HARRISBURG — Groundwater
under the Hazleton Redevelopment Authority’s site
being filled with dredge spoils flows north,
eventually entering the Jeddo Mine Tunnel system
under the city or continuing into the Nescopeck
Creek basin in the valley, a hydrogeologist
testified here Tuesday. And any contaminants
leaching out of the spoils that are trucked to
Hazleton from Philadelphia would be transported in
the same direction upon entering the groundwater
pool, Penn State University professor Christopher
Duffy said. Duffy was paid by CAUSE, or Citizen
Advocates United to Safeguard the Environment, to
offer expert testimony during the second day of a
hearing before state Environmental Hearing Board
Judge Bernard A. Labuskes. The hearing, which
is expected to last through the middle of the
month, will decide the fate of CAUSE’s challenge
to a state Department of Environmental Protection
“determination of applicability” that allows
Hazleton Creek Partners and the Redevelopment
Authority to use spoils from the Delaware River in
filling abandoned mine pits. Labuskes qualified
Duffy as an expert regarding hydrogeological
matters after hearing the witness describe his
academic credentials and extensive background in
conducting studies involving groundwater resources
in Pennsylvania, Utah, New Mexico and elsewhere.
And the witness said he was testifying for CAUSE,
not in his role as a senior faculty member of Penn
State’s Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department. Duffy then described the computer
model he developed to delineate how groundwater
flows from the site. “I was amazed at how
little had been done” previously to learn how the
aquifer underlying the project site is recharged
and the flow velocity, direction of flow and depth
of the groundwater resource, Duffy
said. “Rather poorly done and not much of it,”
Duffy said about previous groundwater studies at
the site. Duffy testified for more than seven
hours, initially under questioning from CAUSE’s
lawyer, Michael Fiorentino, and then
cross-examination by Michael D. Klein, a
Harrisburg attorney representing Hazleton Creek
Partners. He was the sole witness called to
testify on CAUSE’s behalf. Fiorentino said he
expects his portion of the case to take another
five days, after which the defendants’ legal team
will call on its own experts to rebut CAUSE’s
arguments. Duffy said he and his team used
various sets of data, including material produced
by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission in a
1999 report on the Jeddo Tunnel, and Geographic
Information Systems material maintained by DEP and
the state Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources in developing their computer model
focusing on groundwater flow
characteristics. The digitized study included
delineating the surface flow and groundwater flow
boundaries of the project site, he
testified. “The ultimate goal is to understand
and study the groundwater flow,” Duffy
said. The professor noted how his study looked
at the project site in terms of three subsurface
layers, delineating how groundwater moves through
each layer. Nearly all the project site is within
the Susquehanna River Basin, while a tiny portion
on its southernmost margin is in the Lehigh
River’s watershed. And most of the groundwater at
the site flows north. Some of the resource enters
a sub-tunnel of the Jeddo Tunnel system while much
flows through permeable rock, eventually entering
the aquifer under the Little Nescopeck and
Nescopeck creeks. Duffy said his work in
developing and running the computer model included
noting the location of the more than 500 private,
corporate and municipal wells within the Nescopeck
Creek watershed. “Roughly half” or 246 of the
wells were used to calibrate the model, he
testified. “There’s no question” that
groundwater under the project site flows
northward, Duffy said. And any contaminants
entering the groundwater would be carried along
and “probably contaminate” wells to the north of
the project site. And he said contaminants would
move differently based on their weight relative to
that of the water. Duffy, in speaking with a
reporter following his testimony, said he decided
to testify on behalf of CAUSE because people,
especially well owners, need to understand
groundwater flow. During his time on the stand,
the professor was asked question after question
related to various “figures” or diagrams contained
in his final report to CAUSE. Fiorentino’s
questions to Duffy were frequently objected to by
Klein, but the judge allowed the witness to answer
most. He also noted that during his one visit
to the project site he found observation or
monitoring wells to be in various states of
disrepair. In one instance, a 500-foot tape
measure was dropped into a well but yielded no
results when it came up short of the bottom, he
said. He also said he noticed various drums and
other “trash” on the site, some of the barrels
appearing to be half-buried. He said a
comprehensive monitoring system of the site’s
groundwater resource would include a network of
many observation wells to the north of the
property. Duffy also responded to criticism of
his computer model and report contained in another
report an expert produced for the
defendants. Under cross-examination by Klein,
Duffy explained how groundwater divides differ
from those of surface waterways. He said his study
area encompassed about 300 square miles, but
acknowledged that the project site comprises less
than 1 percent of that area. “All models have
some uncertainty,” he told Klein, but he stood
behind the study’s conclusions, telling the
attorney that the work was the product of using
state-of-the-art technology and the best sets of
data available. Klein led the professor through
a lengthy series of questions related to the Black
Creek, which is a tributary of Nescopeck Creek and
which flows across the Hazleton plateau just to
the north of the project site. And Duffy said
there is no evidence of a groundwater “divide,” or
stopping point for groundwater flow at the Little
Nescopeck Creek, which is the receiving stream for
water flowing out of the Jeddo Tunnel. The
tunnel’s outfall is in Butler Township and the
Little Nescopeck flows through Conyngham before
entering the Nescopeck just east of Route 93 in
Sugarloaf Township. Black Creek enters the
Nescopeck in the township of the same name, the
combined stream finally flowing into the
Susquehanna River at Nescopeck borough. The
judge approved a motion from Klein ordering Duffy
to produce, as soon as possible, a map detailing
groundwater contour lines and showing the depth of
each line.
