Thanks to a blocked drain at South Centre and Hotel streets in Pottsville, pale orange mine water is flowing toward Mount Carbon.
"It's mine water. It's draining right off of Sharp Mountain, just like it has been for more than 100 years," Daniel E. Kelly, city superintendent of streets, said Tuesday.
The blockage occurred two weeks ago and the city and the Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority plan to fix the problem within a week, Kelly said Tuesday.
"We had this problem last year, same place. Last year was the first time it happened," Kelly said.
Kelly said the blockage occurred in a pipe the sewer authority installed a few years ago as part of the state-mandated stormwater-sewer separation project.
"When they did work in that area, they went through the arch and put a piece of pipe in. Last year, there was something jammed in it, fall leaves and twigs. We worked together last year to get it unblocked. Now, it's blocked again," Kelly said.
Timothy R. Yingling, the sewer authority's executive director, did not return calls for comment Tuesday.
To unblock the pipe, city workers must use a hose.
"Last year, we had to have one of the workers climb down the manhole across the street and use a high-pressure hose to flush out the debris," Kelly said.
A week ago, the city and sewer authority stopped the water from flowing into the intersection.
"We put a little mound of blacktop there to divert it," Kelly said.
The city also placed an orange and white striped barricade near the mine water fountain to discourage pedestrians and vehicles from going near it.
The orange-tinted water is a reminder of the mountain's anthracite coal mining past, according to Dr. Peter Yasenchak, executive director of the Schuylkill County Historical Society.
On Tuesday, Yasenchak delved into the archives of at the society's headquarters at 305 N. Centre St. to find some of its history.
According to the "Joseph H. Zerbey History of Pottsville and Schuylkill County," published in 1936, Pottsville Gap Colliery opened on Sharp Mountain in 1826. It closed in 1839. Then, the Sherman Coal Corp., Pottsville, opened there in 1917, according to the Zerbey history.
"The Sherman Coal Co. was originally formed by Dr. George Sherman of Detroit, Mich., a man who was prominent in the medical world and the head of the Sherman Vaccine Laboratories in Detroit. The colliery was opened in March 1917," according to the Zerbey history.
The operation focused on the mammoth split vein at Sharp Mountain Mine, according to J. Stuart "Stu" Richards, Orwigsburg, who has written articles about mining for his online blog, coalregionhistorychronicles.blogspot.com.
Its offices were at 537 Hotel St. in Pottsville, according to the editions of Boyd's Pottsville City Directory published in the 1920s.
Sherman Coal Corp. changed hands a few times and became Bergen Coal Co. Inc. in 1936, according to the 1936-37 edition of Boyd's Pottsville City Directory.
Based on his research, Yasenchak believed the mine closed in the early 1940s.