Venango County has been awarded $112,479 in grant funds from the state Department of Environmental Protection for abandoned mine land and abandoned mine drainage cleanup efforts.
The news came from Hilary Buchanan, director of the county’s Regional Planning Commission.
The county will be working with the Scrubgrass Creek Watershed and the South Sandy Creek Watershed organizations and Hedin Environmental to study the streams and develop a plan to prioritize areas that need cleaned up, Buchanan said.
Venango County commissioner Sam Breene said the grant is a great opportunity to clean up abandoned coal mine land in the southern part of the county.
A press release from the DEP said the grant is for developing a Venango County implementation plan “to guide future remediation project proposals in the Scrubgrass Creek and South Sandy Creek watersheds.
The press release says objectives of the project include the collection of existing abandoned mine land (AML) and abandoned mine drainage (AMD) information, development of a spreadsheet and mapping-based inventory of AML and AMD features, and water quality sampling confirmation.
Other objectives are development of a project prioritization method, identification of possible remediation projects and funding mechanisms, recommendation of potential project sponsors, and collaboration with local watershed associations, county and state government, and public and private stakeholders.
