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Citizens Coal Council: PA Fails To Protect Streams From Coal Mining Subsidence Damage
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The Citizens Coal Council this week released the results of a nine-month long investigation into the regulatory files of three major longwall mining operations in southwestern Pennsylvania: Bailey Mine (Consol), Enlow Fork Mine (Consol), and Emerald Mine (Emerald Coal Resources).
The Citizens Coal Council report documents an internal administrative quagmire of illogical permit monitoring, baseless decisions, and lax oversight of coal operators by the Department of Environmental Protection.
Key among the report's findings is that despite improved data collection requirements and strong state constitutional and regulatory safeguards, the DEP has failed to adequately evaluate and protect against threats to valuable Pennsylvania streams and watersheds adversely affected by the longwall "full extraction" method of coal mining.
"Water resource protection is not happening because the regulations are not being applied and the laws are not being enforced," said Stephen P. Kunz, co-author of the report with Dr. James A. Schmid of Schmid & Company, Inc., an ecology consulting firm based in Media, PA.
The problem of watershed damage from longwall mining is chronic. While the CCC report focuses on the past several years of mining records, subsidence damage to streams and watersheds has been allowed by DEP since the now-infamous Act 54 of 1994 paved the way for widespread use of longwall mining in Pennsylvania.
Communities impacted by longwall-related water losses and property damage have been raising their concerns with legislators and DEP for the past 16 years since passage of Act 54 only to be ignored or ridiculed or offered "informal conferences" and patronizing "listening sessions." Meanwhile, state officials go on with "business as usual."
As CCC's Executive Director, Aimee Erickson, points out: "Coal is only 'cheap' because subsidence damage to our critical and valuable water resources is not factored into the equation. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is supposed to protect the environment, but our investigation proves that DEP only really protects the mining companies instead."
A typical longwall mining panel is more than 1,000 feet wide and several thousand feet long and is usually between 200 to 800 feet below the surface. As the longwall mining shearer moves forward the roof supports move with it and the ceiling behind the supports collapses, generally 4 to 6 feet, causing ground movement and strata displacement and disrupting groundwater flow by creating cracks and fractures as the overlying rock drops into the void left after the coal is removed. See CCC's website Longwall Mining page.
Among the investigation's key findings
-- DEP has consistently failed to enforce state and federal coal mining laws which protect the hydrologic balance, including the Cumulative Hydrologic Impact Assessment (CHIA), resulting in stream dewatering and widely-damaged aquatic systems.
-- DEP has consistently failed to enforce state water quality standards, for example, the anti-degradation requirements which can protect high quality water resources most at risk from longwall mining damage. Permit discharge limits are routinely exceeded.
-- DEP has consistently failed to consider critical data in its permit granting process. Longwall mining permits are routinely issued based on inadequate assessments of likely impacts to streams, wetlands, and the hydrologic balance.
-- DEP's oversight and enforcement of pre-mining mitigation and post-mining restoration are piecemeal and inadequate, and may in fact be illegal under the Clean Water Act and the PA Clean Streams Law.
The CCC report - which analyzed over 75,000 pages of DEP mining files - concludes with a list of recommendations that, if implemented, would greatly improve the DEP procedures and permit review process, and in so doing would protect the precious water resources impacted by longwall coal mining in Pennsylvania.
The full report is available online.
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8/2/2010 |
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