An innovative and successful mine drainage treatment demonstration project in Tioga County is showing great potential for widespread use.  The Antrim Micro-Hydropower Project is the first micro-hydropower project to generate electricity to the grid, becoming a net-producer of power using mine drainage.

In partnership with DEP and the Antrim Treatment Trust,  the Babb Creek Watershed Association operates an AMD treatment facility that cleans a 1000 to 3000 gallon-per-minute (gpm) discharge of severe acid mine drainage from the abandoned Antrim #1 deep mine in the village of Antrim in Duncan Township.

The unique location of the discharge, approximately 400 higher in elevation than the receiving stream, Wilson Run, led the partners to identify hydroelectric power production, using the flows from the treatment plant, as a way to reduce treatment plant operating costs as well as generate additional revenue to the trust fund established to finance treatment plant operations.

In 2008, BCWA applied for and received a $428,710 Energy Harvest Grant to install two hydroelectric turbines on the Antrim Treatment Plant discharge.  Designed and constructed by BioMost Inc. in 2012, the hydropower facility consists of a fore bay that collects treated water from the treatment facility, 1,000 feet of penstock, and a powerhouse with two 20-kW Turgo turbines. 

Initially only a portion of the flow (329 gpm) was utilized to operate one turbine to supply electricity to the plant while the Antrim Trust applied for a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to supply excess power to the electric grid. 

In February 2014, the Trust received authorization to go on-grid, eliminating $12,000 in yearly power costs and possibly generating up to $8,000 per year in additional revenue.

“This project turned a waste product from past mining that caused a perpetual environmental problem into renewable energy that creates no air or water pollution and helps to solve an existing water pollution problem,” DEP Deputy Secretary for Active & Abandoned Mine Operations John Stefanko said.  “It demonstrates how  positive environmental and financial improvements can be realized through innovative application of existing technology.”

(Reprinted from the March 20 DEP News.)

3/24/2014