Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection continues to monitor the Jeansville mine fire located in the northern end of Carbon County. Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, toured the Jeansville mine fire site with members of the DEP recently.

DEP became aware of the fire burning near the Carbon and Luzerne County line in early 2012.Originally thought to be contained to the old pit area it turns out that the fire is, in fact, burning in the older mined out area as well as the area currently being mined by the Hazleton Shaft Corporation.Heffley attended a meeting in Treskow on May 20 where DEP said it would drill boreholes to determine the extent of the underground fire.During his tour Heffley witnessed the drilling of some of the boreholes as well as touring the areas where the fire has surfaced. One of the issues with drilling is that protected bat species are present in the mine area.Colleen Connolly, community relations coordinator for the state DEP Wilkes-Barre regional office, said that Kaufman Engineering of Olyphant had been hired to conduct a flyover of the area.Kaufman performed the thermal imaging flyover on May 15. The report is due sometime this week. Connolly said.One of the issues that residents showed a good deal of concern for at the May public meeting was the need for air quality monitoring during non-operating hours.DEP has conducted overnight air quality testing recently.None of the tests to date have shown any elevated levels of harmful gasses.DEP will continue to test air quality in various locations surrounding the fire.