Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 62F. Winds light and variable..
Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 62F. Winds light and variable.
A specialized drilling rig makes bore holes into the side of Big Mountain in Trevorton as the contractor tries to meet up with a mine shaft where a fire had been burning.
Megan Lehman, environmental community relations specialist, Williamsport, with the state Department of Environmental Protection, looks into a mine shaft May 26, 2021, where a fire was burning on Big Mountain in Trevorton.
Robert Inglis/The Daily Item This specialized drilling rig is making bore holes into the side of Big Mountain in Trevorton as they try to meet up with a mine shaft where a fire had been burning.
Pipes used in drilling boreholes into Big Mountain in Trevorton.
Robert Inglis/The Daily Item A capped bore hole on the side of Big Mountain in Trevorton.
A specialized drilling rig makes bore holes into the side of Big Mountain in Trevorton as the contractor tries to meet up with a mine shaft where a fire had been burning.
Megan Lehman, environmental community relations specialist, Williamsport, with the state Department of Environmental Protection, looks into a mine shaft May 26, 2021, where a fire was burning on Big Mountain in Trevorton.
Robert Inglis/The Daily Item This specialized drilling rig is making bore holes into the side of Big Mountain in Trevorton as they try to meet up with a mine shaft where a fire had been burning.
Pipes used in drilling boreholes into Big Mountain in Trevorton.
Robert Inglis/The Daily Item A capped bore hole on the side of Big Mountain in Trevorton.
TREVORTON — Contractors finished drilling one borehole and neared completion of a second Wednesday atop Big Mountain in Zerbe Township as continued monitoring shows little evidence that a fire in an underground mine is still burning.
The boreholes are downhill on the north side of the mine slope opening inside which household refuse, tires and potentially coal caught fire out of sight on April 24. The slope opening is just steps behind the Coal Miner’s Cross Memorial erected atop the mountain immediately south of Trevorton.
Lawrence Dobash, civil engineer manager with Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said nine boreholes are planned to be drilled within two weeks. He figured more time and boreholes may be needed.
Using century-old mining maps and georeferenced surface mapping, they’re working to intersect the mine slope and adjacent underground mine workings. The holes, 8 inches in diameter and lined with casings, are access points to check for rising smoke and measure the temperature 200 feet to 300 feet or slightly more below ground.
“First hole: cold, low 50s,” Dobash said of the Fahrenheit readings while visiting the site Wednesday. “The slope has been in the high 40s.”
DEP awarded the drilling contract to Northumberland Services, of Paxinos, for $313,150. The company subcontracted the drilling work to Frey Well Drilling of Erie County, New York, which has a specialty drill rig fit for the job.
“We just moved a lot of dirt to try to get him to the places where we needed, but it’s still a guessing game where exactly the mine goes. The maps are obsolete,” said Kendal Weaver, who owns Northumberland Services. “We’re chasing a hole that’s 100 years old. Everyone’s dead who worked down there. It’s basically a guessing game.”
Northumberland Services is a sibling company to Tri-County Spreading, which had been contracted to truck and dump water collected from a nearby pond into the mine slope — more than 2 million gallons.
When smoke and steam slowed earlier this month — there was no smoke visible at the mouth of the slope Wednesday — DEP stopped the water dumps altogether to monitor for heat, steam and gasses and drill boreholes for further reassurance that the fire may be extinguished. Temperatures at the slope dipped into the 40s since then.
“Since we stopped dumping the water we’ve had no indications of heat,” Dobash said.
Bill Frey, owner-operator of Frey Well Drilling, is using a Foremost DR-12 portable drill rig. The dual rotary drill is powered by the truck’s 500 horsepower engine. The entire rig, truck and drill, weighs 66,000 pounds.
What makes his rig different, Frey said, is the dual rotary action: the bit and casing each turn. It can drill straight or on an angle. Frey welds cutting shoes on the ends of the casings.
“I put a cutting shoe on the casing and turn it and cut my way through that rock,” Frey said.
The drill is working through quartzite and sandstone, Frey said. Upthrusted rock makes angle drilling more difficult. He said the stones below ground have ground down bits faster than anticipated.
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