Mar 27, 2005 By Angie Santello 5 min read

An assessment of the pollution in Redstone Creek has led members of the Greater Redstone Clearwater Initiative (GRCI) to target the Phillips abandoned mine discharge as their number one priority to clean. “The assessment gives us a roadmap, identifies what is wrong and provides us with a remediation plan,” GRCI President John Piwowar said.

It’s been four years since GRCI contracted Skelly and Loy Inc., an environmental engineering and consulting firm, to perform the study called the “Watershed Assessment and Restoration Plan for the Greater Redstone Watershed,” and GRCI members are glad that the study is complete. It means better chances to receive funding.

As part of the study, which was funded by a $66,203 grant from the state Growing Greener program, the GRCI has methodically documented major pollution sources that negatively impact the 300 miles of streams within the Greater Redstone watershed. The watershed covers approximately 127 square miles mostly in Fayette County, including 14 municipalities, Redstone Creek, Little Redstone Creek and Downers Run.

CEC Inc., an environmental consulting group headquartered in Pittsburgh contracted by the GRCI through a $137,000 grant, is designing and permitting a treatment system that could clear the Redstone Creek of the discharge coming from a network of abandoned mines.

Piwowar said early estimates revealed a cost of $3 to $6 million to construct the project, but Piwowar said GRCI is optimistic about funding possibilities.

The iron oxide-laden water gushes over an embankment spreading a stain of rust-colored orange into Redstone Creek near the village of Phillips off Route 51 in North Union Township.

“If we clean up Rankin Run and Phillips, we would have removed 85 percent of the iron oxide in the water,” Piwowar said. Redstone Creek originates in Hopwood and flows into the Monongahela River. Clearing discharges from Rankin Run running through West Leisenring is priority number two, while clearing discharge from Bute Run flowing through Bitner is priority number three for the GRCI.

The end result of CEC’s work will be a package to put the project out to bid, which could happen in the summer.

GRCI is preparing to approach landowners to acquire land near the village of Phillips for the treatment system, and looking at different funding options for construction of the system.

California University of Pennsylvania Professor John P. Nass and a team of archaeology students recently found Native American arrowheads determined to be 6,000 years old at the site of the Phillips discharge. The professor and students were surveying the area to see if anything of interest existed before the land was disrupted in preparation for the treatment system.

Piwowar said years ago, after mining the area of Phillips located off Route 51 in North Union Township, the miners left the area and left “us with a mess.” He previously said the mine drainage has flowed into Redstone Creek from a network of mines since 1965.

The water running through the underground mine network is coming in contact with coal and slate, a process that makes the iron oxide that pollutes the creek.

A passive treatment system supplemented by an active system will pump 440 to 1,500 pounds of iron oxide out of the water per day.

“And that’s dry powder,” Piwowar said.

The system will filter the iron oxide out of the water and return clear water to the creek.

The system will have to continually run since the flow of abandoned mine discharge into the creek is never ending. The water table adds to the flow entering the stream.

Piwowar explained that as the water from the ground travels through the underground network of mines, it comes into contact with the coal and slate that creates iron oxide, the pollutant that stains the creek embankment, foliage and water.

Abandoned mine discharge – 4,500 to 6,000 gallons – pours into the creek every minute, Piwowar said

If and when the treatment system is constructed, someone will have to be hired to remove the sludge from the system, making for an icky, daily chore for the one chosen.

“It’s a huge job,” Piwowar said. “Removing 1,000 tons of gooey sludge and disposing of it.”

And costs to operate will increase with an active system, which was originally not planned until it was determined that not enough land was available to accommodate just a passive treatment system. GRCI hopes to offset those costs with a new method that retrieves the iron oxide out of the water. Iron oxide has recently been deemed marketable to make products such as paint and cosmetics.

As the efforts continue to clear the creek, GRCI members have been educating the public, including presenting students with information on the precious resource of water and disseminating information at important public events.

Brian Chalfant, who began his full-time volunteer status with the GRCI in June, said oftentimes members of the general public see cleaning up the creek as a nearly impossible chore and accepts the polluted creek as it is.

Although, Chalfant said, there are those few out there who choose to combat the ongoing problem. Piwowar added to that by saying he has seen an increase in the number of people interested in cleanup efforts, although the organization still needs donations and volunteers, specifically to clean illegal dumpsites.

Donations to the non-profit GRCI can be sent to P.O. Box 632, Uniontown, PA, 15401. For further information, visit the organization’s Web site at www.grci.org

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