MOUNT SAVAGE — Waste coal from a long-abandoned mine here, which threatened Jennings Run, is being cleaned up with funds from a federal government program. The mine opening is also being closed for safety reasons, said Mike Garner of the Abandoned Mine Land Division of the Maryland Department of the Environment.
The Kennel Mine, also known as the Uhl mine, is a mine “we really don’t know much about,” Garner said. It was one of many small, undocumented coal operations in Allegany and Garrett counties. The mine was never mapped, but from what officials can tell from the size of the gob pile, it wasn’t a particularly large or deep mine. The gob pile is where waste coal was thrown.
“It’s eroding into the stream,” he said.
“Cleaning up the gob pile is a big part of the project. Basically, it’s getting the coal waste away from the stream bank and making sure it won’t get back into position to damage the stream. The mine portal will also be closed to prevent access into the mine, which could be very dangerous,” Garner said.
The $24,670 project is funded by a federal coal tax of 31 cents a ton. The proceeds of the tax are then divvied up among the states for mine reclamation and related work, Garner said. The program is for mines that operated before 1977. The work on the Kennel mine is being done by Marshall Ruby & Sons.
“They’ve been at it more than a week and probably have a week and a half to go,” Garner said.
According to bid documents filed by the state, only certified small businesses were eligible to bid on the project. That means the company must not be a subsidiary of another company and employ between 50 and 100 persons in various divisions of the company. The full project was listed as “construction of an access road, including temporary screen crossing, excavation, grading and revegetation.”
The work on the Kennel mine is one small project on a list of projects to clean up or stabilize abandoned coal mines in Maryland, said Garner. Work on the mines is done as funding becomes available, he said. The list includes about $30 million of work on abandoned mines still to be done.
The state has done about six to eight projects a year since 1982, he said.
Many of the small undocumented mines are in the Georges Creek area and along the Potomac Basin.
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com.
Local News
Workers sealing up old Mount Savage mine
Federal coal tax funding $24,670 cleanup project
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