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Consol seeks permit to mine beneath I-79
Saturday, December 16, 2000 By Antoinette Fitch
Consol Energy wants to expand its Eighty Four Mine longwall operations in Washington County by 7,204 acres and undermine another interstate highway.
Consol officials say the company will undermine I-79 near the Lone Pine interchange 4 times by 2007, if a permit revision is approved.
The plans are being reviewed by the state Department of Environmental Protection and will affect Amwell, North and West Bethlehem townships.
The permit revision would increase the area where subsidence is planned to 16,936 acres -- adding to areas already in production in South Strabane. The company subsided Interstate 70 twice there last summer. The state Department of Transportation finished repairs to the highway last month.
It is the fourth Consol acreage expansion in the region reviewed by DEP this year. In the spring, DEP approved an 11,120-acre expansion to the Bailey Mine in Richhill, Aleppo and Gray in Greene County and West Finley in Washington County. That permit allows the company to undermine portions of Ryerson Station State Park. The department also approved a 437-acre expansion in West Finley for the West Virginia-based Shoemaker mine and is reviewing a 9,998-acre expansion to the Enlow Fork Mine, in Morris, and East and West Finley.
DEP is accepting public comment on the Eighty Four Mining Co. permit revision through Feb. 3.
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