Pittston subsidences on agenda

By Sherry Long slong@timesleader.comStaff Writer

PITTSTON - There are 24 areas totaling 130 acres -- 12 percent of ’s entire land mass -- that are susceptible to mine subsidences, according to a study released Friday by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation office.

The bureau has recorded more than 150 mine-related subsidences in Pittston in the last 66 years, said DEP Environmental Program Manager Michael Korb. His office handles the investigations.

That’s more than two a year.

“It really has one of the highest subsidences rates,” Korbs said.

According to DEP Acting Secretary John Hanger, the study helped the department identify where the high-risk areas are.

DEP will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Pittston Area Middle School on New Street to answer residents’ questions.

DEP employees used historic coal mining maps, drill logs from other construction projects and data received from subsidence control projects in 1977 and 1985 to identify coal mine shafts in Pittston.

The Mill Street area bounded by Church, Butler, Hunter and Center streets is the highest risk area to have additional coal mine cave-ins, according to the study.

DEP started studying the overall effect of underground mining and the remaining empty shafts in Pittston in 2006 after recent mine subsidence problems near Mill Street, and at the urging of residents and elected officials.

“Subsidence problems occur most often if the conditions involve very shallow mining of a thick vein of coal, little or no rock cover and a very cohesionless soil, such as sand, separating the mining from the surface,” the study found.

Any area with 35 feet or less of top cover and less than 15 feet of rock area is defined as a high risk area, according to the study.

Four other high-risk areas in Pittston include the neighborhoods bounded by:

• Nafus, Vine, Pine and LaGrange streets

• River, Garfield, Elizabeth and East streets

• South Main, Pine, LaGrange and Charles streets

• Pine, Curran, Market and Vine streets

A second phase of the study is inspecting the Mill Street neighborhood to address potential mine subsidences.

Korb said the DEP hired a consultant, Kimball Engineering, to look at the underground coal shafts in the Mill Street area.

“We have looked at a lot of other resources, but not all those resources are completely accurate. So what we are trying to do is further define the areas that might be high risk in the Mill Street area,” Korb said.

Although DEP is focusing on the city limits, any area in the Wyoming Valley where coal has been extracted could experience a subsidence, according to the study. The likelihood of a subsidence depends on a variety of factors including the type and depth of the soil, rock, thickness and depth of coal shafts and tunnels, width and spacing of coal pillars, depth and thickness of rock between the coal, underground water flow and infiltration of surface water.

If you go

Public meeting being held by Pennsylvania ’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation

DEP engineers and Kimball Engineering associates will attend the meeting to answer questions

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Pittston Area Middle School Cafeteria, 110 New Street

Sherry Long, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7159.