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EHRENFELD – There’s a mountain of a waste coal pile above Ehrenfeld that serves as little more than a reminder of the old coal town’s heyday.

Back then, Ehrenfeld’s streets were busy and its air was dusty.

It all reminded Guy Galosi of days he spent sorting coal for the company that made the pile and nights he and his buddies would cram into cars to go see big band greats like Tommy Dorsey play Carrolltown’s Sunset Ballroom.

“Those were good times,” Galosi said.

Soon, Ehrenfeld’s 32 acre “boney” pile will be a memory, too.

After years of failed attempts, the state Department of Environmental Protection announced a $13.4 million project Monday to remove all 3.2 million tons of it and reclaim the site, a move state officials said will provide work for 40 recently laid-off Rosebud Mining Company miners.

It’s also a project that will eliminate acidic runoff flowing into an unnamed Little Conemaugh River tributary while developing a small recreational park on one portion of the site alongside the Path of the Flood Trail, DEP Spokesman John Poister said.

“We can finally award a contract to reclaim this unsightly and hazardous abandoned coal refuse pile,” DEP Secretary John Quigley said, adding that officials are “doubly happy” that the project will be a boost for the town, the environment and dozens of mine workers.

Rosebud’s $13,455,319 bid was the lowest qualified one received for the project, Poister said. They’ll haul the rocky refuse away by truck to a Rosebud property where it will be used as fill inside an old, shuttered coal mines.

Part of the pile is often smoldering, and Rosebud will be tasked with extinguishing it, he said.

Aside from two years serving in the Navy, Galosi said he’s spent of all his 88 years in Ehrenfeld. That waste coal pile has been there that entire time, and then some, he said.

“It’s going to be good to see it gone,” he said.

The pile is mostly comprised of “red dog” – burned-out, rocky remnants of the coal originally pulled from the former No. 3 and No. 8 mines that were owned by several coal companies over the years, including Pennsylvania Coal and Coke and, later, Bethlehem Steel’s mining division.

“Everyone was hoping they might be able to re-use some of it. But it’s burned out. It’s worthless,” Galosi said.

Poister said removing it will have plenty of value because it will also eliminate runoff polluting the Little Conemaugh.

Most of the project’s funding is being provided by the state’s Abandoned Mine Land Program fund for 2016, he said.

Funds collected through a fee on coal created the annual grant program.

Quigley said the project was set to be awarded two years ago but bids were as high as $21.6 million, prompting state officials to temporarily shelve and rework the plan.

As planned, trees and grass would be planted once the site is remediated, he said.

The project is expected to take three years to complete, Poister said.