This facility was designed, permitted, and constructed to treat acid, metal-bearing drainage from abandoned surface and underground coal mines on property at the Pittsburgh International Airport, near Clinton Road in Findlay Township, Allegheny County.  Construction was completed in Spring 2006.  The system is preventing about 44,000 pounds of acid and more than 6,000 pounds of metals annually, primarily aluminum, from entering the West Fork of Enlow Run, a tributary to Montour Run.  This was a project of the Montour Run Watershed Association with subcontractors N.A. Water Systems and Quality Aggregates, Inc.  The total funding was $253,525 ($70,525 from a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Growing Greener Grant; $73,000 from an Office of Surface Mining Appalachian Clean Streams Initiative grant; $100,000 from the Allegheny County Airport Authority; and $10,000 from the Western Pennsylvania Watershed Program). 

The system consists of two vertical flow ponds – basically limestone- and mulch-filled basins that neutralize the acidity and precipitate the dissolved aluminum.  No formal wetland creation is included in this project; however, existing wetland areas are utilized and enhanced in the treatment process.  This system has reduced the acidity from about 300 to 14 mg/l  and the total aluminum from about 32 to less than 5 mg/l in the discharge leaving the site.  As a result, the health of an estimated 2 ½ miles’ length of this stream has been substantially improved.