Butler Mine Tunnel was placed on the National Priorities List (NPL) by the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on July 27, 1987. The NPL is a list of national priorities among the known or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants throughout the United States and its territories.

The NPL is part of the Superfund program, the common name for the United States environmental policy officially known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), enacted by the United States Congress on December 11, 1980 in response to the Love Canal and Times Beach disasters. Superfund law was created to protect people, families, communities and others from heavily contaminated toxic waste sites that have been abandoned. Many of the contaminants at Superfund sites are also regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).Butler underground mine tunnel. Source: city-data.

Background

Butler Mine Tunnel, Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania was built in the 1930s as a collection and discharge point for mine drainage from an estimated five-square-mile area of underground coal mines. Hazardous materials were disposed of in underground mines connected to the tunnel, which discharges directly to the Susquehanna River and in 1979 the river was contaminated with an oily discharge from the tunnel. The EPA tracked the contaminants to a municipal water intake 60 miles downstream, the sole source of drinking water for nearly 12 thousand residents of Danville, Pennsylvania. This oil was traced to the illegal dumping of hazardous chemicals into a four-inch borehole, 3.5 miles from the outlet of the tunnel which drains into the labyrinth of Butler’s underground mines, the boreholes acted as air vents for the mine. Approximately 25,000 people live within five-miles of the tunnel, and around 1,400 live within the boundaries of the Butler site.

The State identified the owner of the Hi-Way Auto Service Station where the borehole was located, the president of the waste transporting company, and the dispatcher of the company as responsible parties, each received jail sentences. Under the Clean Water Act, EPA in 1979 responded to the Butler discharge, installing booms to collect oily surface matter which were kept in place until December 1980, collecting 160,000 gallons of oil, which contained13,000 pounds of dichlorobenzene. After the removal of the booms, an automated detection system was installed, this emergency action cost $2.2 million. The State operated the system until 1984, during which time there was no evidence of any discharge from the tunnel.Pittston underground miners. Source: epodunk.com.

On October 23, 1981, EPA announced the Interim Priorities List (IPL), a preliminary list developed prior to formal proposal of the first NPL, which included Butler. In February 1982, the State indicated that no further response actions were warranted based on monitoring of existing conditions. On December 30, 1982, the first NPL was proposed which did not include Butler as the EPA declared that all clean-up activities were complete.

Contamination

After the State clean-up of Butler and Susquehanna River, colossal contamination occurred in September 1985, following heavy rains associated with Hurricane Gloria, around 100,000 gallons of waste oil containing 1 to 3 percent of bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate and other potentially carcinogenic toxins were released in run-off from the Mine Tunnel to the Susquehanna River and to the riverbank’s soil. Once again Butler was placed on the NPL in July 1987.

Remedial Action

Once more, the EPA responded to contamination, this time using CERCLA emergency funds, constructing booms, disposing of collected waste oil, contaminated soil, and reinstalling an automatic detection system. In 2005 the EPA declared that clean-up of Butler Mine Tunnel waste in the Susquehanna River was complete. Further remedial action by the EPA involved continued monitoring of the Site with:

• Daily monitoring of rainfall.
• Daily monitoring river flow at tunnel discharge.
• Daily measurement of water levels in boreholes.
• Daily collection of water samples for chemical analysis to predict when toxic discharges may occur.
• An emergency response plan.

According to the EPA, Butler Mine Tunnel could release more than 90,000 gallons of oil into the river at any time. As a consequence, the EPA tests the river on a daily basis, if this were to ever happen, the agency has emergency clean-up plans in place utilizing river skimmers to remove any further releases, which would be paid for by the PRPs. The response action, which was tested in April 2007, involves installation of four floating boom lines anchored by heavy trotlines to trap surface pollution and funnel toward collection sites on the riverbank.A clean Susquehanna River near Pittston. Source: wunderground.com.

Local environmental groups continue to be concerned as the EPA now only monitors contamination rather than offering a long-term plan to abate further contamination, which they say could be done via construction of a waste pipeline.

More than 50 Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) were found to be responsible for contamination, the last of which finally, Alcan Corp., finally agreed to pay $1.9m to the EPA as a contribution to clean-up costs.

Sources

• United States Environmental Protection Agency, News Release From Region 3, February 11, 2008.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, NPL Site Narrative Butler Mine Tunnel, July 22, 1987.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency, Record of Decision Butler Mine Tunnel, July 15, 1996.
• Upper Susquehanna-Lackawanna Watershed, Natural Resource Protection and Restoration, Accessed November 6, 2008.