Jun 25, 2015 4 min read

RYERSON STATION – A generation of kids who never experienced Duke Lake will be going there with their parents and grandparents this weekend with a renewed hope the lake might soon be restored.

Coalfield Justice’s ninth annual Dryerson Festival will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Ryerson Station State Park to honor and advocate for Duke Lake’s return.

In 2005, Duke Lake, a 62-acre lake in the heart of the state park, was drained when dangerous cracks formed in the dam in what state environmental officials blamed on nearby longwall coal mining.

The ensuing fish kill and loss of a destination left a mark on the area. The following year, the Dryerson Festival was born when the Center for Coalfield Justice joined with residents and friends of the park to hold a day of remembrance complete with cardboard tombstones and a candlelight vigil.

After a decade of litigation, planning and delays, work began this spring to dredge silt from the now-grassy lakebed and haul it by truck to Mather to reclaim the gob pile there. This massive operation closed the pool and pavilion areas on the other side of the park for the season, so this year’s festival is in the shady grove beside the park office on Bristoria Road. The new festival site offers a view of one of the big feeder streams that flows through the lakebed, and there are trails along the shoreline for hiking.

There is no electricity here, but Coalfield Justice found an eco-friendly solution.

“This will be Greene County’s first solar-powered festival,” CCJ Deputy Director Veronica Coptis said.

When the bluegrass band Smokestack Lightning sets up to play, they will plug their amps and microphones into the solar unit donated for the day by Zero Fossil, a Pittsburgh-based organization dedicated to making solar power widely available to the public.

There will be games, free food, festival T-shirts, raffles of goods donated by local businesses, live music and information aabout the ongoing renovation efforts to restore it and protect its crucial feeder streams.

Jim Winegar of Graysville plans to speak about the subsidence issues he’s experienced first hand and the impact he’s seen on businesses and families in the community.

“When we bought our property, the first place the real estate broker took us to after we’d seen the house was to Ryerson to see the beautiful lake that was just two miles from the property. It was definitely a selling point with us,” Winegar said.

Coptis shook her head while pointing to where the lake once lapped at the edge of the forest.

“It’s sad that a whole generation of kids never had a chance to come here with their parents and fish, paddle and enjoy the lake like I did when I was a kid,” she said. “This lake and this park were some of my best childhood memories. Now we might get the lake back but what about the feeder streams? You can’t have a lake without them.”

The theme for this year’s festival is ‘Our Streams Feed the Lake, Not Yours to Take’ to emphasize the ongoing fight to save the feeder streams from mine subsidence as plans are under way to restore Duke Lake, CCJ Executive Director Patrick Grenter said.

“It would be devastating to have spent years of our time and millions of dollars to restore Duke Lake to turn around and let (mining) take it away again by destroying the streams that feed it, like Polen Run and Kent Run,” Grenter said.

It’s still not known when Duke Lake might be refilled, although the process is under way. The state Department of Environmental Protection determined the damage was caused by subsidence from Consol Energy’s Bailey Mine located near the park, although the company denies being at fault. However, the state and Consol reached an agreement in 2013 that will result in rebuilding the dam.

The DCNR and DEP are currently taking ground measurements to determine if the area around the dam is stable enough to begin construction.

For more information about Saturday’s event, call 724-229-3550 or register online at www.bit.ly/DRY15.