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Sometimes state regulations prevent coal companies from reclaiming certain areas, depending on conditions, according to Kevin Sunday, spokesman for DEP, Harrisburg.

For example, the Shen-Penn Stripping Pit is filled with water and is more than 120 acres in size and more than 250 feet deep. In July 1994, Kevin R. Brill, 11, of Shenandoah, drowned there, according to archives of The Pottsville REPUBLICAN. Sunday said Reading Anthracite had expressed interest in reclaiming the area with ash.

“The regulations won’t allow you to directly put the ash right into water,” Sunday said.