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November 30, 2005: Sierra Club urges responsible mining

U.S.

Group urges responsible mining

Coal harvesting can damage groundwater and soil, but environmentalists say the right methods can preserve resources

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

BY JESSICA L. ABERLE

THE PEORIA JOURNAL STAR (IL.)

Kathy Edmiston didn't know much about longwall mining, until two coal companies purchased mineral rights for the coal beneath her centennial farm.

Two years ago, the Montgomery County Board sold about 200,000 acres of mineral rights they had inherited years before. Edmiston and about 400 other affected landowners attended an informational meeting where they learned two separate companies planned to employ longwall techniques to harvest the coal from a massive seam in the southern half of the county. They have yet to seek permits from the state.

"You know, longwall mining they call themselves underground mining but they do tremendous damage to the surface," said Edmiston, who has since researched the technique and now serves as president of the Citizens Against Longwall Mining.

The high-extraction method that can retrieve more than 90 percent of the coal seam is seeing renewed interest in central and southern Illinois as the bituminous coal mining industry gears up for a projected market upswing.

But Edmiston's group and the Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter, have come out against the plans, citing concerns for fresh-water contamination, damaged farmland, subsidence cracks and more - age-old concerns of raping one natural resource to recover another.

And as more and more of the pending permits before the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Office of Mines and Minerals are approved, mining activities are expected to continue to increase, and so again are the environmental concerns.

Edmiston has lived and taught school in the Knox County town of Abingdon for years, but continued to manage the 800-acre Montgomery County farm that has been in her family for generations. Her great-grandfather sold the mineral rights before 1920.

"The greatest concern with longwall mining is the loss of fresh water, the loss of water supplies," Edmiston said.

Edmiston is not opposed to mining. It creates much-needed jobs, she said. However, the Sierra Club considers low extraction room and pillar mining that has minimal to no subsidence a much more responsible method.

Dan Barkley, a subsidence specialist with Mines and Minerals, says longwall mining will damage houses and farmland. There is no getting around it. Longwall and even a high extraction room and pillar method have planned subsidence. The ground will drop several feet and the coal companies can mine under residences and cemeteries.

Barkley said coal mining companies seeking to longwall must acquire subsidence rights. And unfortunately, for some of the Montgomery County residents, those rights may have been sold years ago.

The mining company, he said, must repair, replace or compensate for any damage to surface structures and return the land to its pre-mined capabilities. And that includes restoring water supplies.

For surface mine operations setbacks are in place, preventing mining within 300 feet of an occupied dwelling and within 100 feet of a cemetery. However those provisions are subject to adjustment, Barkley said. And surface mining comes with its own set of concerns including destroying fertile topsoil and noise.

Howard Learner, executive director of Environmental Law and Policy Center said there are ways to mine coal that are environmentally responsible and ways that are not, and southern Illinois is replete with examples of both. Extracting coal from the earth, whether at an underground or surface mine, raises concerns with handling of mine waste, the use and avoidance of water and the reclamation of the land, he said.

"In Illinois we ought to insist on the best standards, technology and policies, not the minimum someone can get away with under a law written 20 years ago," Learner said. "Most mining can be done in environmentally sound ways. It's not black and white that if you do mining there will be environmental destruction."

One of the main concerns for Sierra Club activist Joyce Blumenshine of Peoria is operations that put members of the community at risk. Water supply and sewer systems can be damaged by both surface and underground mining and while operators are required to repair any problems, quality of life concerns also arise.

"How do we weigh and balance these concerns?" questioned Blumenshine. "One of the main concerns is the locations of these coal mines, and particularly with relation to groundwater.

"Sierra Club has a major concern with longwall mining, in that it really affects groundwater supplies." she said. "And in this day and age this is not an issue to be taken lightly. To take one resource such as coal and put at risk long term groundwater resources is irresponsible."

Blumenshine further cited remaining gob piles, or slag heaps of coal refuse, at Banner Marsh, as well as other sites that never were fully restored to their pre-mining condition.

Jack Darin, director of Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter said mining really is an intensive construction and industrial project that necessarily has impacts for the land and water both in the immediate area and sometimes in surrounding areas.

The proposed surface operation near Banner, he said, is a good example of poor mine siting.

"We may be looking at a new wave of mining activity and we need to prevent the kind of damage and controversy that accompanied mining in Illinois' past by making sure it's done only in the right places and only in the right way," Darin said. "I think all forms of fossil fuel energy comes at a price. Mining is going to be done, so from our perspective we need to make sure that all the safeguards are in place."

Edmiston agrees.

"Environmentally, longwall mining and strip mining can turn our land into a wasteland," she argued. "It's going to destroy the waterways, the farmland and Illinois will no longer be the breadbasket of the world. If they mine responsibly, we can have our water and our land too."

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/113005/REG_B...