The Altoona Water Authority has received $112,000 from the Department of Environmental Protection for design work for the renovation of one of six passive treatment facilities that neutralize acid mine drainage that flows into Glen White Run.

The run is the only source of water currently used for the three-reservoir system that supplies the authority’s Horseshoe Curve Water Treatment Plant.

It is the second grant that has been provided so far from DEP’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation (AMR) for what the authority hopes to be the eventual multi-million-dollar renovation of all six facilities, which were built around 2000 and which are generally approaching the end of their usefulness.

The newly allocated AWA money will go for redesign of its Clear Water facility, the second farthest upstream of the six Glen White Run facilities, according to authority Land Manager Katie Semelsberger.

The grant is the second one the authority has received for the overall project, having gotten $135,000 from AMR in January 2024 for the design of a renovation of the Spaghetti Hole facility, the one farthest upstream — along with design of an access road that would serve four of the six facilities.

The Spaghetti Hole design has been completed by BioMost Inc., according to Semelsberger.

Because of the company’s familiarity with the systems, the authority would prefer to continue to work with it on the other facilities, Semelsberger said.

The next facilities heading downstream past Clear Water are Squatter Falls, South Tributary, Coke Ovens and North Slope, Semelsberger said.

Each of the facilities treats a “seep” from a mine on the mountain, and each has a different design to deal with the chemical composition of the water from the seep it’s intended to neutralize, Semelsberger said.

The Clear Water project will include the rebuilding of a limestone “drain” that is underground so that it provides an environment without oxygen. The replacement will have two passages in parallel, so that one can be serviced while the other continues to function, Semelsberger said.

The current “anoxic limestone drain” is clogged and not working well, which can be typical of anoxic limestone drains, Semelsberger said.

The plan is to reuse as much of the limestone in the current drain as possible.

It’s possible that the Squatters Falls facility doesn’t need a complete redesign, Semelsberger said.

And the Coke Ovens facility is working fairly well, having been “overdesigned,” so that there is no hurry to rehabilitate it, Semelsberger said.

The passive treatment facilities were built to improve the quality of the water in Glen White Run and thus the quality of the raw water treated at the Horseshoe Curve plant, Semelsberger said.

The passive treatment saves money at the Curve plant, because it cuts down on sludge removal, chemical use and wear and tear on the pumps, Semelsberger said.

The Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation plans to design the North Slope renovation.

The $15.2 million received by the state for abandoned mine land projects was part of $125 billion in IIJA money frozen by the Trump administration in January 2025 due to the administration’s quarrel with environmental funding goals, according to online sources and the news release.

A Shapiro administration lawsuit led to the release of $2.1 billion of the frozen money, including that $15.2 million, according to online sources and the news release