Abandoned Mahwah Mine To Be Studied By State Scientists

An abandoned mine in Mahwah will be studied as part of a $267K FEMA grant, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced last week.

According to the announcement, “The New Jersey Geological Survey, which will provide matching funds of nearly $90,000, was awarded the federal grant to provide accurate GPS locations for abandoned mines and to develop a scientific database of information to be used to prioritize the risk of subsidence or ground collapse.”

Martin said that the study will be an important indicator of whether or not future actions and precautions will need to take place at the site.

"This effort will provide counties and towns in former mining areas with valuable information to better understand what literally lies beneath them, to help remediate unstable sites and recondition tracts for potential safe residential and business redevelopment,” he said.

Martin’s announcement said that DEP scientists will review historical records of Butler and other mines throughout the state, some of which may be outdated, and compare them with field work where necessary.

“The result should be creation of an up-to-date database that can guide State, county and local planners in making future decisions,” Martin’s release said.

The mine is mentioned in the 2007 David A. Steinberg hiking guidebook, “Hiking the Road to Ruins” as a historic hiking destination.

"According to my research for the book, the mine, which is just west of Bear Swamp Lake, was active in the pre-Civil War era, then again in 1873, 74, 79, and briefly in 1880 before it was abandoned," Steinberg said.

According to Mindat.org, the ore vein at the Butler mine "was 120 feet long and 5 to 11 feet wide plus an additional 4 to 5 feet of admixed ore and rock." 

The biggest risk with abandoned mines is the possibility of collapse. There have been 77 such collapses in the state in the past 30 years, including one in North Arlington in 1989 that cost that Bergen County town over $500K to remediate.

The grant to the New Jersey Geological Survey came after the organization entered a national competition for $10 million in 2010 FEMA "Pre-Disaster Mitigation grants."