Sep. 16--Barbara Diess will always remember the sight she witnessed rolling down the hill in front of her Rostosky Ridge Road home.

"It was like a black river of logs and trees, like a flood coming down the street," Diess said. "It was an unbelievable sight to see."

And now, Diess and others in the neighborhood will receive money for their trouble, which began Jan. 25, 2005, when a fly ash slide sent water, slurry and tree branches down the hill onto their road, located just off Route 136 in Forward Township.

The state Department of Environment Protection Tuesday announced that it had reached an agreement to end all litigation related to the fly ash slide.

In all, more than $3 million in claims and damages will be paid to the commonwealth and 25 residents on or near Rostosky Ridge Road.

In October 2006, residents along Rostosky Ridge Road and a portion of Rainbow Run Road filed a lawsuit in Allegheny County Court in an attempt to force the state Department of Environmental Protection to clean up the site.

The suit claimed the DEP violated the Clean Streams Act, the Air Pollution and Control Act and the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act and created a private and public nuisance.

The suit also named as defendants:

n Allegheny Energy because documents revealed the fly ash was generated at the company's Mitchell Power Station.

n The state Department of Transportation, for using fly ash in an effort to stabilize River Hill Road and maintaining the hazardous substance within its right-of-way and/or embankment supporting the road.

n The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, because its water main ruptured, bringing the fly ash hillside down into the neighborhood.

n Weavertown Environmental Group, because of to its "negligent remediation at the site, which caused further harms and violated the law."

The state has maintained that tests previously conducted by the Allegheny County Department of Health found low levels of arsenic -- consistent with an area where coal is burned to produce electricity.

The commonwealth will receive approximately $1.8 million for cleanup costs and monitoring, with the rest going to the residents for compensation and damages, including:

n $550,000 to DEP from the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, which owned and operated a leaking water supply line under the shoulder of River Hill Road.

n $100,000 to the Department of Transportation from MAWC.