Mining has long history in mountains
Underground coal mining began in the area in the mid- to-late-19th century and continued until the late 1960s. The Melcroft No. 3 mine was the last operating mine in the Melcroft area and was officially closed Dec. 23, 1966. According to information provided to the Herald-Standard by state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials, these mines were developed on the Middle Kittanning coal seam (locally known as the Miller B Coal) adjacent to the Indian Creek and Champion Creek valleys.
With the exception of a portion of the Melcroft No. 3 mine the underground mines were developed up-dip to ease drainage. Areas below a coal seam elevation of about 1,470 feet in the No. 3 mine are presently flooded.
Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) problems were dominant early on during mine development and have continued through the present. As early as 1924 the Melcroft Coal Company and other mining companies were enjoined and restrained from allowing ACM discharges into the upper Indian Creek watershed, by the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas.
The order resulted from a lawsuit brought against the various coal companies by the Pennsylvania Railroad and several private water companies.
The lawsuit claimed that the mines were causing pollution of a downstream reservoir on Indian Creek (Mill Run Reservoir).
In order to comply with the court, the mining companies constructed a mine drainage flume to collect and carry mine drainage to a point downstream of the reservoir.
The system was over seven miles in length and used piping to provide connections to existing mine workings.
The flume system discharged below the reservoir into a tributary (Charles Run) of Indian Creek near the town of Normalville.
Available information identifies the Melcroft No. 1 mine as the beginning of the flume system.
However, prior to the development of the Melcroft No. 3 mine in 1958, earlier mine maps of the area show that AMD originating in the Melcroft No. 2 mine workings, which were collected at the slope entries and also routed into the flume system.
When the Melcroft No. 3 mine was an active mine, it captured the drainage from the updip No. 2 mine, as well as groundwater encountered in the active mine. This water was also pumped directly into the flume system (untreated) via a drift opening into the Melcroft No. 1 mine.
After closure, the No. 3 mine was allowed to flood and a pond was built at the portal entries (refered to as the portal pond). During this time and continuing until about the mid-1980s, the coal company continually operated a pump in the portal pond, which kept up the pool at or slightly below the pond overflow point and the untreated water was also pumped into the flume system.
Affected homeowners in the village of Melcroft said that their problems with basement flooding became much more severe when the coal company discontinued their pumping operations at the portal pond.
During the mid 1970s the flume system began to malfunction, according to DEP officials, as a result of deterioration, plugging and lack of any significant maintenance. AMD from the abandoned mines now enters the main channel of Indian Creek at the down-dip mine entries or as coal cropline discharges.
The majority of the discharges enter between the villages of Melcroft and Indian Head, where the axis of the Ohiopyle-Ligonier Syncline crosses the Indian Creek valley.
Beam said the DEP legal staff has determined that no viable entity exists with a legal responsibility for either AMD discharges or the continued operation of the flume system.