About $500K of work to fill Unity sinkhole nearly complete

Crews have pumped more than 3,300 cubic yards of grout into an abandoned mine void to stabilize a section of a Unity property where a local woman fell into a sinkhole and died.

With recent snow blanketing the ground at Monday’s Union restaurant, work to restore a cordoned-off area behind the eatery was at a halt this week because of the weather.

First responders and heavy equipment operators labored for four days in December to search for and recover the body of 64-year-old Unity resident Elizabeth Pollard. The restaurant was closed for a week during the search.

Another task that remains, for safety’s sake, is demolition of a building at the edge of the work area that the restaurant used for storage.

“We found out it has to go,” restaurant owner Anita Iannuzzo said Thursday. “That’s OK. We just want to have a safe environment for everyone.”

As for making up for lost income during the shutdown, Iannuzzo said, “We’re hoping for the best.”

Pa. Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson Lauren Camarda said the state has estimated the cost of stabilizing the mine and restoring the site will top $500,000. That cost is to be covered with funds the department has set aside for such emergency work.

To apply the grout, she said, 16 holes were drilled over an area about 200 feet long and 150 feet wide.

The final phase will include planting grass where earth was disturbed and applying crushed stone to restore the restaurant’s parking area.

Early in the response to the sinkhole search, the Unity Township supervisors issued an emergency declaration in support of mustering public and private resources and personnel to the site.

Ligonier Excavating provided an excavator and the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County supplied vacuum machinery and operators to dig out and remove soil as emergency crews penetrated into the mine in their search for Pollard.

“We try to help the community where we can,” authority spokesman Matt Junker said. “I was told that one of our operators showed such dedication he stayed out there for 23 hours in a row.”

Westmoreland County public safety and hazardous materials teams were on hand providing support for local firefighters who were engaged in the search.

Mike O’Barto, chairman of the Unity supervisors, said township officials are continuing to document costs associated with the emergency response. That includes lost income for any volunteers whose jobs don’t pay them for their response to the emergency and the food Monday’s Union provided for the first responders.

“That’s still a work in progress,” O’Barto said. “We have to find out who is responsible for some of the work that took place. We will diligently try to go after any (reimbursement) funding that would be out there.”

Pollard and her family suffered the heaviest cost of all.

The Marguerite resident and Jeannette native fell into the sinkhole Dec. 2 while searching for a pet cat. Her body was recovered Dec. 6.

The Westmoreland County coroner ruled she died of head and torso injuries.

Other subsidence fixes

The response in Unity wasn’t the first time government resources have been applied to address the threat of mine subsidence in Westmoreland County.

A subsidence control project in the Hempfield village of Bovard was completed in mid-November, Camarda said. The DEP stabilized the mine void under 102 homes there.

Using a similar grout material, that project began in April, with $6 million in federal funding.

“Much of Southwestern Pennsylvania has been historically undermined, and subsidence-related hazards can arise at any time,” Camarda said. She noted underground coal mining has taken place or is occurring in 29 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

The DEP has an online map at gis.dep.pa.gov/msiRisk that can be searched to locate areas of documented underground mining in Pennsylvania. Information about low-cost mine subsidence insurance is available at dep.pa.gov/msi.