July 16, 1999
Tribune-Review
Group seeks Redstone Creek cleanup
By Joe Abramowitz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
An effort was launched Thursday to establish a group to clean up the Redstone Creek watershed.
About 30 state and local officials, environmentalists and residents met for nearly two hours yesterday at the Fayette County Health Center on New Salem Road in South Union Township.
Redstone Creek and its drainage area covers all or parts of the townships of Brownsville, Dunbar, Franklin, Jefferson, Menallen, North Union, Redstone, South Union and Washington.
The creek is badly polluted by mine drainage, sewage and, to a lesser degree, aluminum.
Yesterday's meeting was hosted by Rita Coleman, watershed coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Protection's Pittsburgh office.
Coleman was aided by Mark Killar of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation office in Greensburg and by Richard Beam of the DEP's Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation office in Ebensburg.
Interest in the project was strong, and 15 people volunteered to serve on a committee that will oversee water quality tests to be conducted later this summer in tributaries that flow into Redstone Creek.
Coleman said the Department of Environmental Protection will train the volunteers and will test the samples.
The participants stopped short of committing to the formation of an organized watershed organization.
Franklin Township Supervisor George Bozek said the effort should be directed to large-scale pollution problems, such as a massive mine drainage source in the area of Phillips, just north of Uniontown.
"Frick chose to pipe right into the creek," Bozek said of the mining company established by H.C. Frick.
Bozek also predicted that testing would reveal sewage to be the largest pollutant in the Redstone Creek watershed.
"It is the whole U.S. Steel (mining) system, which had an underground system," said Fayette County Register of Wills Donald Redman, who served as a Jefferson Township supervisor for 28 years.
"It all comes out at Phillips. I'm sure there are other places, but the magnitude of (the Phillips) situation is beyond comprehension."
"We've been talking about this for 17 years," said state Sen. Richard Kasunic, a Dunbar Township Democrat. "The answer from all the state agencies has always been that there's not enough money in the whole world to clean up that Phillips site.
"What is the cost?"
Dr. Robert Heddon, a mine drainage expert, estimated the cost at about $2 million and said between 40 and 50 acres would be needed to develop ponds and wetlands to capture the pollutants.
"The key is is it is treatable," Killar said of the iron deposits. "If it was acid, there would be no hope unless you built large chemical treatment plants."
Much of the Redstone Creek bed is either orange or red in color, which is evidence of iron deposits.
Killar noted that while a cleanup would be a major undertaking, the weight of the task would be lightened because the Redstone mine drainage deposits contain iron rather than acid.
"Iron is easier to treat," Killar said. "Not only could you clean up the iron problem ... you could take it out and maybe use it."
Killar said such iron deposits sometimes can be sold or otherwise recycled. And since iron is a naturally occurring element, the deposits could be buried.
Kasunic suggested setting goals that can be achieved.
"The focus of this group should be to set a primary target of cleaning up Phillips," Kasunic said. "If you see that goal can be reached, then you can take a look at other goals, such as sewage."
"We are looking for a grass-roots effort," Coleman said. "DEP likes to get this started and then back away.
"We want to get some background information on the stream and let people know that they have a watershed in their back yard."
Beam said a local group with a strongly vested interest in the Redstone Creek watershed could handle much of the legwork in the effort to test the stream and to rid the waterway of pollutants.
Killar said the time is ripe to undertake a cleanup project since both state and federal funds are available to mitigate pollution.
Coleman said watershed organizations that show initiative and successfully complete the projects they undertake can expand their scope by leveraging state and federal dollars with grants from the private sector.
"We should go to U.S. Steel and all of the coal companies that are still in existence and say 'Help'," Redman said.
"All of the coal companies, for a hundred years; their sins are buried along that creek."
