An environmental organization has filed an appeal questioning whether a Donegal Township mine operator has followed a state directive to reinstate its mine subsidence bond to $3.14 million from a state-permitted reduction to about $293,000.
The Mountain Watershed Association in Melcroft, said in its filing with the state’s Environmental Hearing Board earlier this month that the hearing board should retain jurisdiction over the revised permit requiring Rustic Ridge No. 1 Mine to carry a $3.14 million bond against mine subsidence, because that Department of Environmental Protection permit is “procedural defective and ineffective.”
“We are concerned. Our main complaint is that there is no evidence that it (bond) was restored,” said Nate Ricketts, community organizer for the watershed association.
But Mark Tercek, president of mine owner LCT Energy L.P. of Johnstown, said Wednesday that the $3.14 million bond that was in place in April 2025 when 1,450 acres was added to Rustic Ridge mine was never reduced on March 6 when the state permitted a bond reduction of some $2.8 million.
The higher bond remained in place when the DEP in early April rescinded its permit lowering the bond, Tercek said.
But the watershed association contends that DEP erred on March 6 when it reduced the mine subsidence bond because LCT Energy said last October it had no damage claims for five years, even though the state had reports of damage between 2020 and 2022.
If the Environmental Hearing Board does not declare the recent bond revision defective and restore the required proof for the higher bond, the watershed association said the DEP should be required to conduct a site-specific analysis. That analysis should account for the risks at Rustic Ridge and satisfy the state’s mine subsidence requirement that the company’s bond is set at a “reasonable amount,” the watershed association said.
The DEP does not comment on litigation, said Neil Shrader, a DEP spokesman.
Melissa Marshall, an attorney for Mountain Watershed Association at its Melcroft headquarters, and Sarah E. Winner, a Pittsburgh attorney with the Center for Coalfield Justice, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
LCT Energy had purchased three mine-subsidence damaged homes along Hellen Ridge Lane and Hellein School Road — paying $600,000 each for two properties and $350,000 for one — according to Westmoreland County Recorder of Deeds record included in the documents. LCT made the purchases after acknowledging to the state that the mining damaged their homes, according to documents filed with the hearing board.
The mine subsidence bond was not used to buy the houses, Tercek said.
Owners of a fourth house accepted a settlement, according to the appeal. One resident with claims of subsidence damage has not settled with the company, according to the watershed association’s filing.
Ricketts said the lower bond would not have covered the cost of purchasing the houses.
Rustic Ridge has mined underneath about 140 properties, Tercek said of the mine that is under both Saltlick Township in Fayette County and Donegal Township in Westmoreland County. The mine opened in 2019.