Somerset County to receive state funds to improve Rock Tunnel

Rep. Frank Burns    November 21, 2013

HARRISBURG, Nov. 21 – State Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria/Somerset, announced that the Somerset County Conservation District has been awarded a $215,141 state grant to address mine drainage related to Rock Tunnel.

The grant, from the Abandoned Mine Drainage Abatement and Treatment Program, will be used to rehabilitate the existing 20-year-old passive treatment system.

"The system's older design is not effectively treating the discharge that it was originally designed to address," Burns said. "This grant will help the conservation district to reduce iron loading into the Bens Creek by as much as 90 percent, thereby restoring water quality and aquatic life along a 7.5-mile section of the stream."

Burns said the project will reduce the iron load by 17 tons per year and increase retention time.

The Abandoned Mine Drainage Abatement and Treatment Program is overseen by the Commonwealth Financing Authority, which administers and finances for this and a number of other programs. This program was created in 2012. Abandoned mine drainage is one of the largest sources or stream impairment in Pennsylvania, impairing more than 5,500 miles of streams in the commonwealth.

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