Mountain residents oppose Amerikohl bond release
SALTLICK TWP. – Residents of the village of White, as well as an environmental group, opposed a bond release this week for Amerikohl Mining Inc. of Acme, saying operations at the company’s Keslar mine site have affected nearby homes. As state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials took notes, Brenda Pletcher of 800 Buchanon Road said she has runoff from the mine site, and it is causing her a multitude of problems, including severe basement flooding.
Pletcher said she is very concerned about what will happen when the spring thaw comes.
“That’s why I’m here tonight. We still don’t know the full effect the mining has had on us,” said Pletcher. “I want to ask you to hold off on making a decision to release the bond, which would basically remove some of Amerikohl’s responsibility in this situation.”
David Maxwell, vice president of Amerikohl, said the first phase of the bond release is just 60 percent, or $174,050.82 of the total bond.
Carol Kelly of Normalville echoed Pletcher’s sentiments: “Please don’t release this bond. I don’t know how many of these incidents you have to have before you are aware that there is a problem.”
Kelly said she also was concerned about the spring thaw, but she noted that other issues must be addressed.
“You know that we’ve been going through hell for the past two years, and nothing has ever been done about it,” said Kelly, who added that she has a case pending against Amerikohl for damage done to her house, which she claims was from blasting at the mine.
She also said she had a problem with a spring on her property and blamed Amerikohl for that, too.
“The mud ran off the hillside and polluted our spring, and Mr. Maxwell told me that it was my neighbor’s fault, not his,” said Kelly.”
Maxwell told DEP officials that he helped take care of the problem, which he called “an act of God.” He also said that he helped Kelly correct the problem under the Good Neighbor Policy.
“We just want to be a good neighbor,” said Maxwell. “We are going to look at Mrs. Pletcher’s problem, and we are going to look at the culvert pipe, back fill it and get some more drainage going. Hopefully, that will take care of it.”
As far as the runoff, Maxwell said his company has approved erosion and sedimentation controls on site that will carry most of the erosion or any runoff to sedimentation ponds.
Beverly Braverman, executive director of the Mountain Watershed Association, told DEP officials that the sedimentation and flooding problems that the residents are experiencing are a direct result of the way the area was reclaimed.
She also asked the DEP to monitor different discharge sites in the area of the Keslar mine to see if they have experienced any hydrological change before any of the bond is released.
Greensburg District DEP mining manager Michael Terretti said officials would make a decision on the bond within 30 days. He also said the DEP will send a letter to the Mountain Watershed Association and anyone else interested in the decision. “The purpose of this meeting was to give the residents living close to the Keslar mine the opportunity to voice their concerns in Phase I of the bond release,” said Terretti. “Altogether, there are three phases of the bond release.”
Terretti said that in the second phase of the bond release, the DEP will make sure that vegetation has been planted. In the third phase, DEP will reinspect the area after five years to make sure that the vegetation is still growing.