Past, present, future Tour part of discussion of coal industry's tomorrow

The past, present and future of anthracite coal mining were the elements of a tour in Schuylkill County that included local and state officials on Tuesday.

The tour is part of a two-day focus on the coal industry that continues today with a hearing in Mahanoy City to discuss the future of the anthracite coal industry in Pennsylvania. State Sen. David G. Argall, R-29, will host the State Joint Legislative Air, Water, Pollution Control and Conservation Committee hearing, also known as the Joint Conservation Committee. Its mission is to conduct continuing studies of air and water pollution laws and their enforcement and to recommend needed changes to the General Assembly. The bipartisan, House-Senate Joint Conservation Committee, consisting of 18 members of the state House and Senate, serves the Pennsylvania General Assembly, as well as the people of Pennsylvania.

The purpose of the hearing is to discuss the future of anthracite coal mining, and address industry concerns in order to ensure coal remains competitive in today's changing energy market. Testimony will center around current coal and waste coal use, supply and demand in Pennsylvania; overall changes in the anthracite industry during the past decade; economic and environmental issues still facing the industry; bonding and reclamation; and the industry-wide impacts of the Federal Mine Safety Act.

Tuesday's tour was conducted by Daniel J. Koury, watershed manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in the Pottsville district office. The tour visited four sites, which included a planned passive treatment system for acid mine drainage, an underground coal mine, a reclamation project and a surface coal mining operation.

The first stop was at the Mary D Borehole Treatment Project, which will be located at a former baseball field/recreation area in Schuylkill Township.

The Schuylkill Headwaters Association received an EPA 319 grant of $664,500 for the construction of the treatment system.

"I believe it is the largest Growing Greener award this year out of the 88 projects that were awarded," said Koury. "This project is a true testament to local involvement. It was a real grassroots effort to take something and improve it. When they looked at the mine drainage and the ball field, they looked at it as an opportunity to do something for the community and do something to treat the mine water."

Schuylkill Headwaters President William Reichert said the organization has a plan on how to address abandoned mine drainage projects throughout the watershed. The Bell Colliery system was the first project at the head of the watershed, and the Mary D project is the next in line.

"I've been working on this (Mary D) for about seven years," Reichert explained. "We knew that the only place we could treat the water coming out was here. That water from the mine pool is heavily laden with iron, and we want to get that out before it gets into the Schuylkill River, which is just on the other side of the ball field."

Reichert said a challenge was to find a new location for the baseball field and recreation area before the work began at the four-acre site.

"It took a lot of meetings, a lot of coordination, and a lot of partners came to the table," said Reichert. "The opportunity came when we started working with the William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia. They came through with a nice grant to help us build a new recreation complex outside of Mary D at a cost of about $440,000."

He said the original site was owned by the Mary D Fire Company, which offered to donate the land as long as another site could be found. To meet the need, Blaschak Coal Corporation Vice President Daniel Blaschak donated about 10 acres to the fire company at the new site. Schuylkill Township, which held the lease on the original site, moved the lease to the new site.

"All the players came together and it was a whole conglomeration of people," Reichert said.

Reichert said the treatment project will begin as soon as the permits and other approvals come through. The passive system will treat about 1.7 million gallons of water per day. It will take about 15 hours for water to be treated before it is discharged into the Schuylkill River.

"When we do a project like this, we try to do more than just treat the water," said Reichert. "We try to put down habitat that's good for wildlife, and one of the features in this project is the installation of a dry hydrant to get water as needed for fires."

"We expect construction to start next year," said Clayton E. Bubeck, P.E., regional vice president for the Rettew engineering firm in Schuylkill Haven. "Design should go through the fall, permitting through the winter and construction in the spring-summer of next year."

Koury praised the work of Schuylkill Headwaters, Schuylkill Conservation District and watershed groups in continuing the efforts to clean the environment.

The Schuylkill Headwaters projects can be supported by direct donation or through a fund managed by the Schuylkill Area Community Foundation.

"Tomorrow at the public hearing we'll be talking about the future of the anthracite industry. Today, I feel we're still dealing with the sins of the past," said Argall.

The next stop was the Alfred Brown Coal Company site, which is an anthracite underground mine (deep mine) in Blythe Township that employs five men, including owner Alfred J. Brown. The operation is located on acres of abandoned and active mine land. The tour traveled along a long road through non-active mine land until it arrived at the mining site. Brown explained the operation, which produces about 3,500 tons of coal per year. At the time, two miners were working about 300 feet underground, and the group watched as a tipple head frame brought coal from underground and piled it nearby. The mine was started in 2001 and works the Mammoth Vein.

The third stop was the Sharp Mountain Reclamation Project (Phase VI), funded through Growing Greener in the outskirts of Pottsville. Dangerous mine subsidences (cropfalls) in the area are a public safety hazard, with Pottsville having received $504,000, which is its 6th grant, to backfill and reclaim the dangerous features. The project will restore hazards as well as prevent surface water from becoming polluted in the mine pool.

During the visit, Mayor John D.W. Reiley, City Administrator Thomas Palamar, and other city officials stopped to answer questions. Koury noted that Sharp Mountain is the southern boundery to the anthracite coal fields in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The final stop was the Primrose Mine near Mahanoy City, which is operated by Blaschak Coal. The visit provided the group with the opportunity to view a large anthracite surface mine.