A standing-room-only crowd attended Monday night's Pleasant Hills council meeting to get the dirt on mine subsidence from representatives of various agencies and companies that are working to help residents of Toura and Tel Star drives who remain in the cold because of mine subsidence.

But there will be no quick fix for the 10 homeowners who have been without natural gas service since Jan. 20, when ground shifted in their neighborhood and damaged a gas line. Seven homes in Pleasant Hills were damaged by subsidence.

"But there's no evidence of mine subsidence in my home," said Debbie Tobias of 210 Toura Drive, who asked why her gas service couldn't be restored.

"It's ridiculous that we can't have our gas turned on," said Mike Harding of 200 Toura Drive.

But Dave Spiegelmeyer, a director of External Affairs with the Equitable Gas Company, explained that Tobias' house was located in the center of the subsidence activity and that "it was much too dangerous to restore service."

He said service for all 10 homes would not be restored "until safety is assured" and no further shifting occurs.

Although the representatives did their best to provide reassurance that appropriate action was being taken, many residents remain troubled by the uncertainties surrounding any subsidence.

"We feel that the event is over, but whether it will spread or not we don't know," said Gil Mihalich, a subsidence investigator with the Department of Environmental Resources.

Coastal Drilling of Morgantown, W.Va., has begun drilling holes on a section of Old Clairton Road where subsidence occurred last fall. Concrete Pumping Inc., of Crafton, is working on a section of Toura Drive as part of the $1 million remediation effort by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining that could take as long as three months.

Fly ash in a slurry cement mixture will be pumped into the holes to stabilize the underground area, creating a solid pillar like the coal had done. Citing health concerns about fly ash, residents asked that the material be trucked to the sites rather than mixed at a location in the borough.

"There is typically a good success rate in eliminating further subsidence in remediation work," said Dan Pollock, a project manager with the Office of Surface Mining.

Officials once again urged residents to obtain mine subsidence insurance, an inexpensive insurance sold by the state and some insurance agencies.