A dangerous highwall and open pit sitting next to homes on Rock Springs Road in Scott Township are finally set for cleanup, as Pennsylvania's Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation seeks state permits to backfill the hazard and replant the 13-acre project area with about 6,000 trees. The reclamation covers the Harlansburg Southeast mine at 180 Rock Springs Road, where a vertical highwall, a dangerous pit and a spoil area have long loomed near residential properties.
Matthew Steele said BAMR is seeking Department of Environmental Protection permits for the Harlansburg Southeast mine, according to New Castle News. The hazardous features stem from surface mining of the Lower Kittanning coal seam, a major bituminous coal bed in Western Pennsylvania, according to the USGS. The last known operating permit for the site was held by the Miller and McKnight Coal Company in 1960, per the same report.
Backfilling a Hazard Next to Rock Springs Road Homes
The reclamation project spans 13 acres with a disturbance area of nine acres, and the plan is straightforward in concept if not in scale: crews will use dozers and excavators to move and spread mine spoil, originally excavated to access the coal seam and now piled near the abandoned pit, back into the open pit in horizontal lifts before compacting it. BAMR intends to use only natural, on-site fill material, the New Castle News report notes, and the work is expected to make safe the danger posed by the highwall while restoring the land to conditions resembling what existed before mining began.
The reclamation qualifies for state intervention because open pits and vertical highwalls that directly threaten nearby residential structures are classified as Priority 1 or Priority 2 health and safety hazards under PA DEP guidelines. That framework exists alongside federal rules under Title IV of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, which restrict state-administered reclamation funds to mine sites abandoned before August 3, 1977, where no active or solvent operator can be held responsible, according to PA DEP.
Trees, Timeline and Landowner Wishes
Some trees in the project area may need to be removed during construction, but landowners requested the area be returned to its original forested state, and the finished project will include roughly 6,000 hand-planted trees spanning nine different native hardwood and evergreen species. The site includes three private properties, and ownership of the land will remain unaffected by the project, per the New Castle News report. BAMR plans to begin the reclamation process this year and complete the work within one year.
Scott Township, incorporated in 1854, had a population of 2,174 as of the 2020 U.S. Census and encompasses the village of Harlansburg along with Harlansburg Cave, Pennsylvania's longest mapped cave system, according to Wikipedia. The rural municipality sits within a county where legacy coal mining has left a persistent mark; earlier state work in Lawrence County has included eliminating a dangerous highwall at the Castlewood West surface mine, as previously reported by The Allegheny Front.
Part of a Statewide Mine Cleanup Push
BAMR has now completed nearly 20 reclamation projects in Lawrence County, and the Harlansburg Southeast site is not the only one in the pipeline locally. The Grindstone Run reclamation project in Perry Township and the Princeton Southwest reclamation project in Slippery Rock Township are both in the active design phase, with municipal notifications for the Princeton Southwest project set to begin soon, the New Castle News report states. Statewide, Pennsylvania currently has around 40 active reclamation projects under construction, including two in Beaver County and three in Armstrong County.
The scale of the local work reflects a much larger backlog. Pennsylvania holds nearly one-third of the nation's total abandoned coal mine lands, with an estimated $5 billion needed for abandoned-mine cleanup, as Hoodline previously reported. That backlog is why federal money matters so much here: under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in November 2021, Pennsylvania receives $244.9 million annually over 15 years, totaling $3.7 billion, to clean up pre-1977 abandoned coal mine lands and treat acid mine drainage, per PA DEP.
More than 91,000 acres of abandoned mine lands have been rehabilitated statewide.
