'GOLD' FLOWS IN THEM THAR HILLS
Bennett's Branch still being polluted with acid mine drainage

There's gold in them thar hills.

Fool's gold, that is.

Deposits of pyrite, the scientific name for fool's gold, in abandoned coal mines continue to foul the Bennett's Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek.

Plans to build a treatment plant are now in place, awaiting final approval of state funding, according to Ken Rowe, president of the Bennett Branch Watershed Association. His group keeps watch over a wastershed that begins west of Penfield and flows 34 miles, mostly through Elk County, to Driftwood in Cameron County. There, it joins the Driftwood Branch to form the Sinnemahoning Creek and empties into the Susquehanna River.

Bennett Branch is polluted from more than a century of coal mining, finally curtailed in the 1970s when environmental laws were passed.

The treatment plant is proposed for the village of Hollywood, Clearfield County, to collect water from 20 individual mine openings which eventually empty into the waterway.

An iron coating on the bottom of the stream chokes out any plant life that most aquatic life needs to live, include trout and other game fish. As rain water seeps through soil in the mines, which has a lot of pyrite or "fool's gold" in it, it finds its way into the stream and its tributaries.

Contact with oxygen causes a chemical reaction that turns the water orange, while sulfuric acid kills the fish.

Bennett Branch Watershed Association is also using doses of limestone injected into the water to reclaim sites within Dents Run. Limestone neutralizes the acid, diminishing iron and aluminum levels.

The watershed work is part of a broader project supported by the Pa. Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, Elk County Conservation District, Pa. Game Commission and other organizations.

P&N Coal Company is extracting limestone for the stream applications from its coal-mining operations near Winslow Hill. Eventually, those sites will be restored and vegetation planted by the Game Commission.

Estimated price tag of the construction, materials and design work is more than $37 million.