DEP crew restores Pike Run in Daisytown
Mike Jones/Observer-Reporter
Water discharges back into Pike Run in Daisytown in this March 27 photo after a sinkhole from an abandoned mine developed below the stream last month. A specialized DEP crew filled in the sinkhole last week and restored the Pike Run’s normal flow.
Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter
Jose Taracido, who is a consultant for PennWest California’s Partners for Fish & Wildlife program, is shown in this 2017 photo at a section of Pike Run he and his team restored in the borough.
Pike Run and the aquatic life that calls it home may have been spared long-term damage from underground mine subsidence that swallowed part of the stream in Daisytown last month.
Heavy rain and other tributaries continued to feed the waterway after the sinkhole developed March 23 under the stream bed near Pike Run Drive and diverted water into the abandoned Vesta No. 4 mine before discharging it back into Pike Run about a half-mile away.
A crew from the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation spent last week making temporary repairs to the stream before filling in the collapse site with concrete Friday to permanently seal off the mine.
Only a small section of Pike Run went dry thanks to nearby tributaries keeping it filled, along with heavy rain adding to the volume of water downstream. That was welcome news to Jose Taracido, who consults for PennWest California’s Partners for Fish & Wildlife program that helped to rehabilitate the stream several years ago.
“As bad as it was, it could’ve been worse is what I’m assuming,” he said Monday. “If it happened in the dry season, it really could’ve been a disaster. That could’ve dried out the whole way down. For it to happen when it did, it was a little bit of a miracle.”
He visited Daisytown last week to see the sinkhole for himself and was relieved to learn only a small portion of the stream had run dry. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission had recently stocked the stream with trout, but Taracido was more concerned about other native fish such as minnows, darters and chubs that could’ve been permanently lost from the waterway had other areas of Pike Run been adversely affected.
“That would’ve been, to me, more of a setback,” Taracido said. “They can always come back and stock (trout) again, which they will this year. But when you lose the native stuff that’s there all the time, that would’ve been a real setback.”
Other areas of Pike Run, including the section his group restored in California Borough near where the stream leads into the Monongahela River, also appeared to still be in relatively good shape.
“Everything was working fine. I was a little surprised,” Taracido said. “When I drove down there to check it out, I was worried I would see a disaster. But there was nothing I would say that was cause for concern.”
The water that flowed in the abandoned mine traveled underground and discharged back into Pike Run nearly a half-mile away. A section of Pike Run Drive in Daisytown will remain closed through at least the rest of this week while the state Department of Transportation repairs the roadway that had been flooded from the discharging water.
A specialized DEP crew based in Cambria County traveled to Daisytown last week to complete the stream restoration. The workers initially dropped gravel into the mine collapse site, and later used concrete jersey barriers and sandbags to keep the stream’s water from rushing into the hole. That temporary fix allowed the workers to fill the sinkhole with concrete for the permanent repair.
DEP spokesperson Lauren Camarda confirmed Monday that emergency repairs have been completed and the stream is flowing normally again. Some minor restoration work, such as fixing ruts in the bed and replanting grass damaged by heavy equipment, will be done later.
“Mine subsidence events are unpredictable, but DEP has not observed any conditions that would indicate any widespread subsidence concerns in this area or that there will be additional subsidence related to this incident,” Camarda said.
Still, West Pike Run officials requested that DEP representatives attend an upcoming township supervisors meeting to answer questions from concerned residents about the situation and the state’s Mine Subsidence Insurance program, Camarda said. A date for DEP officials to attend a township meeting has not yet been scheduled.
Camarda said the DEP is encouraging nearby homeowners who are concerned about mine subsidence to go online to www.dep.pa.gov/msi to see if their property may have been undermined and learn about mine subsidence insurance policies.