry substantially.”
Also, by removing the coal, Allegheny Enterprises is also removing the very source of the discharge, which is the coal. So, as Rathbun explained, not only are they cleaning up the present site, but it is preventing the situation from happening in the future as it removes the coal.
The company will also add lime to mineral spoil, contaminated dirt lying on top of the coal seam, to “abate potential pollution, and create a headwater buffer area, sort of a ‘demilitarized zone’ where the company cannot mine, to “eliminate sedimentation to Reed Hollow Run.”
“This is all happening at no cost to the taxpayer since Allegheny is reclaiming the mine,” Rathbun said.
The federal government has released more than $1 billion in funds over the next 15 years to reclaim abandoned mines, but it works on a priority basis. Rathbun said that Allegheny Enterprises’ offer to reclaim the mine frees up that federal money for higher priority sites that pose a greater risk.
According to DEP estimations, the approximate value of the reclamation effort to Pennsylvania is $129,000.
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