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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; It took more than a year thanks to the pandemic, but the state Department of Environmental Protection made a decision related to &mdash; but not impacting &mdash; the construction of Wilkes-Barre Area&rsquo;s new high school in Plains Township.
				Despite protests and questions raised by three area residents during an informal meeting on the matter Nov. 7, 2019, DEP released $276,587 in bond money to Jeddo Highland Coal Co., the previous owner of the roughly 77 acres the district bought for the new school site.
				The company set up the bond to obtain a mining permit from the state. Such permits include provisions to reclaim the land, and the bond is intended to insure that the state can complete reclamation if the company fails to do so.
				After Jeddo Highland sold the acreage, the district acquired a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit that replaced the mining permit in ensuring environmental regulations are followed. The company argued that meant it is entitled to regain the bond money.
				At last year&rsquo;s informal hearing, critics questioned whether the district was doing reclamation work that should have been completed by Jeddo Highland, and whether the company had done enough such work before selling the land.
				District officials have said there was little point to making Jeddo Highland complete land reclamation because construction included extensive excavation and re-grading of the site, which would have undid much of any reclamation work.
				DEP decided to side with Jeddo Highland and release the bond money to the company.
				DEP also re-worked the company&rsquo;s mining permit for the area, reducing the size of land covered by the surface mining permit and NPDES stormwater permit by 79.7 acres &mdash; slightly more than the land sold to the district &mdash; from 123.2 acres to 43.5 acre.

State releases mining permit bond money related to new W-B Area high school