Washington County

Daisytown residents dealing with sinkhole after Vesta 4 Mine collapse

DAISYTOWN, Pa. — The sound of rushing water is the new normal for Daisytown residents. The water isn’t flowing down the creek, but rather deep into a newly opened hole.

“I saw the sinkhole and found out that it had collapsed from the mine,” said Barbara Huey who lives in Daisytown.

PHOTOS: Vesta 4 mine collapse in Washington County causes sinkhole

According to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), a section of the old Vesta 4 Mine that hasn’t been used since before 1920 collapsed. The water is now going into the mine shaft and has traveled half a mile underground, shutting down another road where the water is spewing out.

Residents like Huey are asking the DEP for transparency on what’s going on.

“Our concerns are how deep is it? Are there mine maps? Can they have a meeting, can they tell us to what extent it’s undermined? Has anyone determined how deep the hole is? What’s the time frame if you know on when this is going to be resolved?” Huey questioned.

We took those concerns to the DEP. A spokesperson told us workers are attempting to divert the water away from the hole so they can fill it with cement to close off the opening by the end of the week.

But as for the timeline, they said it could change.

“Work was delayed Friday and over the weekend because of heavy storms that caused the creek and underground mine pool to rise. The mine pool drained about a half mile from the sinkhole, overwhelmed a culvert in the area, and caused localized flooding of Pike Run Drive,” the DEP spokesperson said.

Huey is looking down the line.

“It’s like you have a big cut on your arm but you only have a little bit of a Band-aid. We still have to make do. We are going to do the little fix because we don’t know what else to do,” Huey said.

Her concern is about where the water is going, and if it could it have eroded other mine shafts off the main branch, causing potential for future collapses. All her questions have gone unanswered by the state, she said.

“You see on TV, houses collapse. This is a mine area, it could happen. We don’t know when, we don’t know what area it will happen,” Huey said.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW