Curious Get an Opportunity to View Plan for New Coal Mine in
Dunkard
Township
Washington PA Observer
Reporter
3 February 2011
By Bob Niedbala, Staff writer
niedbala@observer-reporter.com
BOBTOWN - Residents had the opportunity Wednesday to review plans for
the development of a new coal mine in Dunkard Township.
The state Department of Environmental Protection held an open house
meeting at the Bobtown fire hall to discuss plans for the proposed CW
Morgan Mine.
CWMM LLC, a Somerset-based company, plans to mine Pittsburgh seam coal
in Dunkard, Perry, Whiteley and Greene townships that was part of the
Shannopin Mine coal reserves.
Several of those who attended the meeting said they viewed the project
favorably, though a few expressed concerns about the impact of the
project on the waters of Dunkard Creek.
"I'm not opposed to mining, people working in the mining industry and
making money, but it has to be done in a responsible manner," said Ken
Dufalla, president of the Greene County chapter of the Izaak Walton
League.
Dunkard Creek and the Monongahela River can't continue to accept more
and more water contaminated with high levels of total dissolved solids,
Dufalla said. He said he wanted to make sure the mine would have to
meet new state standards limiting water discharges in a stream to 500
milligrams per liter of TDS.
William Plassio, DEP district mining manager who attended the meeting,
said because the mine would be considered a new discharge, it would
have to meet the standards.
Leonard Novak of Bobtown, president of United Mine Workers of America
Local 6159 at the former Shannopin Mine, said he would like to see the
mine open.
A new mine would create jobs, "and it would be good for the tax base
for both the township and the school district," Novak said.
The company is seeking to permit 2,745.9 acres of coal, which includes
two separate blocks connected by a corridor that runs east to west. The
permit area is roughly between Bobtown and Interstate 79.
Dave Blasko of CWMM LLC attended the meeting but referred questions to
William D. Forster, company president, who could not be there.
Forster later said the company still hasn't determined the number of
workers the mine will employ, but it hopes eventually to operate two
continuous miner sections to produce coal.
The mine will use the room-and-pillar method and, according to the
permit application, produce 600,000 tons or more of coal a year.
The surface operations for the mine will occupy a 72-acre tract of land
south of the intersection of Bald Hill and Old Water Works roads. The
area is across Dunkard Creek and just south of Dana Mining Co.'s 4 West
Mine.
Dana owns the land on which the CWMM mine will have its surface
operations. Forster said the company has an agreement to purchase the
property from Dana. CWMM also has an agreement to purchase the coal it
will mine, which is owned by Dunkard Creek Ventures LLC, he said.
The mine will enter the coal seam by a slope at what will be called the
Bobtown Portal. Coal from the mine will be trucked off-site to be
processed. A coal preparation plant probably will not be built at the
site, Forster said.
CWMM LLC was formed specifically to develop the new mine. Forster said
his experience is primarily in the oil and gas and oil services
industry and the mine will be his first venture into coal mining. He
added, however, his team has many people with coal mining experience.
One of the people who attended the meeting to review the plans was Jim
Franks of Bobtown. Franks, who worked 37 1/2 years at the Shannopin
Mine, said there is still a lot of coal in the Shannopin reserves.
Franks said he is in favor of the new mine as long as the company "does
what's right" by taking care of the surface property owners whose land
might be affected by subsidence.
The permitting for the mine is now in the preliminary stages, said Mike
Bodnar of DEP.
"We haven't really looked at the nuts and bolts of it yet," he said.
That will be done during the technical review, which will begin now and
which could take six months to a year to complete.