Water Recovery
A Long-Term Platform for Addressing the Old Forge Borehole
REA intends to advance the Borehole water-recovery program with the same discipline applied to major energy infrastructure: verified source-water data, defined treatment objectives, permit pathways, residuals management, monitoring, operating responsibility, financial assurance, and measurable public reporting.
The Old Forge Borehole
The Old Forge Borehole
The March 2018 Old Forge mine-pool review documented historical Borehole flows of approximately 55 million to 78 million gallons per day, averaging approximately 65 million gallons per day. The review identified the Borehole as the largest abandoned-mine-drainage discharge in the Susquehanna River Basin. These figures describe historical discharge, separately from the treatment and water-use quantities established for the proposed program.
Historical discharge measurements inform the treatment program's design. The treatment commitment is established by the program's own scope, engineering, and operating requirements.
Treatment Before Reuse
Treatment Before Reuse
Mine water introduced into the pumped-storage system will be treated or conditioned to meet engineered requirements for sediment control, scaling and corrosion management, equipment protection, reservoir compatibility, water quality, and applicable permits.
The Work Program
The Work Program
The water-recovery work program addresses current seasonal flow and chemistry, representative sampling, treatment objectives, receiving-water conditions, reservoir and equipment compatibility, solids and residuals, treatment reliability, electrical and chemical requirements, operator responsibilities, permitting, ownership, long-term funding, monitoring, corrective action, and measurable watershed outcomes.
Each item is presented as completed, underway, planned, or subject to decision, with the supporting record identified.
Understanding the Water Quantities
REA's water-recovery planning distinguishes the Borehole's discharge from the volume selected for treatment, the water needed for initial reservoir filling, ongoing makeup water, and treated-water discharge or reuse. The pumped-storage cycle recirculates water between project reservoirs. Treatment capacity and water-use requirements are defined through the program's engineering and permitting record.
- Historical Borehole discharge
- The documented historical flow from the Old Forge Borehole into the Lackawanna River watershed.
- Treatment throughput
- The volume of mine water selected for treatment under the proposed program.
- Initial reservoir fill
- Water required to fill the project reservoirs at the start of operations.
- Makeup water
- Ongoing water additions to compensate for evaporation, seepage, and operational losses.
- Treated-water discharge or reuse
- The compliant endpoint for treated water, including any approved reuse pathway.
The Work Required
Elements of a Long-Term Water-Recovery Program
Source-water characterization
Seasonal flow, chemistry, variability, mine-pool behavior, and representative sampling
Treatment definition
Treatment process, throughput, objectives, and performance basis
Residuals management
Characterization, handling, transportation, reuse or disposal, permits, and long-term responsibility
Discharge or reuse
Compliant endpoint, receiving-water analysis, monitoring, and operating limits
Operations
Qualified operator, power and chemical supply, maintenance, emergency response, and financial assurance
Public results
Approved baseline, performance indicators, monitoring data, incident reporting, and corrective action
Long-Term Operation
REA is developing the operating framework for treatment, including operator responsibilities, funding, monitoring, maintenance, residuals management, corrective action, and continuity of service. These responsibilities will be addressed in the applicable operating arrangements and permit requirements.
Historical Planning Reference — October 2022
An October 2022 project planning pro forma identified approximately $60 million in new capital uses and approximately $7.3 million in annual operations and maintenance. These are dated project-planning figures. Their scope is the facilities and cost assumptions included in that pro forma; current program budgets will be established through updated engineering, procurement, and operating plans.
The Commercial Challenge — Pay for Treatment Over Decades
A Revenue-Producing Asset Can Support Continuing Treatment
A durable water-recovery program needs both construction funding and continuing support for operation, maintenance, treatment inputs, monitoring, residuals management, and corrective action. REA is developing the pumped-storage project as a revenue-producing asset intended to help sustain that environmental objective.
Relationship to Pumped Storage
Relationship to Pumped Storage
The pumped-storage project can provide infrastructure, project revenue, long-term operating discipline, and financing capacity that supports Borehole recovery. The treatment system stands on its own technical, regulatory, environmental, and financial merits.
Environmental improvement is traced to identified capture, treatment, management, discharge, reuse, or mitigation actions with verified performance.
Water, Wells, and Groundwater Protection
Water, Wells, and Groundwater Protection
Community questions concerning private wells, groundwater levels, mine pools, seepage, blasting, reservoir containment, and construction water deserve direct study and enforceable response procedures.