Energy company makes concessions in settlement over Laurel Highlands mine
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Mountain Watershed Association’s yearslong fight against a new coal mine in the Laurel Highlands, the outdoor recreation hub of southwestern Pennsylvania, is over.
Just days before a hearing on objections raised by the nonprofit citizens organization to LCT Energy L.P.’s proposed Rustic Ridge No. 1 deep mine in Fayette and Westmoreland counties, a settlement agreement was filed Thursday with the state Environmental Hearing Board in Harrisburg.
LCT Energy agreed to expand, to 1,400 feet from 800 feet, the subterranean coal seam barrier between its mine and a flooded abandoned mine and significantly reduce wastewater discharges into Champion Creek, a tributary of Indian Creek. It will also monitor water seepage from the abandoned mine into the new mine, use minimally invasive lighting, and reconfigure its ventilation and blasting to reduce noise.
Mountain Watershed, which has spent decades and more than $8 million in state grant money to reduce and treat polluted discharges from abandoned coal mines that have made a mess of Indian Creek, agreed to the restrictive conditions even though it opposes the continued use of fossil fuels.
“We were going to raise two major issues in the hearing — the mining barrier and the impact of big mining discharges that would have overwhelmed Champion Creek. But they were willing to negotiate those and that made our appeal moot,” said Beverly Braverman, executive director of the MWA.
“The settlement isn’t perfect for us because they’re still able to mine coal, which is a travesty in this day and age, but we got certain conditions in the permit that are more stringent than what the state would have required,” she said. “In the end it was the best agreement we could get. We got strong conditions on something we didn’t want to see happen.”
The Mountain Watershed Association was formed in 1994 in opposition to the proposed Rand Am deep mine, which sought to mine in the same lower Kittanning coal seam as Rustic Ridge, but in a mostly different part of the seam. The state Department of Environmental Protection denied that mine proposal because of the potential to damage water quality along the length of Indian Creek, a major tributary of the Youghiogheny River.
LCT Energy L.P., incorporated in December 2009 and headquartered in Johnstown, is a subsidiary of Latrobe-based Robindale Energy Services. LCT proposed the 3,000-acre Rustic Ridge Mine in 2014, and its permits were approved by DEP in December 2016. The room-and-pillar deep mine will dig the Lower Kittanning coal seam, which lies about 1,370 feet below the surface in the permit area.
A statement issued by LCT said that none of the permit changes agreed to in the settlement would impair the mining operation.
“LCT is pleased to have this matter amicably resolved and we look forward to continuing operations at Rustic Ridge No. 1,” LCT presidentMark Tercek said in the company’s statement.
The MWA appeal was filed in January 2017, challenging both the mining permit and the water discharge permit issued to the mine, located in Donegal Township and Donegal Borough, Westmoreland County, and Saltlick Township, Fayette County.
The MWA was concerned that the originally proposed subterranean “barriers” between the workings of the Rustic Ridge Mine and the abandoned and flooded Melcroft No. 3 Mine were porous and insufficient to prevent a hydrogeological connection that could increase pollution discharges into Indian Creek and its tributaries.
The Indian Creek watershed, which includes Champion Creek, drains about 125 square miles and contains more than 130 known discharges from mined-out and abandoned coal mines.
“The main issue is our water, and we’re quite concerned about this mine,” said Marty Hinebaugh, a Mountain Watershed member and resident of Jones Mills, which is within the eastern edge of the mine’s “footprint,” meaning mining will occur beneath her home..
“We have a very important stream, Indian Creek, that is part of the tremendous recreational opportunities in the Laurel Highlands and a major tributary of the Youghiogheny River. We’ve spent 20 years reclaiming the creek to make it fishable and swimmable, and this mine will make the pollution flow again.”
Ms. Hinebaugh said residents of the area are also concerned about how the mine could damage their private water wells and springs. About 250 of the 600 properties above the mine have private wells or springs as a water supply.