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The Altoona Water Authority is applying for a pair of grants that would pay for renewal of a pair of passive acid mine drainage treatment facilities above Horseshoe Curve.
One grant for $1.4 million would pay for reconstruction of the Spaghetti Hole treatment facility, along with construction of an access road to reach the area; while the other grant for $112,000 would pay for redesign of the Clear Water facility about 300 yards away.
Built in 2001, the facilities are among six in the Glen White Run watershed and are at the end of their useful lives.
The grants would come from the state Department of Environmental Protection's Abandoned Mine Lands and Abandoned Mine Drainage (AML/AMD) grant program, which is authorized through the U.S. Department of Interior's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, according to authority land manager Katie Semelsberger and the DEP website.
Odds of success for the applications are "very high," especially given the authority's close coordination with the department and several prior reviews of draft applications, Semelsberger said this week.
The Spaghetti Hole and access road construction projects would realize designs done with $135,000 in grants received in January from the AML/AMD program, according to Semelsberger.
The new design for the facility calls for "dual auto flushing vertical flow ponds" that would operate in parallel, with metals settling out in the facility's existing vertical flow pond, plus an additional settling pond, according to information provided by Semelsberger. Such a design "uses two automated siphons to prevent clogging and improve performance," according to an online source.
During construction, seep water will still be treated, to keep polluted water from entering Glen White Run.
The construction of the access road "is our first step in series to getting our aging systems redesigned and rebuilt to match the chemistry as well as to prolong their useful life," Semelsberger wrote.
The Clear Water facility uses an underground coal mine wet seal with an outlet pipe that extends into an anoxic -- no-oxygen -- limestone drain, according to Semelsberger.
The wet seal causes the mine to flood, displacing air and creating an anoxic environment that stops the oxygen-using chemical process that forms acid mine drainage, according to online sources. Water flows out of the mine through the drain pipe and into a buried trench with crushed limestone, where, still in an anoxic environment, the water dissolves the limestone, neutralizing acidity, according to online sources.
The limestone in the facility is currently clogged, which allows untreated water to flow into Glen White Run, Semelsberger said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.