HARRISBURG, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Attorneys with Citizens for
Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) last week filed an appeal before the
Environmental Hearing Board challenging an amendment to the permit for
the Shannopin Mine Dewatering Project. The appeal was filed on behalf of
Friends of Dunkard Creek, as well as PennFuture.
"The relaxed standards do not apply to the water being pumped from
Consol's permitted Humphrey No. 7 Mine, which is not being done to avert
a disaster, but to allow mining of the coal reserves above the Humphrey
Mine."
The Shannopin Mine Dewatering Project, which was designed to prevent a
catastrophic breakout of acid mine water from the abandoned Shannopin
Mine into Dunkard Creek, was originally granted a permit allowing less
stringent cleanup of the dangerous water. The challenged permit
amendment, for which no public notice was given, would allow the project
to collect water from Consolidation Coal Company's (Consol) permitted
Humphrey No. 7 Mine, where no breakout risk exists, and to treat that
water to the less than optimal cleanup allowed in the original emergency
situation. The permit amendment was granted by the Department of
Environmental Protection's (DEP) Mining Program despite a finding nine
months before by a DEP biologist that the Shannopin Project's discharge
into Dunkard Creek contained high levels of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
and other pollutants, which were causing harm to aquatic life in the
creek. The permit amendment was issued two months after a massive kill of
fish, mussels, and salamanders occurred in more than 40 miles of Dunkard
Creek.
"The lax water cleanup standards were allowed originally to avert an
emergency - an impending breakout of acid mine pollution from the
abandoned Shannopin Mine that would have severely polluted miles of
Dunkard Creek and the Monongahela River," said PennFuture Senior Attorney
Kurt Weist. "The relaxed standards do not apply to the water being pumped
from Consol's permitted Humphrey No. 7 Mine, which is not being done to
avert a disaster, but to allow mining of the coal reserves above the
Humphrey Mine.
"In March, DEP's water quality experts recommended that more stringent
water quality limits be included in the renewal of the discharge permit
for the Shannopin Project, which is now nearly sixteen months overdue,"
continued Weist. "It obviously is unreasonable to issue an amendment
allowing another source of mine drainage to be connected to the Shannopin
Project's treatment system before DEP renews the existing permit and puts
the more protective limits into effect."
Jim O'Connell of Friends of Dunkard Creek agreed, "How anyone could have
granted this permit revision after the destruction we experienced last
summer is beyond me. And you can bet that if there had been any public
notice, DEP would have heard our objections loud and clear. It's time to
reverse this backroom deal and clean up the water."
A copy of the appeal filed by PennFuture is online at
http://www.pennfuture.org/userfiles10/CalvinRunNOAwithoutattachments.pdf