News

June 11, 2009

Owner: Cleanup may earn Duryea money

The Susquehanna River pollution project is being paid with $792K state grant.

IAN CAMPBELL Times Leader Correspondent

DURYEA – A river pollution cleanup project could end up a money earner for the borough, its developer told council Tuesday.

That said, until patents were awarded and bills paid, Chris Gillis, owner of Solution Mining Inc., told council he wouldn’t be able to go into details of how his technology worked for removing iron oxide and other wastes from an Old Forge mine outflow.

Gillis said he was at the point of building a prototype of his equipment, which would be used to establish water quality studies before and after the equipment was used.

He was able to report that a review of information by a King’s College chemistry professor had borne out his claims, to such an extent that the chemistry department could consider offering a four-year degree in acid mine drainage, he told council.

He offered them copies of the report, but had to withdraw it on learning that once accepted into the borough’s records, the information would then be available to the public.

“Once I’ve been paid for the project, I will make the information available,” Gillis promised.

Gillis said he and the other four people working on the project, representing three companies, had submitted a bill for $70,000, but they had devoted themselves to the project for over a year, and given more than the billable hours into it.

Once up and running, he expected that the project would generate clean water, thermal power, the facility to operate businesses like fish farms and revenue from the iron oxide present in the water.

The outflow is believed to be the largest single pollution site in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, he told council, so simply removing the pollution will help the river.

The borough agreed to help support the project, and as a municipality has access to funds a private company cannot obtain, Gillis said. The state awarded the project a $792,000 grant separate from any other projects, so the borough itself did not lose any of its own projects in favor of this one, he said.

For providing early support, Gillis said that the borough would receive 5 percent of all profits from the company in perpetuity, which would likely cover much of its future needs.

Gillis asked residents to be patient and feel free to contact him if they had concerns.

Tweet	Follow @TLnews

This story also appears on the following websites...