The Department of Environmental Protection has selected P&N Coal Company Inc. of Punxsutawney for a mine reclamation project in Winslow Township, Jefferson County.
The project will help eliminate safety hazards, promote positive drainage and contribute to the improved use of the property for wildlife.
“We continue to reclaim abandoned mine sites in Pennsylvania,” says Roger Bowman, section chief from the Knox office of the DEP. “This is another example of cleaning up old mines and restoring the natural habitat.”
The project will include the incidental removal of coal and the reclamation of 35 acres of abandoned deep mine and subsidence areas. The reclamation work will occur within the Redbank Creek sub-basin, and will eliminate safety hazards, promote positive drainage to Fehley Run and contribute to the improved use of the property for wildlife habitat.
Located on the north side of state Route 1002, near the community of Rathmel, the project area is part of an abandoned deep mine from the 1920’s on the Lower Freeport coal seam. The project will take 36 months to complete and is estimated to cost $193,700.
The Federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) approved an amendment to Pennsylvania’s Abandoned Mine Landfill Plan on March 26, 1999, to authorize the Department to enter into GFCC, to remove incidental and necessary coal on reclamation contracts that are less than 50 percent federally funded as a means of enhancing the environment and aesthetic values of the Commonwealth.
For more information, visit www.dep.pa.gov.