By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

GALENA, Kan. - It could take 20 years or longer and $64 million to fill the voids under Galena left behind by decades of mining, members of Galena's mining task force said Wednesday.

The group on Wednesday submitted its information to staff members with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The state agency will prepare a funding proposal for the Kansas congressional delegation to take to Washington, D.C., in January. Representatives from the offices of U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback and U.S. Rep.-elect Nancy Boyda were at the meeting.

The problem with undermining was brought to a head on July 31, when a mine collapse destroyed the back portion of the building that housed the Green Parrot bar.

"It devastated us financially," said Mickey Morang, son of the bar's owner, on Wednesday. He and his mother lived in separate apartments in the back portion of the building. He said his family doesn't have the resources to demolish the building.

"It pretty well wiped us out," Morang said. "I want to put this behind me."

The plan that the task force has developed calls for filling the mining voids with a slurry of fly ash and water. Dale Carnahan, president of Advanced Mineral Technologies Inc., Nixa, Mo., demonstrated mixing fly ash and water in a plastic container. It became a solid mass in the container in a matter of minutes. Carnahan's company makes equipment used to inject the material.

The areas on which the task force is concentrating include the school campus, Main Street, City Hall and Seventh Street. Fred Foshag Jr., a KDHE engineer, said 1.65 million cubic yards of the slurry would be needed to fill the underground voids in those areas.

"It's a lot of material," Foshag said. "You don't put that in in just a few days."

Carnahan said his company can pump 1,000 to 1,200 cubic yards of slurry underground a week.

Calculations show that at that rate, it could take 26 to 31 years to fill the underground spaces.

Carnahan said after the meeting that depending on the availability of fly ash, his company might be able to inject more slurry per week. He also said the estimates regarding the voids to be filled are not exact, and more would be known after exploratory holes are drilled. He said using chat or other material in the slurry as is being discussed also might speed the project. He said any of those factors could reduce the duration of the project, but it still would take many years to complete.

Congress won't appropriate all $64 million at once, said Gary Blackburn, director of KDHE's Bureau of Environmental Remediation. He said the federal appropriation would more likely be no more than $5 million a year.

"We've got to prioritize and start with the highest risk areas," Blackburn said. "The chance of getting enough money to do it all are pretty small."