FoB: Mine Issues: Reclamation

According to a document obtained from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) via FOIA request, General Shale has approximately 1600 acres under permit in the State of Virginia, 435 of these acres are deemed as being "disturbed" and some of the permits are nearly 35 years old. According to the same DMME document there has not been a single acre of land that has been accepted by DMME as being reclaimed. This would indicate that there are at least 435 acres of exposed earth in Virginia some of which has been left open for nearly 35 years.

At an August 29 hearing, a General Shale representative said that these reclamation figures were incorrect, and presented a list of reclaimed acres in Virginia. Examining one of the sites later with a DMME representative, we found that all of the acreage at this site credited as "reclaimed" is actually occupied by the company's factory and parking lot. We have requested that DMME clarify this discrepancy, and similarly examine the other sites on the list presented by General Shale.

General Shale Mine Site Permit Number 10857AB, Mine No. 12 C&O Pit, 7 Years after they told the VDEQ it was closed.
Click image for a larger picture.

General Shale Mine Site Permit Number 10857AB, Mine No. 12 C&O Pit. Notice in both photos the apparent erosion and lack of reclamation.
Click image for a larger picture.

There is a General Shale mine site near Glasgow, Virginia that General Shale in 1995 reported to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) as being closed. At the same time the DMME listed that same site as being either an active mine site or in "temporary cessation". This type of inconsistency from General Shale and poor DMME oversight allowed General Shale to skirt the VDEQ monitoring and at the same time put off their responsibility of land reclamation. The site to this day has still not been reclaimed. Unfortunately this incident is not isolated; it seems to be typical for General Shale in Virginia.

According to the EPA "...strip-mined areas can lose soil to erosion at a rate of up to 70 tons per acre per year, fifteen times higher than the normal rate from croplands." The permitted acreage at the Barboursville site is nearly 80 acres and once disturbed could yield as much as 5,600 tons of soil erosion per year. This amount of sedimentation could be devastating to Blue Run and its wetlands not to mention the Rapidan River.

It should also be mentioned that an impoundment crossing at the site is being built to accommodate massive rubber tired scrapers that will carry up to 180,000 cubic yards of material per year. These scrapers have open pans and spill a tremendous amount of material as they move up to 40 mph. There's a great potential for a large amount of material to be spilled directly into Blue Run as the scrapers use this impoundment crossing.

Click here for more images of reclamation at General Shale sites.

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Modified Monday, 18-Apr-2005 17:20:19 UTC