The Audenried Tunnel, also known as the Audenried Mine Tunnel, is a

drainage tunnel A drainage tunnel, called an emissary in ancient contexts, is a tunnel or channel created to drain water, often from a stagnant or variable-depth body of water. It typically leads to a lower stream or river, or to a location where a pumping statio ...

located in East Union Township, Schuylkill County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is approximately three miles long and drains the western portion of a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

basin near

Kelayres Kelayres is a census-designated place in Kline Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States on Broad Mountain, just west of McAdoo. Reservoir Number 8 is just west of Kelayres and drains northward into the Catawissa Creek, a tributary ...

. It is among the largest sources of

acid mine drainage Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weathering ...

into

Catawissa Creek Catawissa Creek (colloquially known as The Cat) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River in east-central Pennsylvania in th ...

. It also contributes up to 80% of the acidity to Catawissa Creek. The Audenried Tunnel's pH is approximately 4. However, there have been somewhat successful attempts at treating the tunnel outflow in the 21st century. The bedrock in the vicinity of the tunnel is mostly shale and sandstone.

Location and description

The Audenried Tunnel is long. The tunnel runs between Audenried Mine and the watershed of Catawissa Creek. It is filled with

debris Debris (, ) is rubble, wreckage, ruins, litter and discarded garbage/refuse/trash, scattered remains of something destroyed, or, as in geology, large rock fragments left by a melting glacier, etc. Depending on context, ''debris'' can refer to ...

and the air inside the tunnel is not breathable. The tunnel roughly follows the synclinal axis of the coal basin it is in. The tunnel drains the Jeansville Coal Basin, which is located between

Hazleton Hazleton may refer to: Places * Hazleton, British Columbia, Canada * Hazleton, Gloucestershire, a village in Gloucestershire, England ** Hazleton long barrows, Neolithic burial mounds at Hazleton, Gloucestershire, England ** Hazleton Abbey, a me ...

and McAdoo. The Audenried Tunnel is located approximately east of the community of

Sheppton, Pennsylvania Sheppton is a census-designated place (CDP) in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 239 at the 2000 census. Geography Sheppton is located at (40.895990, -76.118221). According to the United States Census Bureau, t ...

. The tunnel is in width and in height. When the Audenried Tunnel was first built, the first were fully lined with

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

due to the low quality of the rock in that part of the tunnel. The next were also supported by timber, but to a lesser extent. In 1931, the Glen Alden Coal Company reported that from the mouth of the Audenried Tunnel, there was a fissure that discharged close to 800 gallons (approximately 211 liters) per minute. It is possible that there is a fault at this location. The Audenried Tunnel is the most downstream mine drainage tunnel to discharge into Catawissa Creek.

Hydrology

The Audenried Tunnel discharges into

near where the

Green Mountain Tunnel The Green Mountain Tunnel is a mine drainage tunnel in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is one of five major mine drainage tunnels in the watershed of Catawissa Creek. The tunnel discharges into Catawissa Creek near the Aud ...

and the

Catawissa Tunnel The Catawissa Tunnel is a mine drainage tunnel in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The tunnel discharges into Catawissa Creek further upstream than any other mine drainage tunnel in the watershed. The tunnel was constructed in ...

discharge into the creek. The Audenried Tunnel discharges in a

strip mine Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

not far from Catawissa Creek's headwaters. All of the

mine workings Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

in the Jeansville Coal Basin likely drain into the tunnel, as does some water from the surface. The

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

from the Audenried Tunnel contributes currently as much as 80% of the

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

flowing through Catawissa Creek, with previous studies showing up to 84%. The average discharge of the tunnel is 12.22 million

gallon The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use: *the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austral ...

s per day, or about 8500 gallons per minute. However, during heavy

rainstorm Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then become heavy enough to fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fr ...

s, the discharge can reach 300,000 gallons per minute. The pH of the water in the tunnel ranges between 3.8 and 4.1. The average pH is 4.03. The total concentration of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

in the waters at the confluence of the Audenried Tunnel and Catawissa Creek is 0.7 milligrams per liter, which equates to a load of per day. The total maximum daily load for iron is per day, which is 21% less than the current load. The total concentration of

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

at the confluence is 2.28 milligrams per liter, which equates to a load of per day. The total maximum daily load for manganese is 73% less than the current daily load. The total concentration of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

is 7.93 milligrams per liter, which equates to a load of per day. The total maximum daily load for aluminum is , which is 95% less than the current daily load. The total concentration of acidity is 68.08 milligrams per liter, which equates to per day. The total maximum daily load for acidity is , which is 99% less than the current load. The total concentration of alkalinity is 2.31 milligrams per liter, which equates to per day. The total concentration of

sulfate The sulfate or sulphate ion is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula . Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely used in industry. Sulfates occur widely in everyday life. Sulfates are salts of sulfuric acid and many ar ...

s in the discharge is 136.25 milligrams per liter.

History

The Glen Alden Coal Company commenced construction of the Audenried Tunnel in 1928. Construction of the tunnel finished in 1931. The tunnel was originally created to decrease the elevation of the area's

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

without resorting to the use of

pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they u ...

s, thus allowing the drilling of deep

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

shafts ''Shafts'' was an English feminist magazine produced by Margaret Sibthorp from 1892 until 1899. Initially published weekly and priced at one penny, its themes included votes for women, women's education, and radical attitudes towards vivisection, ...

. It was successful in doing this, but rendered of Catawissa Creek devoid of life for 75 years. An attempt was made to map the Audenried Tunnel in 1971. However, the attempt was aborted after due to the presence of debris that was impassible. Plans were made in 1974 to plug the tunnel. In 2006, part of the treatment plant at the mouth of the Audenried Tunnel was buried by a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

, putting it out of commission.

Attempts at restoration and treatment

One plan to reduce the discharge rate of the Audenried Tunnel is to reclaim land and create

stream channel In physical geography, a channel is a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and narrow body of water or of other fluids (e.g., lava), most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait. The word is c ...

s for

Hunkydory Creek Hunkydory Creek is a tributary of Catawissa Creek in Schuylkill County and Luzerne County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Kline Township in Schuylkill County and Hazle Township in Luzerne County ...

and two unnamed tributaries of Catawissa Creek. There are plans to test a way to neutralize the water in the Audenried Tunnel. The Audenried Tunnel AMD Treatment Project began in the summer of 2005, with the aim of treating the outflow of the Audenried Tunnel. The Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation gained $150,000 from the

Office of Surface Mining The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) is a branch of the United States Department of the Interior. It is the federal agency entrusted with the implementation and enforcement of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamati ...

for the project. The treatment cost approximately $1,900,000 and is the largest acid mine drainage treatment system in the

Coal Region The Coal Region is a region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is known for being home to the largest known deposits of anthracite, anthracite coal in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons. The region is typically define ...

. Around 2000, plans were made to reroute Catawissa Creek away from the tunnel. The Audenried Tunnel AMD Treatment Project takes in water from the Audenried Tunnel and puts it in three concrete tanks that are wide and deep. The tanks are filled with 4500 tons of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. The treatment system raises the pH of the water by 30%.

Ed Rendell Edward Gene Rendell (; born January 5, 1944) is an American lawyer, prosecutor, politician, and author. He served as the 45th Governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011, as chair of the national Democratic Party, and as the 96th Mayor of Philade ...

, the governor of Pennsylvania when this project was worked on, granted $200,000 to the project.

Geology

The

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

around the Audenried Tunnel includes red

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

, sandy shale, which are both

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

-like or

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

-like. The shale is more weathered near the mouth of the tunnel. The bedrock near the tunnel also includes

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

belonging to the

Mauch Chunk Formation The Mississippian Mauch Chunk Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. It is named for the township of Mauch Chunk, now known as borough of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania and for nearby Mauch Chunk Ridge where th ...

. Between and , the bedrock around the tunnel is largely sandstone. Up to , the rock near the Audenried Tunnel is mostly

interbedded In geology, interbedding occurs when beds (layers of rock) of a particular lithology lie between or alternate with beds of a different lithology. For example, sedimentary rocks may be interbedded if there were sea level variations in their sedimen ...

red shale and sandstone. However, there is also a layer of

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** Co ...

References

External links

Image of the cross section of the Audenried Tunnel
{{coord missing, Pennsylvania 1931 establishments in Pennsylvania Coal mining in the United States Drainage tunnels in the United States Environment of Pennsylvania Mining in Pennsylvania Transportation buildings and structures in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Catawissa Creek Tunnels completed in 1931 Tunnels in Pennsylvania