The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has authorized emergency work to stabilize a slipping hillside that is threatening a home in Elizabeth Township.
The slide area, approximately the size of two football fields, is located near the intersection of Penn Vista and Penn Crest streets off of Hayden Boulevard/PA-5, just uphill from a 2011 abandoned mine land reclamation project, said Lauren Fraley, a DEP spokeswoman.
She said homeowners continue to occupy the residence.
The DEP, in its Tuesday news release, attributes the new slide, along with a record number of similar emergency projects it has completed in the last three years, to higher than usual levels of precipitation coupled with more frequent freeze-thaw cycles.
The emergency contracting authorization allows the state Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation to quickly solicit bids for the project work that the DEP expects will begin mid-April and will take about four months to complete.
Ms. Fraley said the project will go out for bid immediately.
The DEP said the project includes construction of an access road to the slide and rock quarry disposal site, clearing a wooded portion of the hillside to do the work, removal of 10,000-15,000 cubic yards of loose material on the hillside, installation of drainage structures to convey stormwater runoff from the site to reduce the risk of future slides, as well as grading and reseeding to restore the site.
The 2011 reclamation project cost approximately $107,000.
The hillside site includes waste rock spoils from an abandoned limestone quarry that was placed on top of refuse from the long-abandoned National Mine, operated by National Coal Co. in the Pittsburgh coal seam and another mine in the Redstone coal seam. Stormwater runoff saturated the hillside leading to instability and slides, the DEP stated.
Funding for the work will be drawn from the state’s annual U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement grant allocation. The money is collected from mining companies based on a per ton charge on mined coal.
In February, the Interior Department announced that Pennsylvania would receive $32.17 million of the $170.9 million distributed to mining states in 2020. That’s less than in 2019, which could delay or downsize future projects, the DEP stated.
To prevent the further spread of COVID-19, the DEP stated that contractors will be advised to follow social distancing while performing this emergency work.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983. Twitter: @donhopey.
First Published: March 31, 2020, 9:52 p.m.
