Stream preservation focus of 10th annual DRYerson Festival
David Cressey of Nettle Hill looks at a map from March showing all the longwall mining and oil and gas drilling sites in Greene County during Saturday’s 10th annual DRYerson Festival at Ryerson Station State Park.
Heidi Marx, of Waynesburg, paints Julia Phillips, of Waynesburg, face at the 10th annual DRYerson Festival. In addition to a focus on the environmental impact of mining and drilling, the festival provided family activities like face painting, crafts and trying slack lining.
Katharine Richter, an intern with the Center for Coalfield Justice, grabs a bite to eat from Robert East, CCJ Chairman of the Board, during the DRYerson festival Saturday.
Avery Grenter, 2, of Mt. Lebanon munches on a hot dog while listening to live music at the DRYerson festival at Ryerson Station State Park. The festival was started ten years ago to pressure governing agencies to restore Duke Lake after it was drained in 2005.
Chuck Hunnell said a spring-fed stream on his property in Center Township used to be a thriving habitat for creatures like salamanders and crayfish. Now, he said, it’s grassed over and only flows when it collects runoff following a rain. He attributes the change to coal mining operations conducted under the land in the late 1980s.
“You know what’s there now, now that they longwalled me? It’s a drainage ditch,” said Hunnell, 73, a “lifelong Greene Countian” and retired teacher.
Hunnell was among about 60 locals and environmentalists who attended the 10th annual DRYerson Festival Saturday, whose focus this year was protecting streams in and near Ryerson Station State Park in Richhill Township, Greene County, from the same fate as the one on Hunnell’s property.
Organized by the Center for Coalfield Justice and co-sponsored by the Sierra Club and other local environmental groups, the festival started as a way to pressure governing agencies to bring back the park’s Duke Lake, which was drained in 2005 after cracks appeared in the lake’s dam which the state attributed to longwall mining.
This year’s festival – which included a performance by musician and activist Tom Breiding, raffles and a picnic – was the first since the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources announced last July the lake would not be restored.
In remarks to attendees, Coalfield Justice executive director Patrick Grenter highlighted efforts to block operations a Consol’s Bailey Mine that environmental groups said fear could impact feeder streams in the area.
Coalfield Justice lodged a challenge two years ago to the Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to allow Consol to expand the mine before the state Environmental Hearing Board. The group, which was later joined by the Sierra Club, argues the DEP permits violated the Clean Streams Law and other rules.
Consol contended in court filings the groups’ reading of the Clean Streams Law is overly narrow and the law allows for changes to waterways in some cases.
A trial is set to begin Aug. 10.
Grenter stressed the urgency of that legal fight and asked for support and donations to help the group’s work.
“We have already seen flow loss in Polen Run,” he said. “We have already seen bulldozer and backhoes conducting stream restoration, which involves pumping tons of concrete to fill the holes they’ve ripped into the earth underneath our streams.”
Tonette Beiter-Thomas, 46, of Waynesburg, attended the event for the first time with family and friends. Her son, Christopher Thomas, started an internship this summer with Coalfield Justice.
“I grew up coming to this park, and I’m always shocked that the lake isn’t here,” Beiter-Thomas said.
“We certainly come here less without it.”