An environmental organization has filed an appeal questioning whether a Donegal Township mine operator has followed a state directive to reinstate its mine subsidence bond to $3.14 million from a state-permitted reduction to about $293,000.
The Mountain Watershed Association in Melcroft said in its filing with the state’s Environmental Hearing Board this month that the hearing board should retain jurisdiction over the revised permit requiring Rustic Ridge No. 1 Mine to carry a $3.14 million bond against mine subsidence because that Department of Environmental Protection permit is “procedural defective and ineffective.”
“We have no proof either way,” whether the mine subsidence bond actually was reduced, then increased back to $3.14 million, said Melissa Marshall, a Mountain Watershed attorney, who filed the appeal along with Sarah Winner, a Bethel Park attorney.
Without proper notice from DEP, the insurance company has no legal obligation to suddenly increase its exposure by $2.8 million just 26 days after the bond was lowered, Mountain Watershed said.
“I think when it comes to bonding, we’re not inclined to believe it” without proof, Marshall said Thursday.
But Mark Tercek, president of mine owner LCT Energy L.P. of Johnstown, said the $3.14 million bond that was in place in April 2025 when 1,450 acres was added to Rustic Ridge mine was never reduced March 6 when the state permitted a bond reduction of some $2.8 million.
The higher bond remained in place when the DEP, in early April, rescinded its permit lowering the bond, Tercek said.
But the watershed association contends DEP erred March 6 when it reduced the mine subsidence bond because LCT Energy said last October it had no damage claims for five years, even though the state had reports of damage between 2020 and 2022.
If the Environmental Hearing Board does not declare the recent bond revision defective and restore the required proof for the higher bond, the watershed association said, the DEP should be required to conduct a site-specific analysis. That analysis should account for the risks at Rustic Ridge and satisfy the state’s mine subsidence requirement that the company’s bond is set at a “reasonable amount,” the watershed association said.
The DEP does not comment on litigation, said Neil Shader, a DEP spokesman.
LCT Energy had purchased three mine-subsidence damaged homes along Hellen Ridge Lane and Hellein School Road — paying $600,000 each for two properties and $350,000 for one — according to Westmoreland County Recorder of Deeds records included in the documents. LCT made the purchases after acknowledging to the state the mining damaged the homes, according to documents filed with the hearing board.
The mine subsidence bond was not used to buy the houses, Tercek said.
Owners of a fourth house accepted a settlement, according to the appeal. One resident with claims of subsidence damage has not settled with the company, according to the watershed association’s filing.
The lower bond would not have covered the cost of purchasing the houses, said Nate Ricketts, a community organizer for Mountain Watershed.
Rustic Ridge has mined underneath about 140 properties, Tercek said of the mine that is under Saltlick Township in Fayette County and Donegal Township in Westmoreland County. The mine opened in 2019.
