Mar 26, 2015 3 min read

A Pittsburgh-based coal company unsuccessfully appealed a determination by the state Department of Environmental Protection that compelled it to treat post-mining discharge at a reclaimed site in Robinson Township.

Robinson Coal Co. is still required to treat discharge at the former Putt Mine, according to an Environmental Hearing Board order last week. The board dismissed the company’s appeal and said the treatment system must be maintained in order to remove excess iron from the discharge.

“Treatment of this discharge is still necessary and will remain necessary until the discharge meets the applicable effluent limitations for such post-mining discharge without further treatment,” Judge Richard P. Mather Sr. wrote in the order.

Robinson Coal Co. argued discharge treatment was no longer needed and the treatment system and monitoring requirements should be discontinued, according to board documents. Jeffrey T. Olup, a Charleroi attorney representing the company, could not be reached for comment.

The board said the DEP’s position is “equally extreme” in its assertion treatment of the Putt Mine discharge will always be necessary because no means exist to measure whether water entering the drain is within allowable limits. The board argued that was “unreasonable and an abuse of discretion.”

Robinson Coal operated the Putt surface mine from 1985 to 1989, and it was reclaimed two years after it closed, according to board documents. A DEP hydrogeologist determined in 1994 that the company’s operations at Putt Mine turned the discharge acidic.

The company entered a consent order with the DEP later that year and agreed to upgrade its temporary water treatment system, consider different methods for treating the discharge and submit permanent treatment plans. In 1995, the company constructed a treatment system to convert acidic groundwater into alkaline water once it enters a drain, which ultimately discharges to the north branch of Robinson Run through a culvert.

A treatment trust consent order was issued in 2002, which again held the company responsible for treating the mine discharge until it was no longer necessary. According to the trust, the DEP and the company are required to hold annual meetings to discuss sampling results and status of the treatment system. The DEP did not schedule any meetings until 2010 and 2011, in response to the company taking “various steps to try to terminate its obligation to treat the Putt Mine discharge,” board records indicate.

Records also indicated the company “undertook substantial mining and remedial activity” to help remedy the mine drainage from 1995 to 2000.

The DEP issued another order in November 2010, indicating the company failed to submit quarterly water monitoring reports. The board determined the water quality of the mine drainage improved over the years, but still consistently exceeds the allowable limits for iron.