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HANOVER TWP. — When it comes to abandoned coal mine lands, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on Monday said Pennsylvania has more than most states.
“So I don’t have to tell you what projects like this mean to this area,” said Casey, D-Scranton. “As you look around, you can see quite a view here.”
Casey was in Hanover Township on Monday to announce federal funding to reclaim and restore land impacted by coal mining in Luzerne County.
“With funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, $1,354,600 will be used for the Nanticoke Creek restoration project,” Casey said. “This new funding follows the $244 million Pennsylvania has already received from the infrastructure law.”
Casey said Pennsylvania has already received $270 million for abandoned mine land cleanup — including $244 million from the Casey-backed infrastructure law.
According to Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley, who attended the news conference, Pennsylvania leads the nation with $5.1 billion of abandoned mine damaged land.
“To put that into perspective, West Virginia is number two, and they have $2.3 billion in liabilities,” Shirley said.
Casey said President Joe Biden’s federal infrastructure bill provided $3.7 billion for Pennsylvania over the next 15 years to reclaim abandoned mine land.
Terence J. Ostrowski, president/CEO at Earth Conservancy, attended the news conference. He and Elizabeth W. Hughes, director of communications, explained the scope of the Nanticoke Creek restoration project.
Located in the City of Nanticoke, Hanover and Newport townships, and Warrior Run Borough, the Nanticoke Creek watershed is a sub-watershed of the Susquehanna River Basin. Over the past several years, Earth Conservancy has worked with a team of consultants and agencies to develop a comprehensive plan to restore the historic alignment of the upper portions of the Nanticoke Creek.
Ostrowski and Hughes said work will begin near Clarks Cross Road and progress upstream, addressing impairments on the main stem and both tributaries — the Upper Nanticoke and Leuder Creeks. In total, nearly 15,000 linear feet of permanent stream and floodway improvements are planned.
General activities will include grading, channel lining and stabilization, reconstruction using natural channel design, and planting of a riparian buffer. Specifically, restoration activities will include:
Nanticoke Creek – Main Stem
• New alignment for Nanticoke Creek at Clarks Cross Road.
• New water conveyance structure at South Main Street.
Leuder Creek
• New culvert at Hanover Street.
• Removal of Leuder Creek dam.
• Replacement of reservoir with natural channel and shallow overflow ponds.
• Replacement of buried culvert and deteriorated bridge with new culvert.
Nanticoke Creek – Upper Reach
• Replacement of culvert on Hanover Street.
• Elimination of existing obstruction and replacement with open channel.
• Removal of bridge and stone arch from path of stream.
• Re-establishment of channel based on historic alignment to reconnect upper and lower watersheds.
• Buried railroad tunnel to be reopened and lined with smaller culvert.
• Restoration of deteriorated masonry arch with slip lining.
Ostrowski said the project will take three to five years to complete.
Casey said Pennsylvania will receive $244 million this year in funding for abandoned mine land cleanup as a result of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. He said the funding will create good-paying jobs in rural and energy communities in Pennsylvania, while reclaiming abandoned mine lands and addressing the hazards and environmental pollution posed by legacy mining sites.
“Pennsylvania’s coal industry built and powered our nation for decades,” Casey said. “Now these communities bear the brunt of abandoned mine land pollution, including ravaged landscapes, property damage and poor health. For too long we’ve neglected the pressing needs of communities blighted by abandoned and polluted mines.”
Casey said the funding is just the start of what the infrastructure law will bring to Pennsylvania communities to address vital abandoned mine land and water reclamation projects, clean legacy pollution, create jobs and improve Pennsylvanians’ quality of life.
“I will keep fighting to bring home infrastructure investments to the Commonwealth and to ensure we are able to remediate acid mine drainage, ensuring all Pennsylvania families have access to clean water,” Casey said.
As one of the largest coal producing states in the country, Casey said Pennsylvania is now disproportionately impacted by abandoned mine lands and the environmental impacts. He said one-third of the nation’s abandoned mine land is in Pennsylvania, as tracked by the Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Abandoned Mine Land Inventory System. Casey said 1.4 million Pennsylvanians live within one mile of an abandoned mine.
Concern for native brook trout
Bobby Hughes, executive director, Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation said that the stream has healthy baseflow in its upper reaches and good ecological health. Subsequently, however, Hughes said flow is intermittent or absent — the landscape is highly irregular with piles of mine spoils, closed depressions, and other disturbances.
“One large pile of mine refuse near Hanover Street completely blocks flow from progressing downstream,” Hughes said. “At other points, flow is lost to subsurface mine voids. This results in acid mine runoff and drainage.”
Hughes said the project will also address a problem with native brook trout. He said upstream on Nanticoke Creek, local residents have reported native brook trout in the headwaters.
“The stream ecology is healthy with plenty of macro invertebrates (bugs) in the stream, under and on the rocks, and in the lead litter and woody debris to support trout,” Hughes said. “The water is cold and well oxygenated too because it cascades over waterfalls and step-pools in the stream near the flank of the Valley just below Tomko Avenue.”
Hughes said when the clean water flows downstream, during lower flows throughout the years is usually what is called a “losing reach” of stream because of the mining that occurred beneath the ground from that point downstream. He said the water is then lost and percolates down into the underground mine workings and a mine pool that allows the water to interact with pyrite and other minerals that form abandoned mine drainage (AMD).
Below this area, Hughes said the channel is normally dry unless there is a storm event that pushes the clean water downstream even further over the loss point temporarily until it reaches an abandoned stripping pit and ponded area of waste culm and silts where the water then percolates again into the ground that is fractured and highly permeable and susceptible to losing the water to the underground mines beneath the former Truesdale Colliery.
“Restoring the stream channel and removing all of the waste culm that we were standing on today to reconnect the stream to the other side of the pile through the Nanticoke Creek Restoration effort being led by Earth Conservancy will give the stream a chance to become reconnected and allow for further migration downstream of the fish and aquatic insect population in the Nanticoke Creek and prevent it from continuing to enter the underground mine pools,” Hughes said. “It’s called aquatic connectivity. It also is the hope that millions of gallons of water will not be making its way to the Askam AMD Borehole along Dundee Road to become AMD and it will remain on the surface in the newly designed and constructed stream channel.”
Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.