Message #154147

[Lisa Wolfe]

Mineral rights

Several current and former Centralia residents believe the state's eminent domain claim was a ploy to gain the mineral rights to the anthracite coal beneath the borough. Residents estimate its value to be in the billions of dollars, although the exact amount of coal is not known. This is stated in Joan Quigley's The Day the Earth Caved In in a section that indicated Centralia is the only municipality within the Commonwealth that actually owned its mineral rights. Contrasting this was a mine fire, likened to the one here, in a nearby municipality in which the government was successful in extinguishing through similar methods used and proposed for Centralia.[10]