By Brendan Gibbons
The Times-Tribune
OLYPHANT, Pa. — For more than seven years, Olyphant Councilman Jerry Tully has held onto a commemorative placard detailing a promise from the U.S. Office of Surface Mining and the state of Pennsylvania to deal with a coal fire burning near Route 6.
The placard says the agency would “extinguish” the fire. It still burns, though it appears on the surface to be contained by a trench the OSM and the Department of Environmental Protection dug in 2008.
The fire is one of eight long-term coal fires burning in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties. These fires can start from burning trash, lightning and even self-combustion, when coal combines with oxygen to yield carbon dioxide and heat, according to a 2009 report by the U.S. Geological Survey.
“Extinguishing burning coal beds can be difficult and costly,” research geologist and lead author Allan Kolker wrote in the report. “There is no one best method to control coal fires, but several approaches have been tried.”
Coal fires can burn in abandoned mines, colliery sites, culm dumps and intact coal seams.
Excavating the fire is one method, as is injecting noncombustible materials to cut off the fire’s oxygen supply. The DEP’s record on the Olyphant fire shows that state and federal agencies have poured $9.16 million into fighting it since the 1950s. In 2011, the OSM’s Wilkes-Barre location closed, and its mine reclamation duties fell to the state DEP.
Local politicians are trying to find a way to bring new money to extinguish the Olyphant fire for good. About 20 people, most of them Olyphant residents but a few from Throop and Carbondale, attended a hearing Thursday by state Rep. Kevin Haggerty, D-112, Dunmore, at Eureka Hose Company 4.
Mr. Haggerty said he called on Gov. Tom Corbett on Wednesday to declare a disaster at the coal fire sites, which could unlock state and federal grants. He said he had not heard from Mr. Corbett’s office as of Thursday afternoon.
At the hearing, Mr. Tully said he has been closely watching the fire since it started. He and others voiced their concerns about the odor, air quality and fears that it could eventually spread beyond the trench.
“Right now is the time to deal with this,” Mr. Haggerty said.
Some who attended said the Olyphant fire stands in the way of the one piece of the borough with room for development.
“That’s our future growth,” Tax Collector James Liparulo said. “Now I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
The borough had plans for the area since before the Casey Highway was built in the late 1990s, Mr. Liparulo said. Utility lines went in, and the borough was eyeing the area for residential and commercial development. “Right now, it’s just useless,” he said.
Farther north, in Fell Twp., a DEP-contracted crew is making progress on fighting a culm dump fire that has been burning at least since mid-December.
A crew with Minichi Inc. is in its second week of work. Workers are using heavy equipment to excavate the smoldering culm and spray water on the burning piles.
A site foreman who refused to give his name said they are working seven days a week and have dug about 30 feet into the pile. He said he does not know how deep it goes, whether the fire had spread to a coal seam or how long it would take to extinguish it.
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