Source: http://triblive.com, January 7, 2015
By: Jacob Tierney

Orange and green hues from manganese that have tainted drinking water in the Beaver Run Reservoir will be erased as a result of a proposed project to clean up a long-abandoned coal mine in Salem.

The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County project is expected to start in June. Trees would be removed on about 24 acres near the reservoir, which is about a mile west of Slickville.

Once that work is completed, coal, shale and waste rock — known as “gob piles” — will be taken away from the mine that’s been abandoned since the 1930s.

The nearly $200,000 project is expected to take two years to complete.

“It will improve the water quality at Beaver Run, because there won’t be gob piles to silt up the surrounding streams and continue to contaminate chemically,” municipal authority spokesman Matthew Junker said.

The Beaver Run Reservoir provides water for about 40,000 homes in Penn Township, Jeannette, North Irwin and other communities.

Residents in Penn Township complained of contaminated water in September. Heavier-than-usual rain last year washed manganese — an element often found with iron and other metals — into the reservoir. Experts say low levels of manganese do not pose a health risk, but the element discolors water and makes it unappealing when it flows out of taps.

The authority noted the manganese contamination in a mine cleanup proposal it submitted in November to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Penn Township resident Jennie Nicassio, who has had water problems at her home during the past year, said her water has been more clear lately, but she thinks the discoloration is bound to return.

“It’s not constant. It will go for a couple weeks or six weeks, then all of a sudden, it’s discolored again,” she said.

Nicassio said she supports any project that can improve the situation, but she worries that the cleanup efforts might make more of a mess in the reservoir in the short term.

“If it helps, I’m all for it,” she said. “My concern is while they’re cleaning it out, if that’s going to make the water worse.”

Junker said the work site will be lined with fencing, and other measures will be taken to prevent residue from the cleanup from getting into the reservoir.

About 323,000 board feet of trees will be taken down in the first phase of the project. After that, Smithfield mining operator David Patterson will remove an estimated $32,000 worth of coal — about 16,000 tons — from near the surface of the site, according to paperwork filed with the DEP.

Proceeds from sale of the coal will be split between Patterson and the municipal authority, Junker said.

Patterson will remove the gob piles that were dumped on the site when it was an active mine owned by Irwin Gas and Coal Co.

“This is his business. He finds gob piles and determines whether it would be economical to take them out, then he makes proposals to do so,” Junker said of Patterson. “He’s worked with the DEP before. The staff is recommending doing it because it would improve water quality at the reservoir.”