April 22, 2011

The National Weather Service has issued an air quality alert as a result of winds in eastern Wyoming reaching 50mph and picking up coal dust from the giant surface coal mines in the Powder River Basin. Children, the elderly and people with respiratory conditions are advised by the alert to stay indoors and avoid exertion for the duration of the alert.

The National Weather Service typically issue about ten such alerts annually for the Powder River Basin.

Read article at http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Air-quality-alert-issued-for-Powder-River-Basin-1348832.php

April 21, 2011

A recent settlement between the Tennessee Valley Authority and the US Environmental Protection Agency is likely to be a boon to coal miners in the Illinois basin. As part of the settlement, the TVA has agreed to shut down 2700MW of coal-fired electricity production and evaluated the future of another 3300MW of power. If the TVA opts for decreasing emissions by installing better pollution control mechanisms, it would allow them to burn dirtier coal, including coal from the Illinois basin that has a higher sulfer content. Since the Illinois basin is far closer than the Powder River Basin where the plants currently get most of their coal, that decrease in transportation costs would give a distinct advantage to Illinois over Powder River coal. Every additional power plant scrubber is an opportunity for a high-sulfur producer, said Phil Gonet, president of the Illinois Coal Association.

The settlement tries to resolve long-standing Clean Air Act violations in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. The price tag for the upgrades or conversions is likely to be between $3B-$5B.

Read article at http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Coal/6023726

April 18, 2011

The fourth circuit of appeals has upheld a 2009 ruling by Judge Robert C. Chambers that found that the Army Corps of Engineers did not provide the public sufficient input into a mountaintop removal permitting process when they “started the clock” on the public’s comment period before mining companies had provided all the documents for the permit. In particular, the Corps had considered applications “administratively complete” and started the public notice proceedings before the mine released its documents specifying how it was going to mitigate damage to adjacent streams that would be buried under overburden from the mine.

Because Judge Chambers had originally remanded the case back to the Corps, now that the 4th circuit has rejected the appeal, only the Corps has standing to appeal to the Supreme Court, blocking the coal industry from appealing the decision.

Read article at http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/04/18/4th-circuit-tosses-appeal-of-judge-chambers-ruling/

April 15, 2011

MSHA has release the results of its internal audits of its own inspectors for the 2010 calendar year. Among the findings, inspectors did not conduct enough inspections and failed to step up the consequences for mines that were repeatedly found to be unsafe. Additionally, the inspectors were neither trained sufficiently nor mentored sufficiently and MSHA as an agency did not spend enough energy assessing itself to improve its performance.

In more than 50 field offices, auditors reviewed the performance of inspectors and the mines that they inspected. While some offices received strong grades, other were found to be “acceptable” in a majority of the categories reviewed. The audits gained importance in the light of the Upper Big Branch disaster in April 2010, and Republican legislators have pressed for their release.

Read articles at http://wvgazette.com/News/201104151117 and http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/04/15/document-dump-msha-releases-internal-audits/

Read the original documents at

• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-1-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-2-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-3-and-4-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-5-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-6-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-7-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-8-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-8-part-2-of-2-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-9-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-10-2010
• http://coaldiver.org/documents/msha-internal-audits-region-11-2010

April 14, 2011

A train hauling coal in southern West Virginia derailed, leaving 18 of 100 coal cars in a twisted mess of steel and coal. While the cause of the accident is still under investigation (though preliminary reports state it was a broken rail), the accident occurred in a stretch of track that has seen several derailments including one in 2003 at the same milepost that dumped 18 cars in a train pulled by three locomotives, a nearly identical configuration.

No one was hurt in the derailment. It is expected that the tracks will be open again in 24 hours.

Read article at http://www.register-herald.com/local/x731685673/18-coal-cars-derail-in-train-wreck-near-Surveyor

April 13, 2011

A couple of years ago, Massey agreed to buy up the small town of Lindytown, WV, and most of its residents agreed to the terms of sale including agreeing not to sue, testify against, seek inspection or “make adverse comments against” coal mining in the region. Now all that is left behind is the house of 85 year old Quinnie Richmond and her son Roger (62). Gone are the church and its steeple, the homes and the families that once made up Lindytown. Gone too are surrounding mountains, capped to extract the coal inside.

Read article at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/us/13lindytown.html

April 12, 2011

The Mining Safety and Health Administration has placed two coal mines on “Pattern of Violations” status, the first time any mine has been placed on POV status since MSHA was given the authority in 1977. The Abner Branch Rider Mine in Leslie County, KY and Apache Mine in Mcdowell County, WV as well as 12 others were notified last fall that they were being placed under “Potential Pattern of Violation” status because of their high rate of “significant and substantial” violations, violations defined to be likely to cause serious injury. While the other 12 on the list were able to decrease their S&S rates by 40-90%, Abner Branch Rider and Apache actually saw their S&S rates go up by five and six percent respectively.

Now that the mines are on POV status, MSHA has the authority to shut down sections of each of the mines any time an inspection turns up a “significant and substantial” and keep the mines closed until the dangerous conditions are rectified. Two other mines on the potential POV list have shut down instead of facing POV status including Massey’s Freedom Energy Mine No. 1 in Pike County, KY and and Left Fork Mining’s Straight Creek No. 1 Mine in Bell County.

Read articles at http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/markets/newsfeeditem.aspx?id=138501958032113 and http://www.kentucky.com/2011/04/12/1705810/msha-issues-pattern-of-violations.html.

Read the Department of Labor press release at http://www.msha.gov/MEDIA/PRESS/2011/NR110412.pdf

April 12, 2011

The proposed Haystack Mine in Uinta County, WY has passed another major hurdle. The Wyoming Business Council has awarded the Kiewit Mining Group a $1.5M grant to build a road to the site of the proposed mine. With this permission, Kiewit expects to obtain the necessary permits from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality by the end of June.

Because the WY Department of Transportation has to schedule the construction of a permanent road, the first road will be a temporary one built by Kiewit to the standards of the WY DOT. The permanent road will probably be built in the summer of 2012.

Read article at http://www.uintacountyherald.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=4395&page=72

April 12, 2011

Baylor Mining, operator of the Jims Branch No 3A Mine in Wyoming County, West Virginia, has received seven citations regarding the death of miner John C. Lester Jr. Lester, who was 19 years old, fell onto a coal conveyor belt, received a serious head injury and was asphyxiated when he was buried in the coal. He was an apprentice miner who was required to be ‘adequately supervised’ but investigators determined that no miners had been supervising him; in fact three hours passed between the accident and when his body was discovered.

Two individuals in the mine were also individually cited for the accident. Lester was the first mining fatality of 2011.

Read article at http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/4b9a47fb3f9d4aa3ab681f9b23603add/WV–Mine-Fatality-Report/

April 11, 2011

Alcoa has announced that it is developing a new coal mine in southern Indiana with the hopes of controlling costs at its Warrick Operations smelting plants along the Ohio River. Because of $500M of recent improvements at their 755MW power plant at Warrick, they are able to burn coal with a much higher sulphur content than coals from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Currently, the top source of coal for the plant is Alcoa-controlled Friendsville Mine which provides about 40% of the smelter’s coal. Alcoa hopes that the new mine could provide the other 60% so that it would be burning coal produced exclusively by the company’s own mines.

Read article http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Coal/3394549