FirstEnergy to dump Pa. slurry in reclaimed mine
FirstEnergy to send coal slurry by barge to reclaimed mine rather than build newer Pa. dump
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- FirstEnergy Corp. still plans to close a coal slurry dump along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border, but now says it will ship the coal byproducts to a mine reclamation project in southwestern Pennsylvania, instead of building a new, state-of-the-art dump next to a coal-fired power plant.
Akron-based FirstEnergy last year announced it was replacing the 1,700-acre Little Blue Run slurry dump in Beaver County with a lined depository that will keep the pollutants from getting into the groundwater. The current dump doesn't have a lining because that wasn't required when it opened in 1974.
The slurry comes from the Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
But now FirstEnergy says it will be cheaper to ship the slurry by barge to a mine reclamation project in LaBelle, Fayette County.
That will begin in 2017.
