Mining lease gains approval
Hollidaysburg Water Authority OKs agreement to permit RES Coal project to move forward
HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Hollidaysburg Water Authority approved a lease agreement Tuesday with RES Coal to permit mining on game commission grounds where the authority owns mineral rights.
The project that RES Coal engineer Easton Elkin presented to the authority in April 2023 would include a strip mine encompassing 128 acres of land near the Muleshoe Reservoir, which is located between Cresson and Foot of Ten off old state Route 22. The Muleshoe Reservoir is Hollidaysburg’s main water supply and mining the metallurgical-grade coal, which is needed in steel manufacturing, would require additional approval by the state Game Commission and state Department of Environmental Protection.
Prior to voting at the board’s February meeting, authority Chair Carol Gale said that the final revisions to the agreement had been completed and that an earlier document that would have left open the option of future mining on the 21.1 acres of land of which Hollidaysburg owns both the surface and mineral rights had been removed.
Including that land would have brought the total mine acreage to 149.1 acres.
The authority has previously stated that it would not allow any mining on watershed property, with treasurer James Fitch making a motion during the August 2023 meeting to amend the then-potential agreement to “make clear” that no mining would be done on borough land near the Muleshoe Reservoir.
The Water Authority has been in talks with RES Coal regarding the mining project since 2021, Fitch said.
“We’ve been over this,” Fitch said. “We’re pretty confident.”
Assistant treasurer Loren Hershberger, who could not be in attendance, was “fine with everything” and “didn’t have any issues or concerns about” the agreement, Hollidaysburg Borough Water Department Director Richard Pope said.
Secretary Zenus Brehm made the motion to approve the agreement, with Fitch providing a second.
Now that RES Coal has approval from the authority, its next steps are to go to the game commission and “go through the same process,” according to Pope. “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.”
The plan to mine the coal could net $10 million to $12 million for the Hollidaysburg Water Authority over a span of 10 to 15 years. If everything were to go to plan, the project would wrap up in the 2040s, with mining taking about 10 years and land reclamation adding on another five years.
Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.