Luminant demolished the coal silo at the old Thermo mine today (April 22), as part of their ongoing reclamation efforts. That puts the City of Sulphur Springs one step closer to being able to use the old mine property.
“Luminant is under obligation to the State of Texas to reclaim the property. They have one more area to reclaim, two including this one. The other area is the large hill,” said Sulphur Springs City Manager Marc Maxwell. “This is part of that process. It was part of the agreement they they’d come in and conduct all reclamation efforts. They are under obligation to do that,”
The agreement between Luminant and the city was for Luminant to begin reclamation efforts in those areas with the demolition of the old coal mine silo. The old silo was dropped today. Luminant has hired a subcontractor to come in and clean it up, according to the city manager.
“We are working the plan,” Maxwell said. “This is a step closer to city being able to use it.”
Luminant has submitted a proposed plan to reclaim the land for the are including the large hill, but that plan has yet to be formally accepted by the Railroad Commission.
Once the former owner’s plan is approved, reclamation work is expected to take a few months. The land will then be monitored for five years, then go into an extended period of responsibility for another 2-4 years with continued monitoring, Maxwell explained during a January public hearing for the annexation of the former Thermo mine property into the city.
