August 18, 2011

Denise and Calvin Howard may be forced out of their home of 15 years because of contamination in their drinking water from Excel’s nearby Mine No 3 coal mine. While the Howards and their neighbors had suspected contamination for several years, the situation came to a head when their water well caught fire from methane that had contaminated it. Three months later, the well is still burning continuously and state inspectors have determined that it was “mine impacted.”

While Excel is required by law to provide a temporary water source connected to the Howards pipes within two weeks, the plumbing was also destroyed by the contaminated water. Eventually Excel will be required to pay for a permanent fix, but after national mining consultant Jack Spadaro told the Howards it is not safe to stay in their home, the Howards have asked for Excel to pay for them to move to somewhere else. Eberley Davis, general counsel for Alliance Partners, declined to comment on the suit, citing the pending litigation.

Read article at http://dailyindependent.com/local/x1770585379/Martin-County-community-deals-with-mine-impacted-water

August 15, 2011

Miner Charles M. Hall was killed this morning at Mingo Logan’s Mountaineer II Mine when he was struck by a falling rock while installing cribs in the longwall gob area. Mr. Hall was 46 and had almost six years of mining experience, mostly at Mountaineer II. He became the 13th coal mining fatality in 2011 and the 5th coal mining fatality in West Virginia this year (more than any other state). Mingo Logan is owned by Arch Coal.

Read article at http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/08/15/another-w-va-coal-miner-dies-on-the-job/

August 14, 2011

Linc Energy, from Brisbane, Australia, is working on an extensive mapping project to determine the exact size and depth of the deep coal seams in the Western Powder River Basin. While the PRB has some of the biggest coal reserves in the world, only surface mining is done there. This limits the mining depth to about 500 feet before it gets uneconomical. But many of the PRB’s reserves are well below 500 feet. Unfortunately, the massive thickness of those deposits (as well as the low quality of the coal) make it uneconomical to mine using an underground operation — while underground mining can work seams of 10-20 feet, the PRB’s massive 30-100 foot seams are just too big to mine underground.

Linc proposes to eventually use in situ mining, where the coal is heated in the ground to the point that it breaks down and releases a flammable gas that can be pumped to the surface and burnt or (as Linc intends in this case) converted into a syngas liquid fuel. With this technique a much greater portion of the PRB’s total 1 trillion tons of coal could be extracted than the 21 billion tons of coal currently deemed mineable. While the in situ process isn’t new, Linc claims to have refined it to avoid problems like groundwater contamination that have plagued some previous in situ operations. If permitted, Linc hopes to be able to build a syngas plant that can produce 20,000 barrels of liquid fuel daily.

Read article at http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/stories/Deep-coal-rising,60790

August 13, 2011

Signal Peak Energy’s Bull Mountain Mine was briefly ordered closed after it’s fourth roof fall since July. The latest fall occurred at 1:40 on Friday, August 12 in an abandoned part of the mine. That area had two previous falls and had been identified as needing further ceiling support. The contractor scheduled to work in the area had been unable to work due to equipment problems. Nobody was hurt and a mine spokesperson did not know the the size of the fall.

In response the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) ordered the mine closed until inspectors arrived. It later cleared the mine to reopen Saturday on a reduced schedule of 13 hours a day instead of the normal 20 hours. The Signal Peak’s CEO, John DeMichiei, had previously said that he believes the problems with the root falls may be related to the fact that they are now mining at a depth of 800′ instead of 400′ which means the weight of the overburden is far higher.

Read articles at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_8b5d0f73-8fe8-5f6e-9be5-a64a88d12711.html and http://www.kulr8.com/news/local/Another-Collapse-at-Bull-Mountain-127628303.html

August 10, 2011

Alpha Resources has offered 35 million dollars to try and close a lawsuit accusing Massey of contaminating drinking water for residents of Rawl, Lick Creek, Merrimac, and Sprigg, and other towns in West Virginia. Massey had previously agreed to an additional $5M for a medical fund for affected residents.

Massey had been accused of letting coal slurry (a kind of waste water from coal mines) from several different coal mines contaminate residents’ drinking water, resulting in deaths, cancer, other serious diseases, and an increased risk of future illness. While settlement and all details are confidential, the Associated Press was able to obtain a copy of the offer letter outlining the generalities of the settlement without specifying how much each of the 500 residents would receive. A hearing on September 29 will discuss the settlement and how the money will be divided.

Read article at http://articles.boston.com/2011-08-10/news/29872996_1_coal-accident-upper-big-branch-mine-massey-energy

$750M in pollution controls ordered for station in New Mexico
August 5, 2011

The Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that the San Juan Generating Station must reduce the amount of pollution it produces to reduce the haze in the Four Corners region. The retrofit is expected to cost $750M. The level of pollution controls that will be required is consistent with the preliminary ruling issued by the EPA in December, but the utility now has five years to complete the upgrades instead of three. The owner of the plant has said they will appeal the decision.

“We feel like the decision is a very important one for the people of the Four Corners region,” said Mike Eisenfeld, from the San Juan Citizens Alliance. “I think it’s a clear affirmation of the importance of the Clean Air Act and the steps needed to address the dirty legacies of coal plants.”

Read article at http://durangoherald.com/article/20110806/NEWS01/708069959/-1/s

August 5, 2011

A 1999 lawsuit between the Navajo Nation and Peabody Coal relating to coal mining at the Kayenta Mine on Black Mesa has been resolved with confidential terms. The Navajo Nation had claimed that it had been cheated out $600M of royalties as a result of a conspiracy between Peabody and others. All parties say they are glad to have the litigation behind them.

Peabody’s original mine lease was approved by the Navajo Nation in 1964, granting the tribe a royalty of 37.5 cents/ton (2% of gross proceeds). In 1984 when the lease was up for removal, the tribe sought 20% of gross proceeds which was supported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. However Donald Hodel (Secretary of the Interior) blocked the rate increases and forced the tribe to accept a 12.5% royalty rate after secretly meeting ex parte with Peabody officials. In 1997, this action was found to be a breach of the duty of trust to the tribe.

Read article at http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Navajo-Nation-settles-coal-mining-royalty-case-1734301.php

August 1, 2011

Michael Hendryx, a professor of community medicine at West Virginia University who has published 19 studies on the health effects of living close to Mountain Top Removal coal mines, says that the science shows that living close to a coal mine is bad for your health. “We see it for cancer, we see it for heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, children’s health outcomes. That is not due to other risk factors” says Hendryx.

While critics have said that such studies don’t take into consideration other factors like a greater prevalence of smoking, Hendryx says he’s accounted for tobacco and a dozen other external factors such as obesity, poverty, education, age, race, health insurance and access to medical care.

Read article at http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/21446-1

July 29, 2011

Signal Peak’s Bull Mountain Mine has been given permission to partially reopen just days after having been closed by the Mine Safety and Health Administration. MSHA had closed Bull Mountain in response to three roof collapses that occurred in a week; the closure was designed to give Signal Peak time to provide supplemental roof reinforcements. The reinforcements were needed to compensate for the additional weight of overburden as the new mining wall is about twice as deep as previous seams.

The mine’s current plan is to run the longwall machine to extract coal during the day shift, and then put everyone on support crews during the night shifts. The current closure order bans workers from being by the mining face during mining. The mine is also working on an improved roof control plan to try and prevent future roof falls.

Read article at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_314066f3-57e1-5a2e-9c78-a164f044d76d.html

July 29, 2011

In a dramatic reversal, the Crow Nation in southern Montana and the Australian-American Energy Company have made up their differences and announced a new push to mine the Nation’s huge coal reserves. Last spring the Nation and the AAEC were in court suing each other as an older attempt to make a huge coal-to-liquids plant on tribal land had fallen apart. The new plan still includes a smaller coal-to-liquids component (now to be built in stages instead of all at once), but supplements it with a plan to bake the coal into briquettes. The process increases the coal’s caloric content and ultimate sale price, making it economically feasible to ship to China and the rest of the booming Asian market.

The Absaloka Coal Mine run by Westmoreland is the only mine in Crow tribal land, even though the tribe has 9B tons of reserves. It is hoped that the Many Stars coal-to-liquids plant and the new briquette operation will provided much needed economic stimulus to the depressed tribal economy.

Read article at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_c3b6deec-ba04-11e0-9fce-001cc4c002e0.html