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Tuesday, December 24, 2002

By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Eugene Hudock is known as "Gene" to family and friends and as "The Poinsettia King of Western Pennsylvania" to the thousands of people who make the trek each year to Hothouse Floral for their holiday flowers.

	Brandon Hudock steps around a puddle he says is there as a result of subsidence from mining underneath his family's greenhouses in Eighty Four, Washington County. His family, which produces more than 30,000 poinsettias annually, is trying to get a settlement from a coal company involved in the mining. (John Beale, Post-Gazette)

But all is not well on the rolling rural hills of Hudock's plant kingdom outside Eighty Four in Washington County.

Longwall coal mining beneath Hudock's land has caused the surface to drop 1 to 4 feet. The subsidence has ruined water wells, caused surface water to form pools and created insect infestations, fungus and mold growth.

Inside the army barracks-style, plastic-sheathed greenhouses, walls are bowed, walkways are blocked by temporary supports and an overhead conveyor system used to move flats of plants doesn't work.

It's not that the damage can't be fixed, but Hudock and Consol, the company that owns the coal mine, haven't been able to agree on compensation for the subsidence problems, which occurred in 1997 and 1998.

The dispute not only has delayed repairs but blocked plans for upgrading and expanding the facilities at the business, which had gross sales of about $850,000 last year.

"We were assured when the mining took place that we would have our claims resolved and be able to rebuild our business, but things have just gotten worse," said Brandon Hudock, 27, Gene's son and horticultural heir.

"The state mining law doesn't recognize business intangibles -- things like loss of profit, loss of productivity -- when compensating businesses hurt by subsidence from longwall mining."

The Hudocks are seeking between $2 million and $4 million to rebuild the greenhouses and the retail building.

Thomas Hoffman, a Consol spokesman, said the company, based on an estimate by the state Department of Environmental Protection, has a standing offer of $450,000 to settle the Hudocks' claim.

Consol bought the Eighty Four Mine from R&P Mining Co. in 1998. R&P already had extracted coal from under the greenhouses on the southern side of Route 136 in 1997. Consol then undermined the northern part of the property later that year.

"Consol has shown a willingness to agree to settle this, but the property owner's estimate is so far away from where we are that there's no basis to make any progress with negotiations," Hoffman said. "We don't want any damage case to drag on, and this is no different. That we haven't been able to reach an agreement is not from a lack of effort or predisposition to do so on our part."

But Kenneth Komoroski, the attorney hired by the Hudocks this summer, said Consol has been using the DEP estimate to stonewall his clients and the DEP has done little to help.

"I recommended to my clients that they not litigate. I wanted to see if the system would work, to see if the DEP and Consol would stand up and make Hothouse Floral whole again," Komoroski said. "I told Consol the Hudocks wanted to rebuild their business, but they wouldn't give an estimate or get a contractor to do the rebuilding like they do on residential damage cases."

Komoroski contacted the DEP in September and, at the suggestion of William Plassio, head of DEP's district mining office in McMurray, sent new repair and replacement estimates from a contractor.

But Plassio, in a letter dated Dec. 6, reversed field and said the DEP would stand by its original estimate made in June 2001. He said the Hudocks had failed to file a claim for damages to the southern property within two years as the law requires and said Consol should not be held liable for repairing the hothouses to meet prevailing building codes, because the buildings did not meet those codes when originally constructed.

"This letter by Plassio sets a serious precedent for all businesses and possibly residential structures on the building code issue," Komoroski said. The law "doesn't say either way what the replacement specifications should be, but it makes a huge difference."

Komoroski has asked the DEP to withdraw the letter and will meet with Plassio Friday.

Ed Mytiski, DEP mining subsidence agent in McMurray, said the building code compliance issue is a big reason why the repair estimates generated by the DEP and the Hudocks are different.

"The main issue here is what is the true cost to repair the structures and who should pay for bringing them up to code," Mytiski said.

Hothouse Floral's profits, growing at a healthy 18 percent a year before the subsidence, have withered to the point that this year for the first time, its ledger books will be written with ink as red as its signature flowers.

The 25-year-old business, which sits on 22 acres, has more than 100 varieties of poinsettias and sells nearly 35,000 of the plants per year.

Annual sales have only dropped from $850,000 before the mining to about $800,000 last year, but expenses are up because of subsidence-related problems, Hudock said.

Despite a trench dug by Consol to channel surface water runoff away from the greenhouses, employees wear plastic bags inside their boots to keep their feet dry as they wade through standing water. And last Easter, a flood inside the greenhouses damaged dozens of flower orders for churches in the area.

Natural gas lines -- needed to run greenhouse heaters -- have been dug up and now hang 10 feet above ground on shaky wooden posts.

"There are holes in the walls and some doors don't close," Hudock said. "Our gas bills are five times what they were before the mining because what we're doing is basically heating the outdoors."

Hudock said his father is a fantastic grower but put too much faith in the system.

"My dad built these greenhouses one at a time and built up the business over time," Hudock said. "But he's the kind of guy who does everything on a handshake. Now we just want our lives back to the point that we will be able to support ourselves in this business like we did before."