News

Water gushing from an abandoned coal mine in McDonald will not subside for at least 12 days and could take as long as three weeks to drain, authorities said Wednesday.

U.S. Office of Surface Mining officials planned to enlarge the mine's hole and pump the water out through pipes or hoses into the nearby Robinson Run stream, a tributary of Chartiers Creek, before temperatures dipped to freezing last night.

State Department of Environmental Protection geologists estimated the mine could stretch anywhere from 700 to 1,350 acres and will send between 150 million to 300 million gallons of slightly acidic water into the small Washington County town.

"Most mines are free-draining, but something happened that caused this to build up," DEP program manager Scott Horrell said. "It's not uncommon for a part of the mine to subside and block where the water gets out. It is unusual for this to happen in the middle of towns."

Water began gushing Tuesday afternoon from the old Nickle Plate Mine -- closed since 1936 -- when a contractor dug to investigate what he thought was a leaky water line. The worker apparently punctured the flooded mine roof 3 feet beneath the ground's surface, causing water to explode out at the rate of 10,000 gallons per minute on Liberty Street. The flow had slowed to around 5,000 gallons per minute yesterday, Horrell said.

Water flooded the first floor of a senior citizens' apartment building across the street from the hole before 170 firefighters worked until late Tuesday night to put out 3,000 sandbags to redirect the water into the street.

The burst also forced the evacuation of three homes.

Officials fretted yesterday over a forecast that called for subfreezing temperatures for early today, because the water was flowing past a building that houses police and fire vehicles, said Doug Cooper, McDonald's assistant fire chief and emergency management coordinator.

"It's going down to 11 degrees tonight, so if there's just a sheet of ice in front of the fire station, we can't get out," Cooper said.

Steve Rathbun, project manager for the Office of Surface Mining, said the agency hopes to contain the leak in pipes or hoses. The DEP will then study the cause of the mine blowout and try to come up with a long-term remedy, such as boring holes to allow excess water to drain in unpopulated areas, Horrell said. That could take as long as four months, he said.

Mine blowouts in the Pittsburgh coal seam -- stretching across the southwestern corner of the state -- are common, although they usually don't affect populated areas, officials and experts say.

"You get these mines filling up with water, and eventually they find a place to overflow," said Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of West Virginia University's Water Resources Institute, which is studying water collecting in underground mines in Southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia.

The extensive undermining has left a significant void for water to fill, experts say.

Bruce Leavitt, a hydrogeologist working as a private consultant for the WVU study, said most mine pools are below stream level and don't pose a public safety risk.

Because water in lower mines usually discharges, the kind of pressure build-up that causes a catastrophic release like the one in McDonald is rare, he said.

More than 1 million homes in Pennsylvania sit atop abandoned coal mines, and most property owners lack mine subsidence insurance, according to the DEP. The scare in McDonald sent several residents scrambling to the borough building to buy coverage offered through the DEP.

"I live about 100 yards downhill from where it's coming out," said Mark Lindner, 48, of McDonald. "According to the map, I'm right on the border of a mine. I don't want to take any chances."

Residents of two of the three evacuated homes were allowed to return yesterday afternoon after DEP officials inspected their houses for damage.

Only Angel Turner, 39, whose house is closest to the gushing point, could not go home.

"I didn't know I was right above a mine," she said. "I looked out the door (Tuesday) and there was a river. They told me my house is probably not in any danger, but I don't care about the house as long as everyone is safe."

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News