UPDATE - DEP: Slick on Susquehanna not a chemical discharge

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.comStaff Writer

UPDATE: 1:32 p.m.

An official with the state said today that a substance seen floating down the Susquehanna River near the Butler Mine Tunnel on Sunday night is not a chemical discharge.

DEP spokesman Mark Carmon on Sunday said his office notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after receiving a report from a Pittston resident that an "unusual substance" was floating south in a slick from an area near the tunnel.

Because the substance was spotted just before dusk, an investigation was delayed until this morning.

"Our staff took a look at the Butler tunnel and determined it's the natural acid mine drainage mixing with organic matter, foam and scum, and not any type of a chemical discharge out of the tunnel," Carmon said.

Carmon said the formation of the organic material is common in several different locations along the Susquehanna in the summer.

"It's basically the acid mine drainage mixing with leaves and other organic material, and as the water moves, it creates that foam and the brownish, rust-colored scum," he said.

The Butler Mine Tunnel, built before the 1930s, drains a 5-square-mile area of underground mine caverns and waterways. Now a Superfund site, the tunnel was in the past used as a drain for hazardous materials.

Carmon said there were "distinctive oily discharges" from the tunnel during heavy rains in the 1970s and 1980s, but the rust-colored foam spotted in the area of the tunnel on Sunday isn't unusual.

POSTED: 6:27 a.m.

An official with the state Department of Environmental Protection confirmed on Sunday that the agency received a report of an unusual substance floating south in a slick down the Susquehanna River in the area of the Butler Mine Tunnel.

DEP spokesman Mark Carmon said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also been notified and one or both agencies will investigate today.

The Butler Mine Tunnel, built before the 1930s, drains a 5-square-mile area of underground mine caverns and waterways. Now a Superfund site, the tunnel was in the past used as a drain for hazardous materials.

Carmon said there were ‘distinctive oily discharges’ from the tunnel during heavy rains in the 1970s and 1980s, but the rust-colored foam that a photographer spotted in the Butler Mine Tunnel area of the river isn’t very unusual.