Pennsylvania agency backs plan to dump river muck and coal ash into abando

[Judi Lynn]

Pennsylvania agency backs plan to dump river muck and coal ash into abandoned mines



Tuesday, November 11, 2003
By Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press



TAMAQUA, Pa. — Along the edge of town there is a gaping hole in the earth, a barren place where men and machines once extracted thousands of tons of anthracite coal.

It's called the Springdale Pit, and it is at the center of a scientific and political debate over what to do with the thousands of abandoned strip mines that pock the Appalachian landscape, turning streams and rivers into orange-tinted dead zones and scenic areas into eyesores.

A Pottsville company, with encouragement from state environmental officials, wants to fill the Springdale Pit with a potent mixture of coal ash, dust from cement and lime kilns, and river sediments dredged from the harbors and shipping lanes of New York and New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

The goal is to prevent acid mine drainage — the contaminated water that flows out of abandoned mines and pollutes waterways — and restore the hillside to something of its original contour.

But neighbors of the Springdale Pit bitterly oppose the plan, fearing the mixture will leach into the groundwater, contaminate their wells, and make them sick. They're backed by some environmental groups and at least one geologist who says the state Department of Environmental Protection is about to make a big mistake. (snip/...)

http://www.enn.com/news/2003-11-11/s_10291.asp