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WEBMASTER
kbernhard@osmre.gov
ADDRESS
US Dept. of the Interior
Office of Surface Mining
Washington, DC 20240
202-208-2719
DATE REVISED 11/27/07
LAST REVIEWED 10/30/07
LAST EXPIRED Never
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Farm Management Practices for Reclaimed Cropland
Team Purpose: To develop and provide recommendations that ensure the protection, restoration, and management of soil resources affected by coal mining in Indiana.
___________________________________________________________________________________________Office of Surface Mining, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Coal Mining Company Fund Pennsylvania Mine Mapping Initiative
(1/15/09)
At an open house held today at the University of Pittsburgh, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) recognized a collaborative project that will make thousands of historical maps of closed or abandoned underground coal mines in Pennsylvania available to the public.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP), OSM, and CONSOL Energy, Inc., have pledged a total of $400,000 to the project, which will make available to the public more than 8,000 historical underground mine maps covering much of the coalfields in southwestern Pennsylvania. OSM’s National Mine Map Repository is providing specialized staff and equipment in collaboration with PADEP and the University of Pittsburgh to create digital copies of the maps, which will allow the expansion of a publicly accessible Internet-based geographic information system. The mine maps — some of which date to the 1850s — are a donation from CONSOL Energy, which in 2000 donated its Pennsylvania collection to the University of Pittsburgh’s library system.
“OSM is committed to supporting collaborative projects like this that improve public safety, protect the environment, safeguard miners, and improve economic development,” said Thomas Shope, Director of OSM’s Appalachian Region, at the event. “This is another example of the work that OSM is doing to acquire, preserve, archive, and make abandoned underground coal mine maps available before they’re lost forever,” he added.
Since 2005, OSM has provided over $1 million to 32 underground mine map-archiving projects in 15 coal-producing states. OSM has also worked with states and other Federal agencies to develop approaches for acquiring mine maps and making them available. OSM carries out the requirements of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in cooperation with states and Indian tribes. OSM's objectives are to ensure that coal mining activities are conducted in a manner that protects citizens and the environment during mining, to ensure that the land is restored to beneficial use after mining, and to mitigate the effects of past mining by aggressively pursuing reclamation of abandoned coal mines.
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DEP partners with WVU to study switchgrass on former surface mines
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and West Virginia University have begun working together to study the potential for growing switchgrass on sites of former surface mines across the state.
Switchgrass is a tall grass that grows from three- to ten-feet tall, has a deep root system and grows annually after harvesting. It is often used to rehabilitate exhausted croplands by rebuilding soil structure, nutrients and organic matter. Switchgrass can also be converted to ethanol, which is a flammable alcohol and can be made by fermenting plant products such as corn, barley, wood and straw.
"Last year, 20 percent of the U.S. corn crop was used to produce five billion gallons of ethanol, which is about one percent of petroleum consumption in the United States," said Paul Ziemkiewicz, PhD, with the WVU Water Research Institute. "If our entire corn crop went to ethanol production, it would only replace seven percent of our annual petroleum use. In addition to competing for limited cropland, corn-based ethanol production consumes nearly as much energy as it produces."
According to a recent report by the National Academy of Science, the net energy yield of switchgrass ethanol was about six times better than corn ethanol.
"While corn ethanol will continue to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we clearly need to develop additional sources for ethanol production," said Governor Joe Manchin III. "This study is designed to provide us the information we need to determine whether developing a switchgrass-based industry in West Virginia is the direction we want to go."
"Large surface mines can range from 1,000 to 12,000 acres; many have road networks, access to transportation, water, utilities and even locations for ethanol processing facilities," said Ken Ellison, Director of the WVDEP Division of Land Restoration. "But first, we need to know how many tons of switchgrass hay will be produced on an acre of mined land, track developments in ethanol conversion technology and the economics of ethanol production and processing."
The project will be managed by the Water Research Institute at WVU. The researchers will test the performance of three switchgrass varieties in large, ten-acre plots in both northern and southern West Virginia. Hay yields and carbon sequestration will be measured over a seven-year period; and researchers will document costs related to switchgrass plot establishment, harvesting and maintenance.
"This project is an example of the DEP's continuing effort to find productive uses for mine lands," said Stephanie Timmermeyer, Cabinet Secretary for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. "If we discover that growing switchgrass on these lands is a successful endeavor, it is the perfect example of an enterprising and environmentally healthy use of those lands."
www.wvdep.org
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APPLIED SCIENCE
Completed project fact sheets now being added to the website....
OSM publishes Applied Science Final Report Fact Sheets as part of its technology transfer function to inform interested parties about results from completed Applied Science Projects funded by OSM.
Study Developed EPA Approved Leaching Column Protocol,
A Standardized Leaching Method for Coal Mine Drainage Prediction
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection completed the development of ADTI-WP2 Leaching Column Method in 2009 under the Applied Science Program. OSM, US EPA, the US Geological Survey, and several universities and commercial laboratories cooperated in the development and validation of the test protocol. The goal of this 3 phase project was to provide a standardized leaching method for coal mine drainage prediction that would be acceptable to regulatory agencies. The protocol uses simple low cost test apparatus, and is run within a 14 week time frame. The method is an alternative to whole rock analysis such as Acid Base Accounting. The column leaching test method is especially useful for rocks with marginal Acid Base properties, where water quality is difficult to predict from whole rock analysis alone.
The test can be used for coal mines that have a risk of acid drainage.
The test protocol and supporting documentation has been reviewed by US EPA as method 1627, Kinetic Test Method for the Prediction of Mine Drainage Quality. A final project report was submitted to OSM in June 2009 and includes 10 chapters on sample characterization, test method, reproducibility and interpretive criteria. Click HERE to view the full report.
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