fishink
Yeah, really great stuff. An investigation finds that Consol is responsible for cracking the dam... so Consol is then asked to pay for 76% of the cost of replacing it. Then to make up for the rest of the money needed to replace the dam they're going to let Consol drill for gas under the park. Incredible. And all of this still comes nowhere near the 58 million needed to restore the lake and park to their original state.
And of course as a part of the deal Consol will not admit fault -- just as they didn't admit fault for the Dunkard Creek fish kill.
With deals like that Pennsylvania's natural environment sure has a bright future in store!
On the other end of it, how much time and $ would go into the lawsuit from both sides before anything was resolved through the courts. Money could possibly be recovered by the state if/when they win but that is still not a guarantee win. Then, they are out the costs of the lawsuit and stuck with no one paying for the dam fix. If Consol chose, they could probably drag out the lawsuit for many, many years. They have deep enough pockets. Then, PA fisherman would still be waiting for the dam to get fixed and park would still suffer.
I am not defending Consol in the least bit and I have not read the initial report that states the long wall mining caused the dam failure. On the surface, it would seem it did but, there have been a plethora of dam failures across the state in the last several years where I don't think mining had anything to do with it. Most of those are earthen dams so the situations are most likely a little different but "doubt" could be raised in a court case (even though this was a concrete dam - 45 years old though). As with anything, with the "right" experts on your side, you can spin those reports in many different directions or have one created that is in your favor.
I do agree though that there should be more $ in the settlement for the restoration of the lake and the surrounding park. I would think a settlement for Consol to pay the full cost of the dam repair (including any construction overruns, which there always will be) plus $5,000 an acre for the initial 5 year lease for the 1,164 acres of Ryerson Station Park plus 20% royalties on all future extraction plus the going rate for surface leases for the gas well pads and ROW's for all new gas lines that are run plus full restoration of all areas affected by the future shale drilling would be a little more palatable.
Restoration of the 62 acre lake bottom shouldn't be overly expensive prior to filling unless they are planning on lots of improvements (like dredging, etc.) that Consol wouldn't be responsible for. Probably only one launch that should only require minimal repairs if it is concrete.
I am sure the states initial amount they sued Consol for was "juiced" by quite a bit. I find $20 million quite high to restore the surrounding park. What other damage other than dam breach occurred at the park? Road/bridge damage? Bldg. damage? Trail damage? Nothing is mentioned in the article.
I also agree longwall mining is a destructive practice and Act 54 probably needs strengthened to add more "teeth" to it to get companies to comply.