When watching the evening news today, I saw an image of coal barges lined up at the docks at the USS Mon Valley Steel Plant. Of course the news segment was about the White House blocking the sale of USS to Nippon Steel. My mind wandered to to dad's career at the Robena Prep Plant. I didn't think that it was still in operation but I searched for more information. I found that the Robena deep mines closed in 1983, but plant continued to operate until 2017 processing coal from surface mining for Consol Mining. It seems that reclamation of the site began many years before 2017, most likely mandated by local concerns about environmental damage from seepage from the three large slurry ponds and other surface contamination. Dad took me out one Sunday afternoon to inspect the dikes and berms around the ponds. We had to hop into one of the big company trucks to traverse the dirt roads around the site.
I read a couple of articles about the ongoing litigation to keep Consol on track to complete the gargantuan reclamation project. One thing that stood out is that Consol will continue to pump contaminated ground water from inside the extensive deep mines and operate a water treatment plant in perpetuity. Bonds have been established so this remediation could continue. Right now they are permitted to pump the "treated" water into four small streams that eventually drain into the Monongahela river. The price of progress, right?
I found this brochure from the State of PA and Greene County with a focus on explaining the history of the site, the cleanup, and the value to a new industry to purchase and repurpose the site. I read some of the first pages to revisit the history and get an overview of progress. I skimmed the rest and learned more.
Comments
In Corbin I remember them building those big holding ponds to keep the 100 year flood out of Lynn Camp Creek. That's when they bought that Mac truck that is in the picture. I've been around those ponds a few times.
Arch Mineral bought the Lynch District from US Steel in the early 80's but I think the whole thing was done in a few years by the late 80's, mines closed and plant shutdown.