Dunkard: Some Dots are Missing
Washington, PA Observer-Reporter
21 January 2010
A recent letter concerning possible sources of contamination affecting
Dunkard Creek ("Dunkard: connecting the dots," Jan. 13) missed a few
"dots" and connections. This is not surprising, because the public has
not been notified about several permits.
Several additional "dots" and connections already exist. Under a permit
revision issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection in 2002 without public notice, Consolidation Coal Co.
already pumps water from the Blacksville No. 1 Mine into the Humphrey
Mine. The proposed pipeline discussed in the earlier letter apparently
would increase the amount of water that could be transferred from
Blacksville No. 1 to Humphrey.
A connection also exists between the Humphrey Mine and Dunkard Creek
via the Shannopin Mine. In 2005, without public notice, the state DEP
issued a permit allowing AMD Reclamation, Inc. to pump up to 4,000
gallons per minute from the Humphrey Mine into the Shannopin Mine, and
to increase by that same amount the discharge to Dunkard Creek from
AMDRI's Shannopin Mine Dewatering Project at the Steele Shaft treatment
facility.
Finally, a new set of dots soon may be connected to Dunkard Creek
through the Shannopin mine pool. In February 2009, again without public
notice, the DEP issued a permit that enables AMDRI to inject into the
Shannopin Mine in Pennsylvania several kinds of wastewater from the new
Longview Power Plant in West Virginia, as well as filtration "reject"
from the treatment of Monongahela River water to supply the power plant
with cooling water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency authorized
this same wastewater injection operation in April 2009.
Without public notice, the full web of dots and connections is hard to
see.
Kurt Weist
Harrisburg
The writer is senior attorney for Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future.