Good as New
CENTER TWP — The scars of strip mining could be traced across the nation, but with legislation in the late 1970s that changed.
John Saugrich, vice president of operations for Amerikohl Mining based in Butler, said the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 changed the way companies left strip mine or surface mine sites.
Saugrich points to Amerikohl's operation that just ended on Mahood Road, where instead of gaping holes, the mining site looks like just planted farm fields.
“This area,” he said of the 60 acres Amerikohl just finished restoring in Center Township, “had been wooded, and with the planting of special grasses and trees, it will be again.”
Indeed, trees abut the rolling hills, recontoured by Amerikohl — a provision in the reclamation act. Small furrows comb the hillsides holding small seedlings. A dusting of specially formulated grass seed and hay finished the job.
Amerikohl has planted about 1.6 million trees in the past 10 years and reclaimed more than 32,000 acres of farmland.
Saugrich said the Mahood Road site had been surface mined in the 1950s and 1960s. That company left large gashes in the land where it removed coal, and did nothing to reclaim the land.
“We took care of those holes as well, filling them in and seeding them,” Saugrich said.
That's pretty typical of Amerikohl, which has worked with Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Ohio to clean up mining sites that have been abandoned.
In March 1993, Adobe Mining went out of business, and left behind about 11,000 acres in five Western Pennsylvania counties of unreclaimed land. Working with the DEP, Amerikohl Mining and three insurance companies tackled the multimillion dollar project and restored 78 sites at no cost to the taxpayers.
In Center Township, Saugrich pointed out an area seeded last year that features waist deep grass and trees that have sprung up from a few inches to stand about 4 feet tall.
Saugrich said the company also added an alkaline treatment to nearby mine water sources that proved to be acidic.
“The alkaline and acid mix will make the water neutral, and we have to do the treatment because this is a water source for Muddy Creek,” he said.
“We have a 5-year obligation to the state Department of Environmental Protection on each mining site, so we don't just walk away after we've taken the coal out,” he said.
Amerikohl is so proud of its reclamation work on the Mahood Road site, it has sent an application to the Pennsylvania Coal Association, which gives out awards for restoring the land.
George Ellis, president of the coal association, said his group has the following criteria for the awards: The original conditions of the land; the quality of the reclamation and the landowner's satisfaction.
“The 1977 act made reclamation both a state and federal requirement,” Ellis said. “Advances in technology have helped us treat mine water and abandoned mine areas.”
Amerikohl has won 60 reclamation awards.
As for Amerikohl and mining in Butler County, Saugrich said the company has been working on county coal for the past 30 years.
“There are still reserves in Butler County and we are pursuing those resources,” he said.
