Officials from throughout state get first-hand look at Mather project
MATHER – A group of people from throughout the state got a first-hand look Wednesday at the progress being made to reclaim the Mather gob pile, which has towered over the Greene County community for nearly four decades. Members of the Department of Environmental Protection’s mining and reclamation advisory board toured the site where crews have been working more than two years to remove the coal finds from the pile and reshape the rest so the site can have an eventual reuse.
Crews with Mather Recovery Systems LLC are working to finish the first phase of work, which included the northern end of the pile to the slurry pond, in the next three weeks.
Board members listened as company officials described the project to date and what may lie ahead if the Greene County Industrial Development Authority receives another $3.4 million in state Growing Greener funds to complete the work.
“We’ve taken 750,000 cubic yards off the pile and into storage areas, and we will be covering the excavated areas and seeding them,” said Stanley Sears of MRS. He said the pile at its highest point was 1,075 feet and has dropped more than 100 feet since work began in November 2001.
The coal finds are being used for steam generation, for burning in boilers and can be included in cement, and as much of the useable material will be taken from the pile for re-use, the site itself already has begun to take a much different shape.
Some areas of the pile already have been seeded, and grass is growing on several portions of the pile, according to project superintendent Andy Brozik. The areas have been terraced, and the grass has been planted to control runoff and slippage to avoid further contamination of Ten Mile Creek, which has long felt the effects of runoff from the pile.
The slopes on the edges of the pile have been changed, he said, to better control runoff, and other controls have been added to the side of the pile nearest the creek to prevent anything other than water from flowing in it.
Brozik said a DEP inspector visits regularly to ensure that all regulations are met, and he credited DEP for helping move the project forward.
“This project would have never happened in West Virginia, because they don’t look beyond the box,” Brozik said.
Mike Terretti, district mining manager for DEP’s Greensburg office, said the board travels to gob piles like Mather throughout the state to give the people a clear idea of what problems the department is facing.
DEP has spent $1.7 million in Growing Greener funds to date on the project, and if the second phase is funded, it will have spent $5.1 million to reclaim the site. Terretti said the total cost is much lower than the $10 million pricetag given to DEP more than a decade ago when it looked at Mather.
“This pile could never have been reclaimed without the Growing Greener grant program,” he said. “It would have eventually been done, but it would have cost the department millions more.”
Terretti said the group visited the Mathies Mine and the Clyde Mine, both in Washington County, before coming to Mather. At Mathies, water began filling the mine six months after it was abandoned last year, and water from the mine mouth is being treated.
At Clyde, LTV is still funding treatment of mine discharges while the company goes through bankruptcy proceedings. Terretti said once a bankruptcy judge approves a settlement, the DEP will take its portion and set up a trust fund to continue paying for treatment there.
After the board’s visit to Mather, they were scheduled to visit the Shannopin Mine later in the day. Water is continuing to fill the abandoned Monongahela Township mine and could break through by the end of 2004 in Bobtown, right into Dunkard Creek.
Terretti said the visitors would look at where water may begin to emerge and the proposed site of a treatment plant that would clean the mine discharge water for use at a proposed power plant in West Virginia
Dana Mining Co., which is mining in southeastern Greene County, is in jeopardy of losing its mineable coal reserves because the mine pool is continuing to rise.
He said the plant would cost $800,000 to construct and would take about $1.5 million annually to treat the mine discharge, and DEP is working with the mining company to finalize the arrangements.
Joe Schueck of DEP said work is still ongoing to develop the project, but he said both sides are very close to working out some agreement.
“We still need some I’s dotted and some T’s crossed, but we think everything is falling into place,” he said. “Every day that mining company is getting closer to laying off its people.”
Schueck said along with employing 200 people, the company pays more than $500,000 in property taxes to Greene County annually. A subsidiary of Dana Mining would help build and operate the treatment plant, he said.