March 31, 2011 – Today, the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR) and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) announced a cooperative project to map underground mine pools in the Northern and Southern Anthracite Coal Fields. The maps will help SRBC and EPCAMR to identify and select mine pools that could be potential sources of water to compensate for consumptive water uses as required by SRBC regulations and toward improving water quality in the Susquehanna River Basin.
SRBC contracted EPCAMR for $75,000 to apply its expertise in producing innovative, three-dimensional geographic information system (GIS) digital maps that can be used to estimate the amount of water being held in underground mine pools. The Northern Anthracite Coal Field stretches from Forest City in Lackawanna County to Shickshinny in Luzerne County. The Southern Anthracite Coal Field runs from Jim Thorpe in Carbon County to Dauphin in Dauphin County. “EPCAMR pioneered this underground mapping method in our region and has already applied it for SRBC in the Western Middle Anthracite Coal Field,” said EPCAMR Executive Director, Robert Hughes. Through that initial effort, EPCAMR estimates the Western Middle Coal Field to hold 60 to 220 billion gallons of untapped, stored water. EPCAMR is extremely pleased to continue its partnership with SRBC to now map the network of isolated and interconnected underground mine pools in the Northern and Southern Coal Fields. Prior to this three-dimensional mapping technology, only paper maps were available, making it very difficult to assess the potential volumes of water in the underground mine pools.
SRBC’s consumptive water use regulations require project sponsors to mitigate for their use during times of low flow. While several mitigation options are available to project sponsors, the vast majority choose to pay SRBC a fee so the commission can in turn locate and secure mitigation waters.
“The network of underground mine pools in the geographically expansive Anthracite region in the Susquehanna River Basin is believed to hold large volumes of water,” said SRBC Executive Director, Paul Swartz. “If EPCAMR’s mapping work proves this to be the case in the Northern and Southern Coal Fields, these mine pools could provide SRBC with a truly viable source for consumptive use mitigation waters.” Swartz continued, “That would be a win-win. SRBC would secure the large volume of mitigation water we need to protect streams during times of low flows, and the region’s water quality would be improved by reducing the overall amount of untreated mine drainage entering tributaries and ultimately the Susquehanna River.”
Under the scope of work for the mapping project, EPCAMR’s tasks will include:
1. Coordinating and compiling readily available background data and information
2. Creating data tables/layers needed for analysis
3. Performing 3-D modeling exercises to determine potential volumes of water in mine pools
4. Adding all data converted from paper mine pool maps to digital format; that data will eventually become part of EPCAMR’s Reclaimed Abandoned Mine Land Inventory System GIS database
5. Generating a final report for SRBC, including maps for Northern and Southern Coal Fields
Hughes said, “EPCAMR has more than 15 years of experience working across the entire Anthracite region with community groups and regional partners that have been addressing abandoned mine drainage from discharge points to treatment. Now, it’s time to dig deeper into the underground realm of Anthracite mining to determine how much water is flowing beneath our feet.”
In addition to the scientific and technical significance of this mapping project, there is also an important historical component. Hughes said, “many of the mining maps are very old and deteriorating. By converting them to digital format, we are not only modernizing the product, but also preserving history. These maps often represent the only source of information that lets us know how, when, and where coal was extracted in this region.”
This mine pool mapping effort is part of an overall project being led by SRBC and partners, most notably EPCAMR. SRBC is in the process of developing an abandoned mine drainage (AMD) remediation strategy for the Anthracite region, similar to what the agency did in 2008 for the west branch of the Susquehanna River. The remediation strategy will focus on the most severe AMD discharges and outfalls for treatment and potential redevelopment opportunities to reuse the mine water.
About EPCAMR (epcamr.org) – Formed in 1995 by concerned conservation districts in Northeast and North Central Pennsylvania, EPCAMR represents a coalition of watershed organizations and reclamation partners. Members range from individuals, to the active Anthracite mining industry and co-generation power plants, to nonprofit organizations, to 16 county conservation districts and other organizations in the Anthracite and Bituminous coal region of Eastern Pennsylvania that are involved with abandoned mine reclamation issues.
About SRBC (srbc.net) – The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based SRBC is the governing agency, established under a 100-year compact signed on December 24, 1970 by the federal government and the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to protect and wisely manage the water resources of the Susquehanna River Basin. The Susquehanna River starts in Cooperstown, New York and flows 444 miles to the Chesapeake Bay in Havre de Grace, Maryland.
