EPA conducting drill at Butler Mine Tunnel
Agency aims to prevent oil flush-out
PITTSTON - The boats bobbing in the river near the stone bridge this week aren't there to catch fish. They're deploying an oil-catching system.
As part of an annual training exercise, the Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing the drill this week on the banks of the Susquehanna River intended to prevent an oil flush-out from the adjacent, underground mine shafts.
The exercise will occur where the Butler Mine Tunnel, built in the 1930s to drain the mines, empties into the river, just north of the stone bridge that connects West Pittston to Pittston. The discharge spot was responsible for two large oil dumps into the Susquehanna in the past four decades, EPA project manager Mitch Cron said.
In the 1970s, the owner of an auto service station on Route 315 in Pittston, which sat above a mine, allowed a variety of industrial companies to dump oil waste into a bore hole on the property, Mr. Cron said. The oil then settled into the mine shafts.
But not for long. The illegal dumping led to hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil pouring into the Susquehanna River in 1979 and 1985 when large storms caused flooding, which flushed out the mine shafts.
The EPA estimates 50,000 to 90,000 gallons of oil still sit in the mine shafts somewhere under Route 315 in Pittston, though the agency has been unable to locate any large pockets and the flooding in 2011 failed to flush out more oil, Mr. Cron said.
A group that includes local contractors and emergency responders deploys the full oil-containment system every three years. As part of a legal settlement, the companies responsible for the oil flush-outs provide funds for the exercise and the system.
In the event of a flush-out, recovery booms catch the floating oil and direct it to the banks of the river, where skimmers remove it from the water.
Mr. Cron said the EPA is "very confident" the system will do its job in the event of another flush-out.
"If we do have an oil discharge in the future, we'll respond and we'll be ready," he said.
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