Mine cleanups in Cook, Fawn townships among those targeted by state program

An abandoned mine drainage treatment system meant to remove pollution from a tributary of the Loyalhanna Creek near Rector will be replaced and a highwall at the popular Tour-Ed Mine and Museum in Fawn will be made safer via a state program.

“It’s a win-win all around,” said John Wenzel, director of Powdermill Natural Reserve in Cook Township, which was awarded a $1.68 million grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection’s abandoned mine program.

The money will be used to replace the 23-year-old passive treatment system along Laurel Run and to rehab an old strip mine site abandoned in the late 1940s, Wenzel said. Powdermill, a Carnegie Museum of Natural History environmental research center, partnered with the Loyalhanna Watershed Commission in Ligonier and Indiana University of Pennsylvania on the project.

“The project will help remove the aluminum content (of the mine drainage) that decimates the aquatic life,” on a Loyalhanna Creek tributary, said Susan Huba, executive director of the Loyalhanna Watershed Commission, which works to protect and preserve the watershed. Laurel Run, which flows into Powdermill Run, is one of the headwater streams of the Loyalhanna, Huba said.

The abandoned mine project is being funded through a $25 million allocation the state received from the federal government. In this latest round of funding, the money will target 11 projects in Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette, Westmoreland and six other counties across the state. The 2019 abandoned mine land pilot program is designed to be used for projects with economic and community development end uses.

Powdermill intends to replace an experimental passive mine drainage system, built in 1997 and expected to function for about 15 years, or about until 2012, Wenzel said. The system treats what Huba terms as a “low flow” — about 60 gallons per minute — from a mine that was on county maps in 1876 and continued to operate until about 1947, Wenzel said. The work will improve 1.5 miles of Laurel Run, the state said.

Wenzel anticipates the work will be done next year, once plans are finalized.

The site of a strip mine abandoned in the late 1940s off Route 381 in the northern section of the nature reserve will be preserved in three different forms in a project that will take three construction seasons, Wenzel said.

Part of the strip mine will be restored to what the site looked like when the operator shut down mining. Another section of the site will remain as a place that nature has reclaimed over the past 70 years. In a third phase, at a 40-foot highwall, habitat will be created for the Golden-winged Warbler, whose prime habitat is along the edge of the forest, Wenzel said.

An educational trail will be constructed with more than a mile of new and rehabilitated trails, along with three viewing platforms.

In Allegheny County, the Tour-Ed Mine and Museum received a $527,000 grant to make safer the walkway into the mine portal, which abuts a 30-foot highwall, said Larry Kurtik, vice president of Tour-Ed Mine, which has been an educational site for 50 years.

To prevent rocks from falling down upon visitors entering the mine, Kurtik said a wall will be built along 100 feet of the 400-foot-long walkway, with the remainder protected by a chain link fence. They hope to have the work finished by October 2021.

Tour-Ed also wants to create another escape way in the mine, but that will have to wait for future funding opportunities, Kurtik said.

“We’re trying to preserve a place that will be here for a long time,” Kurtik said.

The South Fayette Conservation Group will receive a $3 million grant to improve the state-funded Gladden acid mine drainage treatment plant, which is designed to remove 690 pounds per day of iron pollution from flowing into Millers Run and Chartiers Creek, a tributary of the Ohio River.

This 1,500-gallon-per-minute treatment plant will provide clean water for an additional 7.5 miles of stream for stocking fish. Three areas of Fishing Run also will be sealed to prevent water from flowing into the deep mine, thus decreasing the operating cost of plant.

A conservation group spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

In Armstrong County, about 59 acres of a mine dump area will be used to backfill 11,000 linear feet at a dangerous highwall. The Redbank Creek Watershed Trust, which was awarded a $1.22 million grant for the work, is overseeing the project. When finished, it will create 50 acres of agricultural field and about 3,000 linear feet of multi-use recreational trail.

A $500,000 grant will be used to reclaim 20 acres of abandoned mine land in Ohiopyle State Park near the intersection of Greenbriar and the Dunbar-Ohiopyle roads in what Park Manager Ken Brisbee says is “a fairly remote section of the park.”

The site will be used for a small parking area. Further development of game plots by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will allow for future access to this site by outdoor enthusiasts, the state said.