December 24, 2016 - The state Environmental Hearing Board has temporarily stopped Consol Energy from mining beneath a trout stream in Ryerson Station State Park in Greene County while it decides whether to impose a mining ban requested by two environmental organizations.

The order Friday by a hearing board judge, Steven Beckman, prohibits Consol's Bailey longwall mine from digging coal within 500 feet of Kent Run until the board decides whether to grant a request by The Sierra Club and the Center for Coalfield Justice for a longer mining prohibition beneath the stream.

Mr. Beckman's order was in response to a filing Wednesday by the two environmental groups for a "petition for supersedeas," essentially an injunction, to halt the rapidly advancing underground mining they say is likely to cause surface subsidence and permanent damage to Kent Run and another creek, Polen Run.

During a conference call with the judge Thursday, Consol said Polen Run already had been undermined, and that mining beneath Kent Run would be unlikely before mid-February.

Because of that, Mr. Beckman formally denied the environmental groups' request for an immediate order to stop the mining and scheduled a hearing for Jan. 10 in Pittsburgh.

In a related case, argued before Mr. Beckman in August, the two groups challenged the legality of the entire state-issued mining permit for a 3,000-acre extension of Consol's Bailey Mine that they said would damage 14 streams in and around the park. A decision on that case is not expected before February.

"We feel the mining permit is illegal under the (Pennsylvania) Clean Streams law because the state Department of Environmental Protection has acknowledged it is likely to cause damage to the streams," said Tom Schuster, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club. "But Consol is now trying to ram through mining in the third of five longwall panels near and under the park before there's a decision in that case.

"It's entirely possible that we could get a favorable decision on that case but could lose those streams anyway, without an order now to stop the mining," he said. "We believe these streams flowing inside the park warrant the additional protection."

The extensions to Consol's 1985 Bailey Mine permit, granted by the DEP in May 2014 and February 2015, allow the company to "longwall" mine the coal from the 400-foot-deep Pittsburgh Seam in five horizontal panels, each 1,500 feet wide and more than two miles long.

The full extraction mining operation would remove an estimated 2.23 million tons of coal, but cause surface subsidence and, as the DEP has acknowledged, likely stream subsidence and dewatering. Using a room and pillar mining technique instead would prevent subsidence and damage to the streams but reduce the amount of coal extracted.

Consol spokesman Brian Aiello did not respond to questions about stream damage but issued a statement attributed to Jimmy Brock, chief executive officer of CNX Coal Resources LP, that said, "There are numerous environmental laws and regulations that we must live up to on a daily basis, and the permit at issue here is no exception. This has little to do with the environment and everything to do with an extreme philosophy that the people of Pennsylvania rejected at the ballot box in November. We will continue to vigorously defend the livelihoods of the 2,000 employees at the Bailey Complex."

The Cecil-based mining company has contended that the stream impacts, including subsidence and dewatering, are temporary and fixable using a variety of mitigation techniques, including grouting and installation of fabric liners to prevent stream water loss, flow augmentation from groundwater wells, and streambed excavation to allow water flow between subsided stream sections where "pooling" has occurred.

Two of the five panels have already been mined, causing the dewatering of five trout streams, and Consol has started mining the third panel, prompting the petition by the environmental groups.

Patrick Grenter, Center for Coalfield Justice executive director, said he visited Polen Run on Thursday and found it almost dry, even though other streams in the area were swollen by recent rain.

"We walked the creek above the third panel and there were massive heaves and cracks in the streambed, and we watched the water disappearing underground. It looked like an earthquake had hit," Mr. Grenter said. "It's an absolute shame this was allowed to happen, but it highlights the importance of the judge's action [Friday] to protect a stream inside the park from the same fate."

The mining is occurring east of and beneath Greene County's only state park, where mining by Consol in 2005 caused subsidence that damaged the Duke Lake Dam and led to the draining of the park's signature 62-acre lake, for 45 years a popular boating, fishing and swimming site.

The mining company never admitted blame but paid $36 million to settle lawsuits and rebuild the dam. But because of continuing mine-related subsidence, the state will not rebuild the dam or restore the lake.