Coal news and updates

 

The dust has yet to settle in a small Portage Township neighborhood’s battle to keep its single, one-lane road safe and clean.

 

In a literal sense, the “dust” has been settling for years – coal dust, that is, which wafts from coal trucks run by Amfire Mining Co., which operates near the village of Sonman, and Inter-Power/Ahlcon Partners of Sewickley. The dust soils homes and outdoor fixtures.

 

The trucks take Shoemaker Circle when its outlet, Dulancey Drive, which leads to the Amfire facility, is blocked by a loading Norfolk Southern rail line that crosses the drive.

 

Residents know when the trucks are incoming – they can hear the train screeching to a halt just past their tree line.

 

The residents call it “train day” and some seem to have resigned themselves to its regular occurrence. But resident Renee Maul has been present at nearly every township meeting in the past year, ensuring the issue is a priority item on the supervisors’ agenda.

 

“We have coal dust that is so horrible that it’s in my light fixtures outside,” she said.

 

“We don’t sit on my porch for the majority (of the day) unless I scrub it that day because (there’s) just black filth everywhere.”

 

The Shoemaker residents pressure-wash their homes on a regular basis, said Renee Maul’s sister-in-law, Karen Maul, whose above-ground swimming pool usually has deposits of coal sediment at the bottom. But after years in operation, and near-daily dervishes of coal dust blowing through the small pastoral community, the grime can be hard to conceal.

 

And that’s the least of resident’s concerns. Many of the coal truck drivers have been spotted speeding down the narrow lane by residents, although the village has a posted speed limit of 5 mph.

 

“Since school has been out, our big concern is with the safety of the kids. When (the drivers) come from Lumber Road and come around down onto Shoemaker to come out onto Dulancey (Drive), that’s kind of where they pick up their speed,” said Renee Maul, who claims her chain-link fence has been swiped twice by passing trucks.

 

“But I’d much rather my property than a child’s life,” she said.

 

The Tribune-Democrat recently visited Shoemaker Circle to capture stills and video – which can be found on TribDem.com – and witness drivers’ habits firsthand.

 

From 9 to 11 a.m. on the Aug. 4 “train day,” about 20 trucks passed through Shoemaker Circle – a “mild” train day, said Karen Maul, who added it’s not uncommon to see 70 trucks on average.

 

Many of the drivers on Aug. 4 seemed to ignore the posted 5 mph speed limit – although some hit the brakes once they noticed The Tribune-Democrat’s camera – and very few actually made a complete stop when turning off Lumber Road onto Shoemaker Circle.

 

Residents had been pinning all the blame on Amfire Mining Co. – the traffic, speeding and coal dust – but supervisors recently discovered that Sewickley-based Inter-Power/Ahlcon Partners is also operating out of an old Cooney Bros. Coal Co. bony pile nearby, which explains the sharp spike in traffic on train day. Inter-Power runs a coal-fired power plant, or “cogen” plant, in Colver, which is powered by the waste coal.

 

The Portage Township supervisors continue to pursue an alternate and permanent route for the coal trucks. A big part of that plan is a road safety study conducted months ago by township engineers to determine the feasibility and safety of Shoemaker Circle being used as a commercial road. The results of that study have yet to be made public.

 

At July’s supervisors meeting, officials said the township solicitor, Calvin Webb, would need to make a legal determination on the findings before it could be made official.

 

But Webb recently recused himself from the issue on a conflict of interest concern, as one of his firm’s partners has done legal work for Amfire in the past.

 

At Wednesday’s meeting, supervisors appointed attorney Nathan Karn of Hollidaysburg at a $150 hourly rate, to advise on the Shoemaker Circle issue, as well as possible pending litigation against Amfire Mining Co. announced at the same meeting. The potential legal struggle could also put an end to frank and open discussion about options and remedies for the ongoing problem.

 

“The board’s been pretty lenient on discussing openly and discussing probables that could happen,” said Supervisor Rick Olshavsky, after a statement on the township’s position was read to attendees of the Wednesday meeting.

 

He said any further statements about potential solutions or the township’s plans to keep the local mining companies in check could be used against them should the matter escalate to the courts.

 

“We’ve been instructed to say that we’re working on getting a better situation,” he said.

 

That’s not good enough for Renee Maul.

 

“When I have a problem, that’s what (the supervisors are) here for,” she said. “They’re elected officials, we’re taxpayers. We pay their salary. When I have a question, I need it to be answered by them.

 

“I understand it’s protecting them, but I mean, somebody has to give us answers some way or the other,” she said. “We need protected too – not just their words – our lives, our kids’ lives and our property.”

 

Both the residents and the coal companies are here to stay, however. The Maul family has owned its Shoemaker Circle homes for generations, Renee Maul said. And the viability of nearby coal resources means Amfire and Inter-Power aren’t going anywhere either.

 

Supervisor Bill Cooper said he’s been meeting regularly with representatives from both operations. When he asked Inter-Power how long their operation at the Cooney bony pile will last, he was told four or five years.

 

But there’s yet another bony pile nearby that will last

 

20 years, he was told.

 

“You’ve got 25 years of those coal trucks running through here,” he said.

 

 

Source: http://www.tribune-democrat.com/