Nearly two dozen Donegal-area residents and environmental activists on Wednesday called on state regulators to reject a mining company’s request to extend its permit to divert water from its mine in Donegal Township.

They claim that the water is polluting the stream and that coal mining has damaged houses and water supplies.

“This mine here is degrading the water quality in our community,” Jerry Gearhart, a former board member of the Mountain Watershed Association, told state Department of Environmental Protection officials at a public hearing Wednesday.

The subject of the hearing was an application by LCT Energy LP of Johnstown to renew a permit to discharge reclaimed mine water into Champion Creek.

The DEP is reviewing LCT Energy’s application to renew its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System for its 2,800-acre Rustic Ridge No. 1 Mine located beneath Donegal Township, Westmoreland County, and in neighboring Saltlick Township, Fayette County. Renewal of the permit is pending with environmental regulators.

About 65 people attended the two-hour hearing, and no speaker supported the idea that DEP should renew LCT Energy’s mine water discharge permit.

Several residents spoke of the mine sinking homes and feared the loss of well water and springs due to Rustic Ridge’s mining operations. Some residents also called for stricter regulations on the amount of pollutants LCT Energy can discharge into Champion Creek.

There is no deadline for state regulators to make a decision on whether to renew the mining permit, said Lauren Camarda, a DEP spokeswoman in the Pittsburgh office. Because LCT Energy has applied to renew its water discharge permit, Camarda said it will be under administrative review until the DEP makes a decision. The company and LCT’s opponents have the right to appeal any DEP decision on the permit, Camarda said.

A mine expansion at the same time?

While the state is reviewing LCT’s application, the mining company already applied three years ago for a 1,400-acre expansion of Rustic Ridge Mine No. 1. It wants to mine coal north of the Donegal exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and beneath an area along Route 711.

Melissa Marshall, an environmental attorney with the Mountain Watershed Association, asked DEP officials to pause their review of the LCT application to consider the mine water that will be pumped from the mine expansion.

Marshall said the application to renew the water discharge permit does not specify how the extra water will be handled. She said it could overwhelm the existing treatment plant on Indian Creek.

However, LCT said it had additional treatment capacity for the water that would need to be pumped from an expanded mining area.

The DEP is considering permitting the mine expansion as a separate review process, Camarada said.

Mine water discharged from Rustic Ridge Mine No. 1 into Champion Creek flows into Indian Creek. It passes through a treatment system before discharging into Mill Run Reservoir. Water flowing from the Mill Run Reservoir spillway enters the Youghiogheny River.

Local resident Paul Martin is concerned that additional water from expanded mining operations could potentially flood Champion Creek and further pollute mine water.

Ted Kopas, Westmoreland County Commissioner and the only county commissioner at the meeting, said that while he is not opposed to mining in principle, the DEP should listen to the compelling testimony of residents who opposed renewing the permit.

“Let’s do the right thing here,” said Kopas. “Extending an existing permit that has caused so much damage is out of the question.”

Every decision of the state should be based on law, science and reason, said Kopas.

April Storm of Donegal Township, who lives near the headwaters of the Loyalhanna Creek drainage basin, questioned why the state would approve the permit extension when the mine water contains contaminants such as selenium that destroy aquatic life.

By allowing LCT Energy to renew its wastewater permit, the state is allowing mining that could result in loss of local residents’ well and spring water, Annie McDougall said.

Judith Miller, of Helen Ridge Lane in Donegal Township, expressed concern about the subsidence, which has already damaged the homes of several of her neighbours.

“I’m afraid I’ll be living next to a slum created by the mine,” Miller said.