Then the water is made to pass into ponds where remaining sediment can precipitate or settle out of the water before the water passes into wetlands, where most of the rest of pollution is removed before entering the receiving stream.

Bob Hedin of Hedin Environmental designed the system and is overseeing its construction by Groves Excavating from Falls Creek. Hedin has a Ph.D. in ecology from Rutgers and worked for the United States Bureau of Mines for six years, during which time he performed ground-breaking research into many aspects of acid mine drainage treatment.

Hedin said the pH of the water coming from an artesian flow on the site is around six. Neutral water carries a pH of seven. Hedin expects the anoxic limestone drain to boost the water’s pH by half a point.

“Untreated, the water coming out of the well carries about 100 milligrams of iron per liter. Once the water is treated it should have around 20 mg/l,” Hedin commented. “There will be very little iron by the time it gets to the creek.”

When the alkalinized water enters the precipitation ponds Hedin says about 80 percent of the iron will be captured.

The acid drainage at Filson  7 comes from an old gas well, where the casing for the well has corroded, allowing mine water to rise to the surface.

Hedin said one of the anoxic limestone drains on the site will hold 911 tons of limestone and the other will hold about 1,400 tons.

Hedin expects the limestone to last about 25 years, saying that it acts the same as a Tums antacid.

As the limestone dissolves, a depression forms in the ground above the drain. Hedin said the limestone only dissolves to a certain degree, but the alkalinity it adds to the water aids in the precipitation of iron oxide.

The precipitation ponds turn orange or red as iron oxide deposits in the pool, where it can be pumped out, dried, and processed to be used for pigments in a variety of products.

Hedin’s company gathers the iron oxide and processes it at their site at the former Pennsylvania Cullet along U.S. Route 322 between Corsica and Strattanville.

Hedin said in about ten years the iron can be dredged out and sold.

“Making clean water is our number one priority,” Hedin said. “Eighty gallons of untreated water flow into Little Mill Creek every minute without this site.”

“We’ve started to find some low water quality tolerant fish in the creek,” Mill Creek Coalition President Pete Dalby told the Clarion News. “We’ve found suckers, daces, and some bluegills.”

The Mill Creek Coalition handles about two dozen acid mine drainage treatment sites.

Dalby said there is a way to go before trout return to the stream but said that creek chubs are flourishing.

“The creek used to be raw and red. It has been a remarkable achievement over a close to 15-year period,” Dalby said.

The site is good for treatment because of the high clay content in the soil which makes lining the ponds with plastic or other material unnecessary.

Hedin and Dalby both expressed admiration to Mumford for allowing them to put the treatment site on his property.

They also said they were quite comfortable working with Alan Groves on the construction of the site, saying that Groves Excavating made its first acid mine treatment site in 1998 and has learned a lot from experience building the sites.

The Mill Creek Coalition went through Headwaters Charitable Trust to obtain grant funding for the project through the Department of Environmental Protection.