By KATHY MELLOTT
The Tribune-Democrat
December 08, 2007 10:57 pm
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A 700-page report alleging ground and surface water contamination at abandoned mine sites across Pennsylvania reclaimed with fly ash has an environmental group facing off against state officials.
The Department of Environmental Protection says the regulations are adequate and the process is environmentally safe.
The Clean Air Task Force, though, is calling for changes in the state’s approach to using fly ash mine reclamation after 10 sites – including one in Jackson Township and a second in Reade Township – showed ground and surface water contamination.
Six of the suspect sites are in this region of the state.
Of concern, said Jeffrey Stant, lead author of the report, is elevated levels of toxic heavy metals found in water at and around the sites.
The Boston-based task force points to two mines each in Cambria, Clearfield and Indiana counties along with four others elsewhere in the state as proof that the state DEP’s fly ash use policies fall short. They are especially lacking, he said, in areas of material and site testing and potential interaction prior to application and site monitoring during and after project completion.
“They are just adamant that the ash never causes any negative impact. They call every high reading a mistake,” Stant said.
The state is actually creating an environmental problem with method to solving acid-mine drainage, he said. Stant thinks the state is not adequately monitoring mine fill sites.
It also is not requiring corrective action when problems are found, he said.
But DEP stands behind its 20-year experience using the alkaline fly ash to reclaim, neutralize and fill the acidic strip mine sites.
No changes are planned in current procedures calling for testing of the fly ash and testing each individual site before a permit is issued – along with monitoring during the process, said Ron Ruman, DEP spokesman.
“We feel the people who put out the report drew incorrect conclusions and we do continue to think use of coal ash is beneficial in mine reclamation throughout Pennsylvania,” he said. “We feel the conclusions in the report are incorrect.”
Ruman disputed a Harrisburg Patriot-News editorial that was reprinted in Monday’s Tribune-Democrat suggesting state DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty is looking at more stringent testing.
“We’re always looking at areas for improvement,” Ruman said last week. “If we see that something is needed we’re willing to discuss it. But there’s nothing on the horizon.”
The report lists the Cambria sites where water contamination is associated with fly ash as the McDermott Mine in Jackson Township and the E.P. Bender Mine in Reade.
The McDermott site is in a remote area near Chicory Hill Road, off Route 22, said township Manager Dave Hirko.
Eugene Kist, lives about a mile from the site said that – while he doesn’t know enough about the state’s policy to call for changes – he wonders about the safety of fly ash.
“I definitely have concerns,” he said.
The study has caught the attention of John Hanger, executive director of the environmental group PennFuture, who thinks the results are worth further investigation.
“I hope at the end of the day the really strong data shows there is no problem or significant concerns,” he said.
“You don’t want to fool around with water sources, especially with heavy metals.”
Indiana County sites are the Homer City Coal Refuse Disposal Site in Center Township and the Ernest Mine in White and Rayne townships.
Clearfield County has Swamp Poodle Mine in Morris, Graham and Cooper townships and Bloom Mine in Bigler Township.
The study is inconclusive about whether degradation occurred at a third Clearfield County site, the Buterbaugh Mine in Bigler Township.
Statewide 120 mines have permits to accept an estimated 6 million tons of fly ash annually, a two-decade practice that has resulted in reclamation and significant improvements to water in the mine site areas, DEP maintains.
Some of the problem with the report, Ruman said, is that it looks at coal mining sites, areas already degraded before reclamation begins.
But despite prior degradation of the sites, problems still turn up, said Stant, who cited increased cadmium and selenium in surface seeps as far away as 900 feet beyond the property line at the Jackson Township site.
The Clean Air Task Force study looked at 15 of the state’s permitted sites and conclude that water problems as a result of the fly ash exist in two-thirds of those studied.
Jeff Zick, deputy general manger of The Colver Power Project involved in providing coal ash, the residue from its coal waste plant operations - to the two Cambria County mines, said his company follows state rules and the process is working.
“Clearly we disagree with many of their conclusions and we think the use of alkaline ash to reclaim these mine lands that have been abandoned for decades, is still clearly a very positive benefit to the environment,” Zick said. “All of the operations we’ve undertaken here at Colver Power were permitted and approved by the DEP.”
McGinty has met with Clear Air Task Force staff, a courtesy she would afford anyone, Ruman said.
He points to outside experts including Penn State Mineral Research Institute which have endorsed the state’s for fly ash policy.
“There are no federal standards, Pennsylvania has been a leader. The federal government is taking what we’re doing and looking at,” in developing standards, Ruman said.
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