Weve all heard about the knox disaster, which occured near Pittston Pa. ( Porth Griggiths to be exact) Well a lesser known near disaster happened twenty years after knox. The Butler mine tunnel which drained the Butler mine and ten square miles of mines around it, became the outfall for more than mine water. A not so reputable businessmen who owned hi way auto repair garage located five miles from the Butler mine tunnel. Used a borehole located inside his garage as dumping spot for highly toxic chemicals imported from New Jersey. Billions of gallons of toxins was poured into the abandoned mines underlying Pittston township. Eventually forming perched ( or local) pools. In July of 1979 these pools overflowed into the Butler tunnel drainage network. Eventually making its way into the Susquehanna river. Forming a huge forty mile long sheen over the water. Local and even national news medias, as well as goverment agencies swarmed to the area. The toxic chemicals reached equilbrium and stopped flowing into the river a few weeks later. Also about that time the source was located, the owner arrested. A monitoing system was built on top of the tunnel with a direct connection to the then EPA. During periods of heavy rain , and huricanes the tunnel becomes a source of concern for local agencies as well as citizens. The only time the tunnel spilled toxic chemicals since 1979 was September 1984 during a high water event caused by hurricane Gloria.

Supposed to read " Port Griffiths". Sorry for the typo, having troubles with logging in to edit.

figures it was from jersey. putzed up their own state so bad they gotta get rid of their crap in pa.

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creeps of the world..........unite!!!!!!

I can remember watching that on TV as a kid (I know I'm aging myself). Wasn't that right upsteam of the bridge in Pittston?

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Scott K
"Watch Your Top"

yes it ws. yeh I also remember it on TV. Time flys unfortunately

does the buttler tunnel still exsist or did they reclaim it casue of this?

its still there, but its only about a 4 foot round discharge like in the pics. im not sure how much water it discharges a day, im sure you can find that somewhere. good info there tony. ill add bit on the site itself as its seen now. it is just up stream from the pittston river bridge on the east side of the river. there are monitoring cameras on the opening of the tunnel, the river launch point and the monitoring house that sits directly above the tunnel about 50 feet back from the portal. we were there in maybe 2007 or so when they were doing practice containment drills in case of another discharge. they had that big barge there stringing some kind of net of sorts across the water down to the bridge. we talked for a bit with the operators there and got into the monitoring house where there is a small shaft, or manhole i guess, that drops down into the actual tunnel itself. at the bottom, down in the tunnel is a chemical sensor and a small water wheel for measuring the velocity of the water. another scale is there as well to monitor daily flow. thats about all i know of the place.

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One of the few mine related areas I dont mind staying far away from, thanks for taking one for the team though!

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My aim, when I built my car was to scare the hell out of myself, its the type of vehicle that were I to park in front of your house, your lawn would die

Yeah this is an easy one to spot from the road.. If youre on the Ft. Jenkins Bridge, headed from pittston to west pittston, take a look back at the east bank of the river (behind you to the right) You'll spy the tunnel outfall. And if it happens to be summer time when you see it, you'll probably also see 2 or three people fishing in front of it because of the cool mine air outcasting...

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

hahaha, oh man! is this common knowledge in the area what's comin' outta there?

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creeps of the world..........unite!!!!!!

yea its only local mine pool overflow coming out of there now. unless there is an exceptionally heavy rain, which hasnt happened since the 80s, it wont discharge chemicals. with that said, you still wont see me fishing there. then again you wont see me fishing anywhere either......

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If you remember correctly chris, I have the whole conversation with the technician on site that day on video tape, he gave us all of the information on it, with how much if flows and stuff like that, i'll have to find the tape and watch it

oh sweet, i totally forgot you had the camera that day. ill have to take a look with you.

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