HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Hollidaysburg Water Authority will not allow any mining on watershed property but will vote on approving a lease agreement with RES Coal to permit mining on game commission grounds where it owns mineral rights, according to Authority Chair Carol Gale.

The authority came to the decision during its monthly meeting Tuesday evening.

The Water Authority has been in talks with RES Coal regarding a coal mining project near the Muleshoe Reservoir, located between Cresson and Foot of Ten off old state Route 22, since 2021.

The reservoir is the borough’s main water supply and mining the nearby metallurgical-grade coal, which is needed in steel manufacturing, would require not only the approval of the water authority, but the state Game Commission and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“We vote on it next month on if we’ll allow them to lease the coal under the state game lands so (the board) can review (the lease),” Gale said.

There are 128 acres of property near the reservoir of which the game commission owns the land surface, while the authority owns the mineral rights. That is the acreage that will be included and voted upon in the potential lease agreement, Gale explained.

The 28 acres of property of which the authority owned both the land surface and mineral rights will not be included in the lease, Gale said.

A supplemental document was included with the lease from “the DEP of that other acreage the authority owns, to get it ready if the authority ever changes its mind” about having it mined, borough water department Director Rick Pope said.

Authority members discussed the document during their meeting.

“All this does is grease the wheel and also makes it more apt that it’s going to happen,” Gale said.

Pope said that it would depend on the makeup of the authority of the board at the time, and that they could potentially be more against mining.

Authority board member Zenas Brehm said that he didn’t see any advantage to the board if they approved the document.

“If mining will take place way down the road, let that rest upon their head,” Brehm said.

Fellow board member James Fitch agreed, saying that it “might behoove us to make (RES Coal) go through the process again.”

The authority voted to separate the document from the rest of the lease agreement, then voted to reject the document.

When asked about the authority’s next steps following next month’s vote, Pope said it wouldn’t have any.

“RES will go to the game commission and go through the same process,” Pope said. “Then (the game commission) has to approve everything.”

If the game commission gives its approval, RES will move on to the DEP, Pope said, adding that it could be three to five years before “a shovel breaks any ground.”

Mining of the land could take about 10 years, with reclamation adding another five years, RES Coal engineer Easton Elkin told the authority in May 2023. If everything went to plan, the project would wrap up in the 2040s.

The mining project has the potential to net $10 million to $12 million over a span of 10 to 15 years for the authority.

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