While the DEP did not issue a public statement on the event, spokesman John Poister from the agency’s Pittsburgh regional office, said water burst from the abandoned workings.
The road and bridge which were flooded during Friday’s blowout were about 200 feet from blasting at the active Marquise No. 4 surface mine near Hooversville.
“The belief is that the water was trapped in a coal seam above the seam where the blasting took place,” he told central Pennsylvania newspaper the Daily American.
“Fortunately, there were no miners in the Marquise mine. Had there been, our inspector believes there could have been loss of life,” Poister added.
"The belief now is that the upper seam in the mine is in such a decrepit shape – it's an abandoned mine – that it could have gone at any time.”
Poister said while the water carried sediment into a nearby creek, the water itself was good quality and not acidic.
A similar event occurred at the nearby Saxman mine in July 2002, trapping nine workers in the very highly-publicized Quecreek mine disaster.
All nine men survived the flooding by retreating to a higher location in the mine but were trapped for days before being rescued. Experts subsequently blamed inaccurate mapping for the incident.
DEP officials told the Daily American Marquise Mining had been ordered by the US Mine Safety and Health Administration to cease operations until a dewatering plan was determined.
An ILN request for comment and a current status from federal officials on Monday has not been returned.
