Environmental groups reissue right-to-know request to state
By Elizabeth Witte For the Herald-Standard
WIND RIDGE – Three locally based environmental groups have reissued their right-to-know request to the state in an attempt to make public the findings of a $1.2 million study into the causes of damage to the dam at Ryerson Station State Park.
The groups – the Center for Coalfield Justice, Citizens Coal Council and Mountain Watershed Association – announced their renewed request for the release of the study less than three weeks after the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources filed a lawsuit against Consol Energy, Inc.
The lawsuit, filed Jan. 31 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, seeks more than $58 million from the company for its alleged role in the failure of the dam at Duke Lake in Ryerson.
The suit seeks $38 million for the replacement of the dam and the restoration of the lake, as well as approximately $20 million for the estimated damages to natural resources.
The suit followed months of legal negotiations between the state and Consol after the DCNR filed a notice in January of 2007 of its intention to sue the company over the damage to the lake and the dam.
The three environmental groups contend that the results of the study directly led the state to sue Consol and filed a right-to-know request last year for the study’s release.
The request was denied, the groups said, with the DCNR maintaining that the study’s results should be kept private while legal negotiations continued.
With the lawsuit officially filed, the groups now argue that no reason should prevent the study from being released.
“Arguments in the lawsuit are clearly based on the study,” said Phil Coleman, the interim executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice. “It can no longer be kept secret, and the citizens of Greene County need to know what it says. We are sure that the study will demonstrate not only what went wrong at Duke Lake, but also what is wrong with the way Pennsylvania is permitting longwall mines.”
The groups sent their second request to an official with the DCNR who handles right-to-know requests, Coleman said, and requests “four completed reports compiled by Gannet Flemming,” according to the request.
A spokeswoman for the DCNR had no comment Wednesday on the reissued right-to-know request.
In the state’s lawsuit, DCNR alleges “Consol had a duty to the public, and the commonwealth, to safely perform its mining operations, taking every reasonable precaution, or not do it at all.”
“The unstable nature of the dam posed a safety threat to those individuals living downstream of the dam,” the suit continues.
The dam at Duke Lake was drained during the summer of 2005 after state inspections by the DCNR and the Department of Environmental Protection discovered cracks in the concrete of the dam and water seepage, and the lake has remained dry since.
With the draining of the lake, the lawsuit alleges, local recreational activities and the environment were irreparably damaged.
Just three months ago, the state announced it would rebuild the dam and restore the lake, but those plans may be impacted while the lawsuit progresses.