Hollidaysburg residents voiced their concerns about a potential mining project near the Muleshoe Reservoir, the borough’s main water supply, during the Borough Authority’s meeting Tuesday. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Borough residents voiced their concerns about a potential mining project near the Muleshoe Reservoir, the borough’s main water supply, during the Borough Authority’s meeting Tuesday.

The project would include a strip mine that would encompass 128 acres of land, according to a presentation given by RES Coal engineer Easton Elkin during the Borough Authority’s meeting last month. The land surface is owned by the Game Commission, while the mineral rights are owned by Hollidaysburg Borough Authority. The project would include another 21.1 acres of land, of which the Borough Authority owns both the surface and mineral rights — bringing the total proposed mine up to 149.1 acres.

If the mining is undertaken, the authority — not the borough — would receive the proceeds.

Resident Steve Albright told Borough Authority members that if the borough needed money for projects, there were other options out there.

“I’m against this,” Albright said. “The borough will blow through the money. It’ll be gone. The next generation — my kids, their kids. Think about this. Don’t do it.”

Jim Burke said that he had seen a lot of mines, reclaimed lands and had heard a lot of promises but that the job “never gets done appropriately.”

“I’m just a citizen, but at one time, I worked in the chemical business and provided resources to mine owners to treat and process water that had been contaminated,” Burke said. “I have yet to see a mine that was, in my estimation, closed, properly managed … and the water and resources not be disrupted.”

Burke also said that the Borough Authority was being asked to trade one asset for another and that not having the borough’s water supply be disrupted was more important than making a few dollars.

“We need (water) forever, not to be disrupted for the sake of a few dollars,” Burke said. “Money for water just isn’t going to be an equitable and balanced decision or outcome that I think is going to be the best for the borough.”

Scott Kavanagh, an Allegheny Township resident but the president of the John Kennedy Chapter of Trout Unlimited in Hollidaysburg, spoke to the Borough Authority about his group’s concerns.

“Those streams are excellent brookie trout streams and actually Red Lick Run is classified as a Class A wild trout stream by the DEP,” Kavanagh said.

The Borough Authority members voted to send a copy of a potential agreement with RES Coal to attorney Ralph Monico.

Authority Chair Carol Gale said that the Borough Authority would take into consideration the public’s concerns and that answers to their questions would become available on the Borough Authority website in the coming weeks.

“Our main mission is to protect the watershed,” Gale said.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.