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Peabody Energy's Eastern Associated Coal Corp. subsidiary and West Virginia University (WVU) have teamed to develop a plan for transforming a former coal mine water treatment plant into a fishing and recreation area at Guyses Run near Fairmont.

The project was kicked off April 2 when 26 WVU landscape architecture students and nearly 1,000 fish met at the former water treatment facility near the closed Tygart River Mine. The third-year WVU landscape architecture students are competing to design the best proposal to transform the water treatment plant into a fishing destination.

"We're transforming a former mine site to benefit future generations and improve the community," said Fred Conner, superintendent for Peabody Energy's Conservancy Group. "This area has the potential to be developed into a fishing destination that would be compatible with the area and the nearby Valley Falls State Park."

Conner presented a more than $6,000 contribution to WVU Aquaculture Senior Project Coordinator Daniel Miller. The funds will be used to purchase school supplies and provide the winning architecture students with summer wages to develop final plans for the re-use of the water plant site. Professor Steve McBride, chairman, WVU Landscape Architecture Dept., is coordinating the student design efforts and will be a member of the panel that will judge the winning design.

"We're not sure what the students will come up with," Miller said. "We have shown that the three species of warm water fish have done well ... this is the design stage of developing this area for the future, create a few jobs and bring people here with, perhaps, a camp ground and fishing area."

For the past year, an estimated 400 Channel Catfish, 400 Hybrid Bluegill and 200 Large Mouth Bass have called the 100,000 gallons of water in the two former water plant concrete polish basins home. The students witnessed the 50-foot transfer of the fish from the basins into three earth ponds now filled with water run off and rainwater.

As the students move forward under the design phase of the project this summer and next fall, the WVU Aquaculture coordinators will weigh and analyze the fish. So far the fish that have been measured have grown from four inches to nearly a foot in length over the past year, according to Miller.

Peabody's Appalachian operations include five underground mines in West Virginia that shipped approximately 18.5 million tons of coal last year. Peabody Energy is the world's largest coal company. Its coal fuels more than 9 percent of all U.S. electricity generation and more than 2 percent of worldwide electricity generation.

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SOURCE: Peabody Energy