The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has awarded a $13.45 million competitively bid contract to Rosebud Mining Co. to remediate and reclaim a 62-acre abandoned mine site in the community of Ehrenfeld in Cambria County. The project strengthens the economic prospects for Ehrenfeld, eliminates hazards to the safety of its citizens, restores the environment, and creates new recreational opportunities for citizens and visitors.
This large-scale project is expected to take three years to complete, but it will help to transform the community. The site is a visual blight on Ehrenfeld and includes a coal refuse pile that towers above the more than 100 nearby homes and buildings. The steep pile poses dangers for riders of all-terrain vehicles on the site. A five-acre portion of the pile is currently burning. In addition, highly acidic runoff and coal fires from the pile have, for many years, been running into the adjacent stream.
Reclamation plans include improved drainage, tree plantings, and the development of a recreational park on a portion of the site, due to its location along the “Path of the Flood Trail,” commemorating the 1889 Johnstown Flood. An extremely important benefit of this project is that the contract awarded to Rosebud Mining enables it to recall 40 recently laid-off miners to complete the reclamation work. [Teplitzky]
