The Citizens Coal Council, a nonprofit based in Washington County, says Pennsylvania’s most important accounting of underground coal mining damage has taken a serious step backward. The group released an independent review of DEP’s latest Act 54 report, which covers mining impacts from 2018 to 2022, and concluded that it lacks meaningful analysis and contains data errors, as reported by The Allegheny Front on August 7.
Act 54 requires DEP to report every five years on how underground mining affects streams, water supplies, and structures. The previous four reports were prepared by independent university researchers. This one was prepared in house by DEP itself, and the Citizens Coal Council argues the difference shows. Among the gaps the group flags: the report offers no analysis of a counterintuitive trend in which room and pillar mining declined 38 percent while damage claims from that mining method nearly doubled.
The review also highlights a structural blind spot. When mining companies settle damage claims privately with landowners, often under nondisclosure agreements, DEP has no visibility into those settlements. That means the state cannot assess the cumulative damage underground mining does to streams and drinking water supplies. “We have streams being damaged and we don’t even know the cumulative effect of all this damage,” said Aimee Erickson, the council’s executive director.
For watershed groups in longwall mining country across Washington, Greene, and Fayette counties, the Act 54 report is the official record of what mining does to the streams you monitor. If the watchdogs are right that the record is getting thinner, stream monitoring data collected by volunteer groups becomes that much more important.
Key details
- Report reviewed: DEP’s Act 54 report covering 2018 to 2022
- Reviewer: Citizens Coal Council, Washington County
- Core concerns: in house preparation, data errors, no analysis of damage trends, no visibility into private settlements
Read more at The Allegheny Front, the source for this item.
