$20 Million for Salt Mine Settlement

AkzoNobel, which Owned the Defunct Retsof Mine, will Provide $17 Million to the County Government, Most of which Will Be Used for Water Infrastructure

Livingston County officials accepted a $20 million settlement Tuesday that closes another chapter in the tale of the mid-1990s collapse of a historic salt mine near Geneseo.

The settlement resolves lingering issues over the shut-down of a desalination plant designed to pump and treat hyper-salty brine from the mine as a way of keeping it from seeping into a freshwater aquifer that could be needed for drinking water.

AkzoNobel, which owned the defunct Retsof mine, will provide $17 million to the county government, most of which will be used for water infrastructure or water-supply protection in the area impacted by the mine collapse. The state Department of Environmental Conservation will use $3 million for on-going groundwater or geologic monitoring.

In return for the payment, the county and state governments have agreed to release AkzoNobel from any past, present or future claims related to damage caused by the mine collapse. County officials said Tuesday that in the unlikely event any damage arose in the future, private citizens would still have the right to seek compensation from the mine owner.

The desalination plant, which itself closed months ago, will be dismantled and removed — allaying fears by some that it could be used to treat waste water generated by natural gas drilling.

"We don't want that," said Lisa Semmel, supervisor of the town of Leicester, where the desalination plant is located. Semmel and 10 other Livingston supervisors voted unanimously at a special meeting Tuesday afternoon.

In the aftermath of the mine collapse, New York state officials warned AkzoNobel that the brine could create a violation of water-quality standards and constitute a public nuisance. The company signed an agreement promising to address the issue, and opened the $8 million plant in 2006.

But the Dutch corporation later concluded that the facility was too expensive to operate and was not needed to prevent the brine from infiltrating an aquifer that might someday be tapped to supply drinking-water wells.

After months of private discussions, DEC officials agreed with the company that the plant was not a necessity and said it could close. But Livingston County officials protested the planned shuttering and expressed displeasure that they had been left out of the talks.

Some county residents also objected to the plant's closure, fearing it could lead to a repeat of salinated well water, sinkhole formation and other geologic problems that accompanied the mine disaster.

A side issue also came to light earlier this year, when it was verified that DEC-sanctioned tests had been conducted in 2010 to determine whether the plant could treat waste water generated by natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.

Opponents of the controversial method of drilling known as hydraulic fracturing seized on that test as another reason to question AkzoNobel, even though the company said it had no plans to allow the facility to be used to treat drilling waste water on an ongoing basis.

The Retsof mine, which opened in 1885, underlay the towns of Leicester and Geneseo. It was the second-largest salt mine in the world and the county's largest private-sector employer.

But in March 1994, a mine chamber 1,200 feet below the surface collapsed with a shock so profound it was mistaken for an earthquake. Over the next year-and-a-half, groundwater flooded the mine and it had to be abandoned.

Later, it was learned that salt water from the mine was being forced upward through openings in the bedrock. Geologists expressed concern that the brine could eventually reach an aquifer several hundred feet above the mine.

That aquifer isn't used for drinking water — that comes from other groundwater much closer to the surface — but some geologists argued it could be tapped some day and should be protected.

After lengthy discussion, AkzoNobel agreed to open the desalination plant, which intercepted the upward-bound brine and purified it.

Source: Democrat & Chronicle

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