Lackawanna River Corridor Association

Abandoned Mine Land (AML) in the Lackawanna River Watershed



Lackawanna River Corridor Association
2006 N. Main Ave.
Scranton PA 18501-0368
Phone: (570) 207-7608
Fax: (570) 207-7590
Email: lrca@epix.net

Last Update: 01/12/2003

Copyright © 2003
Lackawanna River Corridor Association

   

Abandoned mine lands (AML) in our watershed are often directly along the banks of the River or its tributaries. They include former sites of mining operations (collieries), or areas where piles of waste coal and rock ("culm" piles) were dumped and left behind from past mining operations. As rain and snow events create runoff from these sites, they carry fine coal and rock particles into the nearby stream adding sediment rich in metals and high in acidity to the stream's bottom. Additional waste material can be washed into a stream when water levels are high enough to erode away culm that lies directly on a stream bank. As sediment from culm piles accumulate in a stream, they affect aquatic life by altering biochemical conditions and restricting food resources and habitat space. In addition, many of the tributaries that run through AML's lose their flow by percolation of streamflow into the underground mine workings.
  Some of the AML's in our watershed and three tributaries that flow through AML are pictured below. There are approximately twenty four former anthracite colliery properties which cover nearly 20,000 acres in the Lackawanna River watershed. The River and nearly every tributary run along or through AML's at some point in their course.

 
Left: View of the Olyphant Colliery with the Lackawanna River in the lower right foreground photographed about 1920. The only structure visible in the photograph that still exists is the railroad bridge over the River in the extreme right of the picture. This photo was taken looking north toward Olyphant.
Right: View of the Olyphant Colliery in Jan. 2000. All of the structures and the culm dump visible in the above historical photograph have been removed. non-vegetated coal waste covers the site today contributing acidic sedimentary runoff into the River. The buildings in the background are downtown Olyphant.
Left: Aerial view of the main culm dump of the former Powderly Colliery. The middle section (lighter color) of the dump was on fire for many years and gradually burned out in 1999. This dump is visible from the Merideth St. exit of the Robert Casey Industrial Highway (US Rte. 6).
Right: Former Mt. Jessup Colliery site near Constitution Ave. This site is typical of coal waste dumping in and along the flood plain and watercourse of the River and its tributaries.
Left: View of electric utility corridor through the Pompey site in Jessup exhibiting exposed non-vegetated mine spoils. Note portion of Lackawanna River in center of photograph visible at base of railroad embankment. These type of soil conditions contribute to the particulate sediment load of the River and generate large volumes of surface AMD non-point source runoff.
Right: View of the former Pompey Colliery in Jessup looking east toward Moosic Mt. This site contains nearly 400 acres of non-vegetated culm piles which contribute large quantities of sediment and AMD runoff to the River. This site is typical of former colliery properties in the Lackawanna Valley.
Left: Upper silt basin along Powderly Creek in Carbondale Twp. This silt basin was created when the Hudson Coal Co. built a dam on Powderly Creek to supply water for a washery. Washeries used water from a nearby pond to separate coal from shale and rock. Used water was re-circulated back into the pond where sediment dropped out forming thick layers of silt and clay.
Right: Eddy Creek's course through the former Olyphant Colliery; note the absence of stream-flow. Eddy Creek loses its water by percolation of its stream-flow into the underground mine workings. The lower three miles of Eddy Creek typically carry storm-water flows and erode sediments of coal waste material which had been haphazardly dumped along its course by the Hudson Coal Co. and the Pennsylvania Coal Co.
Left: Grassy Island Creek's course through the former Pompey Colliery in Jessup. During the flooding of Jan. 19, 1996, high water and debris flow in the creek caused channel failure forcing the creek to cut a new channel and slicing off 20,000 cubic yards of coal waste from the Rose culm dump. This dump is situated on the floodplain at the confluence of Grassy Island Creek and the River.