Rosebud announces intent to open coal mine outside Clymer | News

“(The mine) would be about 3,000 feet away from the actual borough,” St. Clair said. “Everything will be contained within Cherry Hill Township, not in the borough itself.”

St. Clair discussed the project during the public participation portion of the borough council meeting Wednesday and answered citizens’ questions. Right now, Rosebud is gathering information and taking water samples to acquire the necessary permits to being mining.

“We are going through the permitting process right now, actually the background, gathering information in the area,” St. Clair said. “We’re taking a look at everything we need to do as far as protecting water resources and also identifying environmental problems that may occur before mining, so that way, as mining progresses, we actually identify those areas and make sure our mining doesn’t impact anything.”

Although the permitting process is underway, the mine won’t likely open for another five to 10 years, St. Clair said.

“Typically, mining permits are a long process,” St. Clair said. “There’s a lot of federal and state agencies that you have to get approval through. … At this point, it’s usually about five years before the act of mining starts taking place.

“Next steps are to continue to gather water samples in the area. Once we have that, we’ll actually do some internal work on our end to take a look at the environmental impact and basically do an environmental assessment. Once that’s done, we’ll actually go and acquire more leases, purchase more coal or the rights to access coal in the area.

“And once that’s done, we’ll gather that all and submit a permit application to the state as a coal mining activity permit. … (Mining could begin) in five to 10 years. It all depends on the market and how things go.”

Rosebud plans on mining the Brookville coal seam, around 400 feet underground, according to St. Clair. He said that area has already been over-mined into Kittanning, which created post-mining discharges due to up-dip mining, but Rosebud plans on doing down-dip mining to mitigate that issue, St. Clair said.

Additionally, Rosebud plans on using the “room and pillar” mining method to reduce the chances of subsidence.

“By using room and pillar mining, we don’t typically have any types of subsidence that occurs to the surface,” St. Clair said. “By providing blocks of coal that (will) remain there for long-term support, it doesn’t give a chance for the ground to subside down into the coal mine workings itself. … Even so, we still go by all the rules and regulations, and we’re responsible for anything that occurs to the surface, regardless of the type of mining we do.”

In other news Wednesday, borough council members made a number of announcements, including:

• Clymer’s annual Sunday in the Park will take place both Saturday and Sunday at Sherman Street Park. The opening event will take place at 5 p.m. Saturday, and the main event will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, according to borough manager Sonya Schrenkel.

“They will have food, music, a kids’ corner, and it’s always free,” Schrenkel said.

• Clymer opened bids Tuesday for street signs and parking meters for streets and roadways throughout the borough. The borough is looking to purchase 372 traffic control signals and installation hardware, 442 street signs and 73 coin-operated parking meters. The bid form can be obtained at the borough office, 470 Adams St., and bidding will remain open until 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 15.

• The borough will increase code enforcement efforts “to improve the appearance of our community,” according to a written statement by borough council. Borough council asked residents to keep their lawns mowed, remove weeds, trim brushes and trees, remove trash and rubbish from property and keep up to date on home maintenance and repairs.