Women With Guns 
Want Safety First 
Tired Of Feeling Like 
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Action And Getting Weapons 
Licenses As Never Before

Accident Brings Injury

By LISA SCHEID; Times Leader Hazleton Bureau Chief
 Saturday, February 12, 1994 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 3A QUICK WORDS: HAZLETON MAY BE MINING
FOR WATER SOON 





HAZLETON -- Randy Galgon was ready to take a ceremonial public sip of
purified mine water when several inches of snow canceled Friday's taste test
near mine shaft No. 40. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 You read right -- mine water, the stuff state environmental experts
consider among their most difficult aquatic problems. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Galgon, a waste-water treatment engineer with Hazleton Environmental,
believes a process he developed to remove iron, manganese and other metals
from mine water makes it pure enough to drink. Or at least pure enough for use
by some of the dozens of industrial plants in the Hazleton area. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Hazleton Mayor John Quigley is a believer. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Quigley has declared the process, developed by Galgon and financed with a
city loan, a success. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 If the pilot treatment program can be converted to large-scale
purification, Hazleton -- with its periodic droughts -- might never suffer a
water emergency again, Quigley said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Officials of the state Department of Environmental Resources, who must
approve the purification process before it can be used large-scale, remain
skeptical. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Great potential &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The pool of underground mine water in and around Hazleton stretches for 30
miles. Engineers estimate as much as 28.7 million gallons of water per day
flow through the old underground coal shafts, making the abandoned mines a
ready source of water -- if that water can be purified. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The underground mines were flooded during a 1950s hurricane, and the
flooding effectively ended underground mining in the Hazleton area. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Statewide, mine water is the greatest single pollutant of streams, said
Mark Carmon, a DER spokesman. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The new technology, if cost-effective, could have far-reaching effects on
mining and industrial communities throughout Pennsylvania and the country.
"This could be something of real impact in the state," Carmon said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Even before tests had confirmed the results of the pilot project, Galgon
said he had inquiries from businesses in Kentucky, West Virginia and Scranton
wanting to try the process. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Galgon has toiled for almost a year at a trailer parked near mine shaft No.
40 off North Cedar Street. Water drawn from beneath Hazleton's mine strippings
is processed at a pilot treatment plant set up inside the trailer. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In developing the purification process, Galgon said he combined fluid
principles discovered by NASA in the late 1960s and early '70s with technology
at Hazleton-based Barrett Haentjens and Co., an international pump maker and
the parent company of Hazleton Environmental. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "What appears to be simple mechanisms are quite complex," Galgon said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The process allows engineers to neutralize the acids faster than
conventional treatment of mine water. Through Haentjens pump technology the
material extracted from the water can be used to further filter it. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "We invented how to make the technology work and then invented the
equipment to make it work," Galgon said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 His goals were to develop a process that: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Would cost as little as present day water treatment technology &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Could be operated by someone without a high level of engineering expertise &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Would take out trace metals consistently &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 His tests show the treated water exceeds minimum federal drinking water
standards and the process is as cheap as those already used by municipalities
to purify water. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Galgon said the process could be used for treating industrial and hazardous
waste water so that it could be discharged into streams. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It leaves us one step closer to leaving the environment the way we found
it and still able to continue to develop economically," Galgon said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Funding from city &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The city became involved in the project's financing because no local
organization was willing to provide the money, Quigley said. The city made a
two-year loan of $292,000 in state Enterprise Zone money to Barrett,
Haentjens. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The city is guaranteed to get its money back at 6 percent interest, whether
or not the project is successful. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Tour planned &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 State Sen. Ray Musto, D-Pittston Township, and officials of the state
Department of Environmental Resources and Department of Community Affairs are
expected to tour the pilot plant on Tuesday. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Galgon cautioned that the process still is a long way from being sold
commercially. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The process has been patented but the project still must be reviewed and
approved by the DER if the water is to be used by the public or industrial
customers. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Penn State researchers also have been studying the project and are expected
to release a review of it in about a month. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 DER not sold &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Carmon cautioned that DER is nowhere near ready to give its approval. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "They may be at the beginning of something that's really new, I don't
know," Carmon said."They're going to have to show the regulatory agency that
they can do this on a consistent basis." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 That will take time, Carmon said, because the department "is conservative
in the technologies that we approve." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Although bad weather postponed the water taste test Galgon and Quigley were
to take Friday, the engineer says he has already tried the purified water. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He says his process makes mine water taste like mineral water -- water at
least as good as that provided by the city water authority.

Hazleton May Be `mining' For Water Soon 
If Plan Designed To 
Purify Mine Water Succeeds, 
The City May Never Need 
Fear Another Drought, 
Says Mayor Quigley

Hazleton May Be `mining' For Water Soon If Plan Designed To Purify Mine Water Succeeds, The City May Never Need Fear Another Drought, Says Mayor Quigley