CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Funding from a $102,000.00 Growing Greener Grant through the Department of Environmental Protection would treat the iron and aluminum in the acid mine drainage at the Clarion County Park, according to Tricia Mazik, a resource conservation technician with the Clarion Conservation District.

Hedin Environmental, consultants for the Conservation District, is willing to match $2,000.00 and the district also has a committed match of $10,000.00 and would need an additional $5,000.00 from the county.

“I’m here to request a county match for the treatment system at the Clarion County Park,” Mazik told Clarion County Commissioners on Wednesday morning.

“The grant application is due Friday and it would entail a letter of commitment from Clarion County.”

Clarion County Commissioners committed up to $5,000.00 as part of a local 15 percent match for a Growing Greener Grant treat acid mine drainage at the Clarion County Park.  The funding would come from the Legacy Fund that receives money from Marcellus Shale impact funding from the Commonwealth.

The current system was installed in 1999, and a wetland channel was installed to have the metals drop out on the wetland channel.

“The channel clogged very quickly, breached the ditch and has been cascading on the neighbor’s property and has killed a bunch of trees and everything in sight,” Mazik said. “The treatment system kind of failed from the beginning.  Another element there was bond forfeiture money of $72,000.00 also committed to the site, but that is a completely different project than what we are talking about today.”

“What is needed to do a complete overhaul of the treatment system there — we would need approximately $102,000.00, and we would have to come up with a 15 percent match.  I am proposing we treat just the iron and the aluminum.  We could save the manganese treatment for later because it would cost an extra $120,000.00. Manganese is not toxic like aluminum and iron and not detrimental to the stream.”