Zinc mining waste cleanup in Upper Saucon nearly complete

When Lehigh University came into a windfall of land donated to the school in 2012 by the Donald B. and Dorothy Stabler Foundation, it came with one piece of baggage.

A chunk of the 755 acres of donated property included contaminated limestone tailings a form of zinc mining waste that the state insisted had to be cleaned up before that portion could be developed.

Nearly two years later, Eastern Industries, the local company that holds the mining permit for the land and is responsible for its remediation, is close to finishing the job, state regulators say. It has stabilized the property, layered clean soil and rock over the zinc piles and seeded the newly-graded property to stabilize it.

Now the company just needs to grow some grass.

"This was an agreed-upon remedy, provided the vegetation takes," said Colleen Connolly, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection. "DEP will inspect to see if the planting and seeding is satisfactory at the site. Eastern Industries just has to make sure the vegetation progresses."

DEP and Lehigh County Conservation District inspectors visited the site in June to inspect the work, she said.

"It is a process DEP required, and we have been following their protocol," said Rusty Taft, Eastern's land permit and environmental manager.

The cleanup was designed to prevent dust emanating from the mining waste, which includes zinc and arsenic, from being caught up and dispersed in the wind.

State officials had initially given the company until the end of August 2013 to complete the regrading, and the end of September 2013 to grow the grass.

Last year, Connolly said, dust from the piles was not blowing off the 139-acre former mine site, and it was not a public health threat.

Originally posted here:
Zinc mining waste cleanup in Upper Saucon nearly complete