Himrod and Watkins Salt Mines

[jayenelee]

Interesting facts, all of them.

[Sandy]

RLauer, do you have any pictures of the mine when it was in operation that you could post, would be kind of interesting
example, rail cars in the railyard or any other pictures.

[Sandy]

Has anybody heard any news about the Morton Salt Mine in Himrod, it was stated that all buildings would have been long gone, seems somebody's info is not not correct

[poppyl]

The last time that I looked, the guard house and change building were all that remained (along with the headends, of course). I believe that the plan was to remove all remaining "production" buildings since they were in major disrepair and offered opportunities for dangerous mischief by trespassers. And there was value in the scrap metal in those buildings.

BTW, there were some "official" visitors crawling around the site this past summer.

Poppyl

[scharnhorst]

Did The EPA and NYS DEC order a clean up of it and what is the plan for this property redevelop or sell it?

[poppyl]

Did The EPA and NYS DEC order a clean up of it and what is the plan for this property redevelop or sell it?

The answer to the first question is "sort of." By that, I mean that the owner was required to "clean up" the tailings pile which many believed was leaching salt into the ground. At one time the DEC was monitoring wells in the area but I do not know if they still are. Beyond the tailings pile I am not aware of what other possible environmental issues may have been created as a result of the mining operation. Interesting enough, the site was put forward for the Finger Lakes museum that ultimately is being located near Branchport so one might conclude that any environmental issues must have been resolved or corrected but that's speculation on my part.

The local economic development folks claim to be still marketing the property but it's anybody's guess when and if anything will come of that effort.

Poppyl

[Scott K]

I heard a news story on WHAM a few days ago that talked of using salt mine caverns in the area for storage. I wondered then if they might be referring to this site.

Scott K.

[poppyl]

I heard a news story on WHAM a few days ago that talked of using salt mine caverns in the area for storage. I wondered then if they might be referring to this site.

Scott K.

I can't be 100% sure because I did not hear the news report, but I'm thinking that it was pertaining to the proposed propane storage facility in Reading Center (just northwest of Watkins Glen). That proposal would use cavities west of Seneca Lake that were created over many years by the US Salt brine recovery process operating just north of Watkins Glen. The proposal is quite contentious, to say the least. BTW, just to keep the thread railroad related, the proposed facility would ship over twenty rail tankers daily -- easily would be the biggest customer on the Corning Secondary.

Poppyl

[Scott K]

That's probably the proposal they were talking about, those details sound familiar. Brine extraction leaves caverns? Shows how much I don't know about that process...

Scott K.

[poppyl]

The brine extraction process would create, if nothing else were done, cavities or voids. In this case, however, water is pumped back into the cavities to maintain pressure integrity. Part of the Reading Center proposal will require pumping out about a million gallons of brine solution from these cavities. Natural gas under pressure then will be pumped into the resultant void, thus maintaining the aforementioned pressure integrity. One of the contentious points in the proposal is the above ground disposition of the brine solution.

Back to Himrod for a moment. I need to correct my prior post about the buildings remaining on site. In addition to the guard house and change facility, the admin building still stands on the site. These three buildings are of concrete construction. All sheet metal buildings have been razed and removed from the site.

Poppyl

[oldminer]

I actually worked sinking the shafts and then worked for Morton for 5 years mining until the mine closed. The main reason for the closure was economic, the mine was built to produce 5 tons a year and the market was just not there. Secondly, everyone was hammering them environmentally so they just decided to leave.
The mine is not feasable for injection because the mountains of waste generated during the shaft sinking process was liquified and injected into the mine as back fill material. The mine is essentially filled up with a paste of dirt and crushed rock. Pretty hard to do anything "secret" there after that. We used to have trains coming and going every day there.

[226speed]

Any one have an information to what happened with
the engine 101? I know the engine came from the Santa
Fe and is an Alco RS-1.

[lvrr325]

AT&SF 2397 (re# 1949) serial 75392, retired June 1972, to MSCco October 1972, one reference notes sold to Transco Railway Products, no further data.

[Mike Doughney]

Two part series on the Himrod salt mine, published in February 2017 in the Dundee, New York newspaper.

http://www.observer-review.com/himrod-s ... s-cms-5625" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.observer-review.com/closing- ... y-cms-5632" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[BR&P]

Excellent links, Mike! Thanks for posting them. I knew bits and pieces, but the article is well-written and filled in many gaps in my understanding.