The Blacklick Plant is now fully operational.  Initially, the plant was treating only water from the Wehrum discharge so that the Wehrum mine pool could be reduced to an optimal level.  The Wehrum discharge is no longer flowing untreated to Blacklick Creek and the Wehrum mine shaft, a significant safety hazard, has been filled in.  Once the Wehrum mine pool was at a desirable level, during the last week of April 2025, pumping from the Vinton #36 mine began and the three sisters boreholes  at Vintondale were capped.   Unfortunately, the severe storms that affected western Pennsylvania the evening of April 30 caused a six-day power outage at the plant.  That resulted in a rise in the Vinton #6 mine pool and a return of the three sisters discharges for a few days, however, once power was restored full pumping resumed and mine pool lowering continued.  In late October of 2025 the discharge on the North Branch at Red Mill was turned into the Vinton #6 mine pool, which means that all three major discharges targeted by the Blacklick Plant project are now being treated and are no longer degrading Blacklick Creek.

Construction of the $27 million-dollar plant, a PA Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation project, began in fall of 2022 and was completed in the summer of 2024, but a problem with some faulty valves that needed to be replaced delayed the plant start-up.

Users of the Ghost Town Trail pass by the plant located approximately one-half mile west (downstream) of Vintondale.  The highly complex project included purchase of approximately 35 acres of land, construction of miles of pipelines, development of extraction wells, mine drainage injection wells, and sludge injection wells in addition to plant construction.  Tetra Tech Inc., was awarded the design contract and the plant was constructed by HRI, Inc. Funding for project construction was provided by the Pennsylvania State Legislature, the federal AMD set aside program, and the federal Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization Program (AMLER).   The projected $600,000 per year operating cost will be funded with Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds.

The treatment system has eliminated three significant abandoned mine discharges: the Commercial No. 16 (Red Mill) discharge, the three boreholes drilled into the Vinton No. 6 mine pool located in the middle of North Branch Blacklick Creek and the Wehrum Mine shaft discharge.  Water from the Commercial No.16 discharge is gravity-fed into the Vinton #6 mine through a borehole.  Water from the Vinton No. 6 mine pool and water from the Wehrum mine pool is pumped to the treatment plant.  The treatment plant is capable of treating up to 7.2 million gallons per day.  Eliminating these discharges significantly improves water quality for approximately 25 miles of Blacklick Creek from Vintondale down to the confluence with Two Lick Creek by removing toxic levels of iron, aluminum and acidity from the stream.

BCWA has long advocated for the construction of the Blacklick Plant which is expected to restore healthy aquatic communities to a large segment of the watershed which has long supported very limited life.  Not only will the plant restore a healthy fishery to miles of stream, it will also greatly enhance the aesthetic experience for users of the Ghost Town Trail and increase property values along the stream corridor.