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.