By Brandon Taylor and Nick Hood

On August 29, 2024, the Center for Coalfield Justice published an update on underground longwall coal mining in Greene and Washington counties.  Here are some excerpts.

Click Here to read the entire update online.

What Is Longwall Mining?

Longwall mining is a distinct coal mining practice common in Southwestern Pennsylvania; mining a longwall section involves digging through an entire panel of coal in one long swathe, then the roof of the mine falls in once the operation is done.

Currently, there are over 17,000 acres (26.5 square miles) in Washington and Greene Counties with pending mining permits.

Homes, streams, springs, water wells, gas pipelines, power lines, roads, active, abandoned, orphaned, unknown gas wells and much more exist on top of this land that may be undermined.

Act 54 Assessment Of Longwall Mining Damage

The 6th 5-year assessment of Act 54 (2018-2023) is due to be released this year. 

Previous assessments were completed by a third party – the 5th assessment was done by researchers from The University of Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 

However, the 6th version is being done internally by the Department of Environmental Protection itself. 

As for who can participate, DEP’s website states, “…the Department will consider input from mining professionals,” meaning the very industry regulated by the act will play a part in assessing its effectiveness.

[Note: DEP also says, “Interested parties can submit questions or comment on the data on a continuing basis.]

Political maneuvers from our elected officials who receive campaign donations from the coal mining companies sought to and succeeded in obtaining this deviation.  [Read more here. Read more here.]

Rising costs and a burden on taxpayers were cited as reasons for the change-up. 

Meanwhile, these same politicians turn a blind eye when coal companies burden taxpayers daily when damaging highways, roads, homes, water sources, and utilities. 

Do you think your home value is more likely to go up or down after being longwall undermined?  And do you think that answer will be fairly represented in a report conducted in part by the mining industry?

I-70 Longwall Mining Impact Study

The results of a comprehensive longwall mine subsidence study conducted by researchers in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh were published in 2021.

In 2019, the Tunnel Ridge Mine in Western Washington County began longwall mining operations on Panel 15, a section of the mine that runs underneath both lanes of I-70 near the PA/WV border.

 In anticipation of operations, Pitt researchers designed a study of the I-70 roadway. The $500,000 study had the goal of examining the subsidence process as it was happening using advanced equipment and continuous monitoring.

This longwall mining event was also an opportunity to test a new preservation technique that attempts to prevent some of the damage that would normally result from the undermining of the roadway.

The study clearly shows that Tunnel Ridge caused significant damage to the highway, and multiple lanes of traffic were forced to be monitored, repaired, and delayed for weeks after.

The significance of these bumps and cracks may not seem severe, but considering this is a major transportation route where people travel at highway speeds, driving over a bump like that could be catastrophic.

The cost to repair the highway wasn’t discussed within the study, but regardless the mine themselves were not held responsible for it.

Subsidence as a result of mining is not uncommon in our area—in fact, it’s a fairly serious and widespread problem.

 So much of Southwestern Pennsylvania has been undermined by some form of longwall mining underneath roads, towns, and houses that a government program had to be created to offer insurance for residents whose properties had been undermined.

Pennsylvania’s Mine Subsidence Insurance program was created because of the ubiquity of this issue, and because homeowner’s insurance was not willing to cover the sort of damages resulting from subsidence.

However, the Mine Subsidence Insurance Program doesn’t help those who are being impacted by Longwall mining operations.

DEP Maps Of Mining

PADEP MAP – shows all active, completed, and projected longwall mining panels in PA.  Any address can be searched to see where it is located in relation to any longwall mining panel.

Coal Mining Resources For Citizens

-- Center For Coalfield Justice Landowners’ Guide to Subsidence Damage Repair and Water Supply Replacement  for hard copies, send us an email or print from the CCJ website (resource page)

-- PA-DEP mining map showing past, current and planned areas

-- Penn State Mining Maps

     -- Online resource that contains actual permit files

     -- Mainly older maps and applications

-- ASK CCJ for a Coal Mining Know Your Rights Event

Click Here to read the entire update.

Visit the Center for Coalfield Justice website for more information on programs, initiatives, upcoming events and how you can get involved.

Additional Background On Longwall Mining Impacts 

The last DEP Act 54 longwall impact report in 2019 prepared by the University of Pittsburgh found--

-- Of the 86 miles of streams undermined by deep coal mining, 59 miles or 40 percent experienced multiple impacts such as loss of flow or pooling and on average their Total Biological Score declined significantly.

In the last Act 54 report covering 2008-2013 in 2015, the University of Pittsburgh also found 40 percent of the streams undermined by deep coal mining suffered the same sorts of impacts. Click Here for more.

Of the 82 Stream Recovery Evaluation reports mining companies are required to do where there are impacts, mining operators were released from further responsibility for 42 of the streams.  40 of the SRE reports remain unresolved.

The report found, “An alarmingly high proportion of SRE reports did not contain the amount of monitoring data suggested by technical guidance.”

-- The report found 379 water supplies were affected underground of which 192 were determined to be the mining company’s fault and 73 were categorized as interim resolutions.  There were 2,353 water supplies undermined in all during the reporting period.

Of the 192 water supplies affected, mining companies took an average of 426 days to resolve the issue and 150 days if the company purchased the property affected.

-- Of the 3,612 structures undermined during this period, there were a total of 391 effects from active mines and an additional 64 reported impacts from mines there were in active during 2013-2018 totalling 455 structures.

Of the 455, 247 structures-- 54 percent-- were found to be the mining company’s fault with the remaining 208 reported effects had a company not liable resolution or are still in interim resolution (109).

The most commonly undermined structures were homes.

The average time for all structural final resolutions was 162 days.

Among the conclusions in the report by the University of Pittsburgh was--

-- Damage Is Occurring At Distances Beyond What Is Expected: “...  during this assessment, unexpected impacts were observed. Far-field subsidence impacts occurred at distances well beyond those predicted by models accepted by the ground control scientific and engineering community.

“Company liable subsidence impacts occurred over inactive mines. These cases, if rare, might be aberrations. However, multiple far-field effects were recorded at distinct mines. Evaluation of whether these cases are “noise” or indicative of important emergent processes to consider fundamentally require a holistic approach.”

[Read more here about the report findings.]

DEP’s Citizens Advisory Council provided DEP comments on the last Act 54 report in May of 2023, finding--

-- The 5th Act 54 Report documents significant ongoing subsidence damage to the natural and built environment from longwall mining.  This is consistent with previous Act 54 reports.

-- Despite this knowledge, impact prediction and avoidance in permitting applications and revisions seldom occurs.

-- Most subsidence damage to structures, water supplies and environmental resources cannot be documented as having been fully repaired, and when repairs are made the process often is slow and the long-term success of those repairs is unknown.

-- Major gaps still surround the recording and communication of data regarding mine subsidence impacts, although small improvements have been made in the Department’s recordkeeping.

-- The Department’s current plan to forego preparation of future 5-year Reports and instead periodically publish Bituminous Underground Mining Information System information on its website will likely provide less useful information about subsidence impacts to coalfield residents, policymakers and others.

-- Questions from the public and from the CAC on past Act 54 Reports remain unanswered by the Department, and most are not addressed in this 5th Report.

Click Here for a copy of the CAC cover letter.  Click Here for a copy of the Council’s full comments.

DEP has not responded formally to the CAC’s comments on the 5th Act 54 Report.

In DEP’s report to the Council for its September 10, 2024 meeting, says DEP has “completed an update to the data records of claims, compliance actions, stream effects and wetland effects related to underground bituminous mining.”

DEP "then arranged and packaged the data for submittal to the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) for peer review. The final report was completed and is being routed for public release. After the 6th report is released, the online data will be updated to include 2023 information to the present."

(Photos: Top-- 6 small photos are examples of typical structure, stream damage from DEP’s Act 54 report; Damage to I-70; Bottom- longwall mining machine.)

[Posted: September 5, 2024]

9/9/2024