Tuesday, February 27, 2007 10:20 PM CST
Experts offer insight into coal mining methods
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
OAKLAND -- The difference in mining methods will have a lot to do with how the ground above the mine comes out, two experts told a crowd of area people in a potential mining hotbed Tuesday.
Subsidence, basically the sinking of land above the mine, will come sooner or later and there’s a chance it could also affect water wells, the experts said.
Focusing on a mining method called “longwall,” David Morse, head of the coal section of the Illinois Geological Survey, was the first expert who spoke and said the method extracts more coal and gets the subsidence over sooner.
“The collapsing is done and that’s one benefit of longwall mining,” Morse said. With another method, called “room and pillar,” there will be subsidence “but you never know when,” he explained.
Morse was part of a presentation to a crowd of about 100 people in the gym at Lake Crest School. The Soil and Water Conservation Districts and the Farm Bureaus of Coles, Douglas and Edgar counties hosted the presentation.
Behind the idea of the talk is the plan for underground coal mining in the Oakland area and to build a coal-to-diesel plant, also near Oakland. Nancy Pals of the Coles County SWCD said the meeting was for information and not to draw any conclusions about the pros or cons of the plans.
“We’re not going to take sides,” Pals said. “We need to have a better understanding of what to expect.”
Morse explained that longwall mining takes coal from larger sections and leaves fewer support walls of earth than room and pillar\ mining. Mining companies are responsible for repairs, but there’s a risk if the subsidence occurs later when the company might no longer be around, he said.
Colin Booth, a hydrogeology professor at Northern Illinois University, said the effects of longwall mining can vary greatly with differences in terrain or, in the case of water walls, the area’s geology.
In some cases, the water level of a well decreases because “subsidence opens up a new space” and the water is spread out over a larger area, he said.
“There may be damage (to wells) or they may be OK,” Booth said. “The real issue is whether there’s water there to go back to. It’s very often quite dramatic.”
A mining company might have to provide a temporary water supply, but in some cases that’s not possible, he also said. The quality of the water if it does remain isn’t really affected, he added.
“There are an awful lot of threads there,” Booth said. “It’s very difficult to say what’s going to happen.”
During a question-and-answer session still continuing at press time, audience members posed questions to Morse, Booth and others. John Armstrong, an attorney who specializes in mining issues, responded to one question by explaining how a mining company is responsible for damages after the mine closes.
“Many times, the mine operator has disappeared,” Armstrong said. Then, it’s a matter of trying to trace the successors to the original company and find assets to pay for the damages, something that’s sometimes difficult, he added.
Morse and Booth also talked about the coal in this part of the state. The area of the now-closed mine at Murdock in Douglas County is on the edge of Illinois’ coal deposits and has the thickest “seams” of coal, which thin further south, he said. Booth said the coal seams in the area were “relatively thin for longwall mining.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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Fxiccxypxc wrote on May 10, 2007 11:31 AM: