EPA plans to join Superfund training
PITTSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will participate in a five-day training exercise starting Monday in the Susquehanna River adjacent to Pittston to test the emergency response system for the Butler Mine Tunnel Superfund site, officials said.
During the exercise, contractors and local emergency responders will use two large work boats, a small barge and several hundred feet of orange containment boom. Portions of Riverfront Park will not be accessible for public use during the five-day exercise.
The Butler Mine Tunnel, built in the 1930s as a collection and discharge point for mine drainage from a 5-square-mile area of underground coal mines, was placed on EPA's Superfund list in 1987 after incidents in 1979 and 1985, when an oily discharge from the tunnel flowed into the Susquehanna River near Pittston.