Another page turns in dispute over mining under Ryerson park
Environmental issues at Ryerson Station State Park are at issue in a mining dispute. (Photo by Kelly Tunney)
The dam at Ryerson Station State Park. (Photo by Kelly Tunney)
Snyder
Bartolotta
In some ways it has not been easy for Consol Energy and its coal mining operations in Greene and Washington counties.
Another page turned Tuesday in one chapter of that saga for Consol and its spinoff CNX Coal Resources LP, when a Washington, Pa.-based environmental activist organization is to file its final argument in a state Environmental Hearing Board case over continued mining near Ryerson Station State Park in Greene County.
“It has been an up and down year for Consol,” said state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson Township. “It’s been a painful decade for Ryerson Station State Park. It’s a very complex issue.”
Joined by the Sierra Club, the Center for Coalfield Justice seeks revocation of a permit issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection for Consol’s Bailey Mine East Expansion project, citing hazards coal extraction continues to pose for waterways in and near the park.
“The record demonstrates that various streams within the Bailey Lower East Expansion will suffer or have suffered subsidence-induced flow loss that necessitates disruptive post-mining stream mitigation,” according to an Oct. 21 filing by CCJ attorney Sarah E. Winner and co-counsel Ryan Hamilton of Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services in Pittsburgh.
At issue is a May 1, 2014, permit revision allowing Consol to conduct full-extraction longwall mining on 3,175 acres and then perform post-mining stream restoration; and a Feb. 26, 2015, revision allowing full-extraction mining beneath Polen Run and above what are termed the 1L and 2L panels of the Bailey Lower East Expansion.
In a response filed with EHB on Nov. 21, Consol’s attorneys Howard J. Wein, Robert L. Burns Jr. and Megan S. Haines of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC of Pittsburgh said the CCJ attorneys sought “an interpretation of the Clean Streams Law … which would effectively preempt the provisions of the Mine Subsistence Act (that) specifically allow planned subsidence.”
Winner and Hamilton denied that they sought what was termed “a zero-impact standard,” but did seek summary judgment, which was rejected on June 6 by EHB Judge Steven E. Beckman.
“It is not clear as a matter of law that the issuance of the permits was prohibited by the Clean Streams Law and/or the regulations,” Beckman wrote.
Spokespersons for Consol and the DEP said they could not comment on the matter, with DEP referring specifically to ongoing litigation.
According to the Sierra Club, nearby streams with similar characteristics to those at risk in that permit area still have not recovered from harm caused by longwall mining at the Bailey complex based in Richhill Township, despite Consol’s repeated attempts to restore stream flow.
CCJ and the Sierra Club look to the impact of mine subsidence on Duke Lake, located within Ryerson.
In 2005 underground activity led to structural damage to the dam that required the lake to be drained and the dam to be breached.
“Hundreds of gallons of water per minute were leaking through the dam,” CCJ Executive Director Patrick Grenter recalled. “Pennsylvania waited five years before bringing enforcement action against Consol.”
At that time DEP found Consol responsible for the damage to Duke Lake and ordered the company to pay the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which manages the lake and park, more then $1 million to repair the dam and for future repair expenses.
Consol appealed the order, claiming that the ground movements responsible for damages to the dam were not caused by its mining activities. The Southpointe-based energy company also appealed the order requiring it to pay for the repairs.
But in April 2013 DCNR settled with Consol, which agreed to pay the state $36 million, with approximately $25 million to be used for the reconstruction of the dam – if the ground underneath stabilizes.
“The ground was still shifting,” Grenter said, “The state cannot build a dam there. That made our fight for those streams more important than ever.”
“We’re really hoping for a decision by the end of the year or early in 2017,” said Grenter.
A decision could impact hundreds of jobs in Greene and neighboring counties, where unemployment rates remain among the highest in Pennsylvania.
“If we win,” Grenter said, “mining should stop while issues are being litigated.”
State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township, is concerned about that, saying a halt to mining would impact hundreds of jobs and “derail what is left of the coal industry in Greene County.”
According to the state Department of Labor and Industry, the number of workers in mining, logging and construction industries in Greene County has remained stationary at 5,100 for three months, most recently into October. That’s up from 4,700 in October 2015.
The unemployment rate in Greene County remained at 7.5 percent for a second-straight month, down from 7.6 percent in August but up from 6.0 percent in October 2015. That still remains among the higher jobless rates among the 67 counties, with the highest in October, 8.4 percent, being reported in Fayette County.
Meanwhile CCJ and the Sierra Club are pressuring Bartolotta to intervene to prevent an alleged bid by Consol “to fast track (a) new permit amendment which would allow it to destroy streams inside Ryerson” before the board makes its decision.
“Consol is trying to get this permit immediately,” Grenter said. His group called Consol’s effort “outrageous, cynical and unconstitutional.” It apparently is on a parallel with the existing situation with Bailey Lower East Expansion.
“We have seen Sen. Bartolotta show leadership on other ill-advised mining plans, particularly in Washington County, and now we hope she will show the same judgment in opposing this ill-advised mining plan, at least until we have a decision from the Environmental Hearing Board,” Grenter said.
“I appreciate their passion and their concern,” said Bartolotta, who is majority vice chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee – and who has been in contact with CCJ on multiple occasions, including a recent conference call.
The first-term senator called “very disingenuous” a CCJ campaign that insisted that she had ignored 85 emails and multiple phone calls urging her to act.
“I think we’ve gotten one email and four phone calls,” Bartolotta said. “We respond to every email, to every phone call.”
Bartolotta acknowledged writing a letter to the DEP regarding mining near Mingo Creek Park in eastern Washington County – but did not see how she could intervene in the Ryerson dispute.
“I don’t control the DEP,” she said. “I can’t interfere in litigation between the DEP and a group.”
Snyder said she receives “emails and letters all the time” from “people who are concerned with what is happening with Ryerson.” However, that also includes what has been going on to make improvements to the park.
“A (community-driven) task force is moving forward and they are going to be starting construction on some new facilities at Ryerson State Park this spring,” the Greene County legislator said. A swimming pool and other facilities are on that list.
The task force was formed after DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn came to Ryerson in July 2015 to announce that replacement of a dam that created Duke Lake was currently not possible because of continued ground movement and an unstable foundation.
Some of the money from the Consol settlement over Duke Lake was repurposed by DCNR for other uses in the park. Snyder said the effort has included input from high school students telling officials what they want to see in the park.
“It has been a very successful endeavor,” Snyder said.