The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has approved the expansion of an underground coal mine in Westmoreland County.
Johnstown-based LCT Energy LP operates the 2,800-acre Rustic Ridge #1 coal mine in Donegal Township, just south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike exit there. It produces around 500,000 tons per year of metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, according to the company.
The DEP approved the company’s plan for a 1,400-acre expansion of the mine underneath the Turnpike to the northern side of the roadway.
The company plans to mine the Lower Kittanning coal seam, which lies between 200 and 690 feet below ground. The average depth of the mine would be 300 and 500 feet, LCT Energy president Mark Tercek said, in an email.
The company is permitted to treat waste mine water and then discharge the treated waste water into Indian Creek, a tributary of the Youghiogheny River, which flows into the Monongahela River.
In its permit application, the company said it will conduct “room-and-pillar” mining, in which pillars of coal are left in place for support to prevent cave-ins, and will not practice retreat mining, where the pillars are removed to extract more coal. The company estimates that it will extract between 42.9% to 79% of the coal where it is digging, depending on how deep the mine will go.
The company said that “(s)ome subsidence has occurred in an isolated area” of the current mine, resulting in “some damage to structures on the surface.”
Tercek said in an email that the company would test geologic conditions and adjust its mining plan to avoid conditions that could lead to subsidence in the future.
Watershed group opposes the expansion
Stacy Magda of Mountain Watershed Association said the area has been mined for decades and has suffered subsidence and mine drainage as a result.
“[P]rivate water supplies and waterways are already polluted from previous coal mining activity,” Magda said.
The group maintains several treatment plants to clean up mine flows from more than 100 sources of mine drainage along Indian Creek. The group is worried the expansion project will jeopardize cleanup work that has already cost millions of dollars in private, federal and state money.
“We’re already having all of these investments into cleaning the water up and preserving the landscape. This makes no sense,” she said.
She worries the expanded mine would cause subsidence beneath homes and water sources, as well as draining of groundwater that would be pumped out of the mine.
“[The mine] could lower groundwater, putting more than 100 private water supplies at risk. It would deteriorate water quality in the watersheds that it would be operating in,” Magda said. “And there’s a high probability that new [acid mine drainage] discharges could move south into the Indian Creek and [Youghiogheny] River watershed.”
Tercek said all water discharged from the site would meet the DEP’s water quality standards. He said the company “was able to specifically design a project that will not impact existing” mine discharges. In addition, the company would limit the amount of coal it digs out beneath existing homes.
Magda said the project would jeopardize the environmental quality of the Laurel Highlands, which attracts millions of visitors a year to its mountains and rivers.
“What we all value, where we love to play and get out and relax – it is truly at risk because of the Rustic Ridge Coal Mine,” she said.
In an email, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission press secretary Marissa Orbanek said the commission has an agreement with LCT to mine beneath the roadway.
The agreement “allow[s] for a limited amount of coal removal beneath the Turnpike near Donegal to allow the coal company to cross beneath the highway and mine their coal reserves located north of the Turnpike,” Orbanek said. She added that the Turnpike has a team of employees “that continuously monitors all 565+ miles of the roadway daily.”
Mountain Watershed Association is hosting a town hall at St. Raymond of the Mountains Church, 170 School House Lane in Donegal, at 6:30 pm on May 15.
