Consol Hopes to Resume Pumping into Dunkard Creek By Next Week

West Virginia Public Broadcasting
6 January 2009
By Ben Adducchio

Consol Energy says it’s working on a plan to build mine water treatment plants in the Dunkard Creek watershed.

Last year Consol Energy stopped pumping mine water from its Blacksville No. 2 mine into Dunkard Creek after a massive fish kill occurred in the creek.

In the months that followed, Consol stored the water in the underground mine, but it reached a critical level and became a safety concern.

The company now plans to pump that water into Dunkard Creek beginning next week.

Joe Cerenzia is the public relations director for Consol.

“We are going to be able to bring that mine pool down at Blacksville No. 2 to do a couple of things: to make sure the miners there are working safely, and also that the discharge into Dunkard Creek is under the restricted mandate that the state has imposed on us,” he said.

“We feel pretty confident that this is a very workable solution.”

But the solution is extensive. They must limit their discharges to 860 milligrams of chloride per liter when the water temperature is 50 degrees or higher.

This is the acute water quality standard for chloride in West Virginia.

During colder temperatures, Consol is allowed to discharge nearly twice that amount into the stream.

Consol must also carefully monitor chloride and conductivity levels in the stream.

During the fish kill, conductivity levels were very high, creating conditions for golden algae to bloom and kill the fish.

“We have put in place monitoring devices that will be able to provide information to us on the quality of the water, in terms of the TDS levels, and the other pollutants,” Cerenzia said.

“These devices will be able to gather this data and ensure the discharge from the mine is within the standard they have placed.”

Cerenzia says the devices are placed in the stream and are being tested before discharging can resume.

Consol will provide the West Virginia DEP with the results of those tests and get final clearance before discharging again.

Dunkard Creek Watershed Association President Betty Wiley says she is not surprised Consol will be discharging again.

“This is like the wake-up call. Maybe this will lead to changes that will improve things in the future,” she said.

“The water needs to be cleaned up, TDS removed, that would solve the problem.”

Wiley wants stronger laws on water quality standards in West Virginia and for Consol to build a water treatment plant in the area.

“It’s taken too long, they should have built it already,” she said.

Now the company is under the DEP order, the company must build mine water treatment plants for its operations in northern West Virginia.

The first plant would treat the water going into Dunkard Creek.

Joe Cerenzia says Consol plans to have the plant built by May of 2013.

“We’re doing the engineering now, we are evaluating the different types of technologies that are available to us to treat that mine water,” he said. “Then as we move forward, we will be providing them the best treatment options that we recommend for their approval.”

The company’s proposals for the plants are due to the West Virginia DEP by mid-April.

Consol is also under a compliance schedule to meet chloride standards for its mine discharges.

For several years, Consol exceeded chloride standards in its discharges into Dunkard Creek.

The compliance schedule will be changed and possibly revoked if Consol does not meet the requirements listed in this new order.

Meanwhile, environmental groups in Pennsylvania are appealing the Pennsylvania DEP’s approval of an expanded mine drainage permit last November.

The Friends of Dunkard Creek and the Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future argue the amended permit for the Shannopin Mine Dewatering Project allowsthe discharge of polluted mine water into Dunkard Creek from Consol’s Humphrey No. 7 mine.