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Five boreholes installed in Solomon Creek
By Paul Golias (Correspondent)
Published: February 22, 2014
Five new boreholes were installed in Solomon Creek, Hanover Township, to ease the threat of serious flooding from mine water.
The new holes and one remaining from the three dug decades ago should protect properties in Wilkes-Barre and Hanover Township, said Mike Korb, environmental project manager for the state Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, Wilkes-Barre.
Two of the three original boreholes that drain water from closed Wyoming Valley mines collapsed. Had the third borehole failed, thousands of property owners could have experienced mine water rising into their basements, Korb said, and roads also could have flooded.
The boreholes are in Solomon Creek, off the Sans Souci Parkway behind a strip mall south of the McDonald's Restaurant. The boreholes are to the rear of an Allstate office and Leonard's Title and Tags, at the northern end of the mall.
Minichi Construction of Dupont completed the work last week, Korb said. The project cost $729,000. The main funding source is a hazard elimination program of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining under a 1977 law, the Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act.
"The project went well," Korb said. Work continued during the winter months despite weather.
The five new boreholes are 22 inches in diameter and 240 feet deep, he said. Drainage is through lateral pipes as opposed to outflow over the top as in the old 36-inch holes. "Kids can't throw rocks into the new pipes," Korb said.
Rainfall causes the water table in the mines to rise. Korb said that water must go somewhere and the boreholes allow the water to flow into Solomon Creek, which runs west to the Susquehanna River.
The Solomon Creek borehole system is supposed to handle what is the third largest mine drainage flow in Northeastern Pennsylvania, behind the Jeddo Tunnel and Old Forge Borehole systems, Korb said. The flow at Hanover is about 20 million gallons of water per day.
All mines that once operated from Pittston south to Wilkes-Barre, on the east side, are sources of water that flows from boreholes. Water from the West Side is released at the Buttonwood Shaft, also in Hanover Township.
Mine pools in Lackawanna County and Luzerne County are being mapped by the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation. The studies provide up-to-date information on the status of the mine pools and water quality.
The coalition found the collapsed Solomon Creek bore holes while doing a water quality survey of the watershed.
Earth Conservancy, the non-profit mine land reclamation agency, will continue its acid mine treatment project at the Askam Borehole off Dundee Road in Hanover Township. The borehole spews 3,500 gallons of acid mine water per minute into Nanticoke Creek, which also empties into the Susquehanna River.
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Scott K
"Watch Your Top"
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