101 South Main Street, Ashley, PA 18706 Ph: 570 823.3445 Fax: 570 823.8270

Concrete City Silt Pond

The Concrete City Silt Pond Reclamation Project area is a 36-acre, mine-scarred site located on the border of the City of Nanticoke and Hanover Township, Luzerne County, PA, near an existing, suburban neighborhood. The historical use of the site was as a repository for coal mine waste material. During the peak of mining in the region, little thought was given to the potential damage piles of culm and silt ponds might have on the environment, economy, health of residents and aesthetic appeal to the surrounding community. The project area is located within a mile of Luzerne County Community College along a local roadway near existing residential and commercial structures.

Earth Conservancy has received a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields Cleanup Grant to help reclaim Concrete City Silt Pond and make the site available for residential/recreational development, while also eliminating an environmentally degraded site. The reclamation project will address several issues, including: the environmental health issues relating to groundwater impacts, surface runoff and dumping of garbage; the safety issue of abandoned mine sites; and, the social and economic factors.

The Concrete City Silt Pond site contains remnants of a very large coal silt pond. The coal silt pond was formerly used as an impoundment area where a water suspension of fine particulate coal material was deposited. The coal was allowed to settle out with the water being drained from the top of the pond, leaving the fine coal silt deposits behind. The original silt pond area now consists of a body of water whose level fluctuates depending on the amount of precipitation occurring within the tributary watershed.

There are also several areas of exposed culm and coal silt deposits outside of the pond areas. There is evidence that, in past periods of significant precipitation, the water level in the ponds has increased sufficiently to result in periodic surface water discharges through the existing drainage systems to the northwest of the site.

Because of the exposed culm and coal silts, this site contributes to the area’s AMD problem impacting the Nanticoke Creek Watershed. Each time it rains, AMD is carried off the site from the silt pond and small culm banks and into the streams, creeks and storm water system that are part of the watershed.

Currently:

§ EC has developed a plan for reclamation and reutilization, which has been approved by the EPA. The Alternatives of Brownfields Cleanup Analysis report was submitted to EPA for approval and made available to the public for comment, which has now closed. You can read the report by clicking here.

§ After the public comment period, EC submitted its decision for reclamation to the EPA.

§ Necessary permits are being prepared to begin reclamation.

Concrete City Silt Pond pre-reclamation