Residents pack Washington Township meeting over mine subsidence concerns

By LIAM BELAN
lbelan@yourmvi.com
It was standing-room only during a Washington Township supervisor’s meeting Wednesday night as about 150 concerned residents attended to hear about what’s being done to protect them from mine subsidence damage to their homes and properties.
Representatives from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Peoples Gas Company, state Sen. Patrick Stefano’s office, state Rep. Ryan Warner’s office, Fayette County First Vice-Chair Commissioner Vince Vicites and concerned residents attended the meeting that was held prior to the supervisors’ regular business meeting.
Frank Manown, whose son Jeff Manown sustained major ine subsidence damage on his property on Mutich Street, started the meeting off by passing out information from June that the Biden-Harris administration had approved $725 million in grant money available for 22 states to reclaim abandoned coal-mine land.
Of the 22 states that received portions of the funding, Pennsylvania was given by far the most at $244,786,000, over a third of the total.
Unfortunately, representatives from the DEP explained they’ve recently received that money, but there is an endless demand for those funds throughout this side of the state.
But, the township may receive some of it for mine-subsidence efforts.
“It takes a long time to get that money, and we just got it,” a DEP official said. “All of western Pennsylvania is undermined, so we’re just getting ramped up and adding additional staff. These are large projects … and it takes time to put them all together. This area is eventually on the list.”

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