CONCERN OVER COAL REFUSE
Many couldn’t come on weekday afternoon, opponents say
Max Loughman, center, and his brother Van Loughman discuss a land map for the pending coal refuse disposal area owned by Consol Energy during a public hearing Wednesday held by the Center for Coalfield Justice at the Morris Township Community Center in Greene County. The brothers live just south of the proposed refuse disposal area.
MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — For decades, Duncan Horner has enjoyed the panorama of rolling valleys and farmhouses on drives from his house in Pittsburgh to his farm in Richhill in Greene County.
But Mr. Horner said he no longer will be able to enjoy the scenery if the state Department of Environmental Protection allows Consol Energy to construct another coal refuse disposal area in Greene County.
Amid concerns from environmental justice activists and community residents, the DEP held a public hearing Wednesday at the Morris Township Community Center to help it decide whether to authorize Consol’s operation of coal refuse disposal area No. 7.
Consol wants to construct a sedimentation basin to fill a valley with coal refuse and release discharges into a tributary in Enlow Fork. No. 7 would be the largest such disposal area Consol owns.
Mr. Horner and Nick Hood — a community organizer with the Center for Coalfield Justice — testified at the hearing. Mr. Horner asked the DEP not to allow the destruction of his view
by “filling the valley up with not- so- pretty sludge.” Mr. Hood said using another valley for coal refuse disposal could involve about 900 acres of land and threaten ecosystems in surrounding streams.
“A perfectly good valley will now be filled in with a toxic mix of water and chemicals,” Mr. Hood said later in an interview. “We had record- rainfall years recently, so the refuse could overflow and leach into groundwater.”
Apart from Mr. Hood and Mr. Horner, only two other Greene County residents, Max and Van Loughman, attended the hearing.
“We own all the surface properties affected by the construction in this permit area, so we didn’t expect a lot of people to show up,” said Anthony Drezewski, Consol’s director of land resources.
Consol’s external affairs manager, Zach Smith, said he was “optimistic about moving forward.”
But according to Max Loughman, many Greene County residents are concerned about mining expansion and the coal refuse disposal area.
“I’m surprised that there aren’t more people who showed up,” Mr. Loughman said. “But it’s at 1 o’clock on a Wednesday. People have to get off work without pay to be here. If they held it at 6 instead, this room would be packed.”
DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said the department will publish a response to the hearing in a couple of months. She said if the facility is approved, the DEP will review quarterly reports from Consol on refuse discharges and water quality in nearby streams.
Troy Williams, DEP’s environmental group manager, also said Consol would minimize the escape of waste products to other areas by encapsulating the refuse in a synthetic container and collecting runoff during storms.
“The DEP feels very pressured to issue a permit because Consol needs a place to dispose its waste to continue producing at the rate they are right now,” Mr. Hood said.
“Many people are concerned, but Consol didn’t see it at the meeting today, the DEP didn’t see it, and the media didn’t see it at the meeting today.”