EDITORIAL Industrial wastelands turning into scenic tourist attractions

Pedaling through Rostraver Township along the Great Allegheny Passage gives bicyclists a glimpse of the lasting environmental sins from coal mining’s past.
Just past West Newton, an abandoned mine’s waste pile that rises nearly 100 feet above the trail intrudes on the picturesque landscape that thousands of tourists enjoy each year.
The coal waste site is dangerous to nearby travelers who wander off the trail, which is too beautiful to be scarred by such an environmental mess.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is trying to change that with the help of a $7 million grant to reclaim the 110-acre site with unsightly buildings and three coal refuse slurry ponds. The site could eventually hold a solar energy farm after the reclamation is completed in three years.
The reclamation project along the trail is just one of many examples of how the area is trying to turn underutilized spaces or former industrial wastelands into pristine recreation options for tourists.
The Montour and Panhandle trails, former railroad lines for coal companies outside of Pittsburgh, have also seen vast improvements over the years. They skirt old coal patch towns and through abandoned strip mines in the northern section of Washington County.
To the south, Greene County and its many outdoorsmen are trying to make Ten Mile Creek a more inviting place for kayakers – novices and professionals alike – to paddle down stream.
The creek was long seen as a recreational beacon as it was developed to become a waterway trail a decade ago, stretching 23 miles from Waynesburg to the Monongahela River. Two new kayak launches that opened in 2016 – one near Route 188 in Franklin Township and the other on Beagle Club Road in Morgan Township – are helping to make the creek more accessible to boaters.
Western Pennsylvania needs more of these recreation options for its residents and out-of-state tourist. Improvements to our trails and waterways are not only creating scenic spaces and serving as economic catalysts, but they also stand in juxtaposition to the area’s industrial past that has left behind a legacy we’re still trying to clean up.