United States Government Accountability Office GAO Report to Congressional Requesters December 2009 SURFACE COAL MINING Characteristics of Mining in Mountainous Areas of Kentucky and West Virginia GAO-10-21 December 2009 SURFACE COAL MINING H AccountabilityIntegrityReliability ighlights Characteristics of Mining in Mountainous Areas of Kentucky and West Virginia Highlights of GAO-10-21, a report to congressional requesters Why GAO Did This Study What GAO Found Surface coal mining in the Surface coal mining in Kentucky and West Virginia had the following mountainous areas of Appalachia— important characteristics, based on permits issued from January 1990 through often called “mountaintop July 2008: mining”—generates controversy, in • The number of acres under open permit increased by an average annual part because of its scale and the rate of 2.2 percent in Kentucky and 1.7 percent in West Virginia. post-mining appearance of the • The number of acres under open permit became more geographically land. Yet there is limited public access to information on the size, concentrated. location, and life span of these • The length of time that permits were open varied from less than a year to operations, or on how the land can more than 18 years. be expected to look afterward. • In West Virginia, 28 contiguously permitted areas contained nearly half of GAO was asked to report on the the permitted acres, as of July 2008. characteristics of (1) surface coal mining and (2) reclaimed lands that Reclaimed lands had the following important characteristics, based on were disturbed by surface coal permits issued from January 2000 through July 2008: mining in the mountainous, eastern • The most common type of post-mining land use in Kentucky was fish and part of Kentucky and in West Virginia, where most such mining wildlife habitat and, in West Virginia, it was forestland. occurs. • Most permits required operators to reclaim the land to AOC, but there were some exceptions (called variances). Most of the variances were for Federal and state law requires lands where there was insufficient spoil to restore AOC because the land mining operators to obtain permits had been previously mined but not reclaimed. before mining. Among other • Kentucky and West Virginia collectively approved nearly 2,000 fills to things, the permits identify the store at least 4.9 billion cubic yards of excess spoil in nearby valleys. acres under open permit (the acres subject to mining associated with a permit that has not been closed) A West Virginia site showing the bare soil of active mining and the greener land that is being and how the land will be reclaimed reclaimed—including the post- mining land use, whether the approximate original contour (AOC) of the land will be restored, and the extent to which excess earth, rock, and other materials (known as “spoil”) are placed in nearby valleys. For this study, GAO relied on electronic databases of mining permits maintained by Kentucky and West Virginia. This report makes no recommendations. In commenting on a draft of this report, the Department of the Interior and the two state mining agencies generally agreed with our findings. View GAO-10-21 or key components. For more information, contact Robin Nazzaro Source: GAO. at (202) 512-3841 or [email protected]. United States Government Accountability Office Contents Letter 1 Background 4 Characteristics of Surface Coal Mining in Mountainous Areas in Kentucky and West Virginia 8 Characteristics of Reclaimed Lands That Were Disturbed by Surface Coal Mining in Mountainous Areas of Kentucky and West Virginia 29 Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 62 Appendix I Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 64 Appendix II Comments from the Department of the Interior 69 Appendix III Comments from the Kentucky Department for Natural Resources 74 Appendix IV Comments from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection 81 Appendix V GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 82 Tables Table 1: Coal Production from Surface Mines in Select States and Regions, 2008 6 Table 2: The 10 Counties in Kentucky with the Largest Number of Open Acres in July 2008 and the Number of Open Acres in Those Counties in 1990 20 Table 3: The 10 Counties in West Virginia with the Largest Number of Open Acres in July 2008 and the Number of Open Acres in Those Counties in 1990 22 Page i GAO-10-21 Surface Coal Mining Figures Figure 1: Contour, Auger, and Highwall Mining 5 Figure 2: Area Mining on a Mountaintop 6 Figure 3: Acres in Kentucky Associated with Issued, Released, or Forfeited Permits, by Year the Permit Was Issued, Released, or Forfeited, 1970–July 2008 11 Figure 4: Cumulative Number of Acres in Kentucky Associated with Open, Released, and Forfeited Permits, 1970–July 2008 13 Figure 5: Acres in West Virginia Associated with Issued, Released, or Forfeited Permits, by Year the Permit Was Issued, Released, or Forfeited, 1961–July 2008 15 Figure 6: Cumulative Number of Acres in West Virginia Associated with Open, Released, and Forfeited Permits, 1961–July 2008 17 Figure 7: Acres in Kentucky under Open Permit as a Percentage of All Acres under Open Permit in the 10 Counties with the Largest Number of Open Acres in July 2008 19 Figure 8: Acres in West Virginia under Open Permit as a Percentage of all Acres under Open Permit in the 10 Counties with the Largest Number of Open Acres in July 2008 21 Figure 9: Average Length of Time Kentucky Permits Issued Since 1990 Were Open, by Size and Status, as of July 2008 23 Figure 10: Average Length of Time West Virginia Permits Issued Since 1990 Were Open by Size and Status, as of July 2008 24 Figure 11: The 559 Permitted Areas in West Virginia, as of July 2008 26 Figure 12: The 28 largest Permitted Areas in West Virginia 28 Figure 13: PMLU Types Approved in Kentucky, 1970–2008 32 Figure 14: PMLU Types Approved in West Virginia, 1970–2008 34 Figure 15: Pre-Mining Land Use Types Identified in Kentucky, 1970–2008 37 Figure 16: Pre-Mining Land Use Types Identified in West Virginia, 1970–2008 39 Figure 17: An Illustration of a Reclaimed Site Meeting the AOC Requirement, Compared with the Original, Pre-Mining Contour 42 Figure 18: Number of Permits in Kentucky Issued to Be Reclaimed to AOC, Compared with Permits Issued with AOC Variances, 1970–2008 43 Figure 19: Number of Permits in West Virginia Issued to Be Reclaimed to AOC, Compared with Permits Issued with AOC Variances, 1970–2008 45 Page ii GAO-10-21 Surface Coal Mining Figure 20: A Reclaimed, Surface-Mined Site with an AOC Variance in West Virginia 47 Figure 21: Types of AOC Variances Approved in Kentucky, 1970– 2008 50 Figure 22: Types of AOC Variances Approved in West Virginia, 1970–2008 52 Figure 23: A Terraced Fill on a Reclaimed Site in West Virginia 54 Figure 24: Fills Approved in Kentucky, 1970–2008 56 Figure 25: Storage Volume of Fills Approved in Kentucky, 1970– 2008 57 Figure 26: Fills Approved in West Virginia, 1970–2008 59 Figure 27: Storage Volume of Fills Approved in West Virginia, 1970– 2008 60 Figure 28: Length of Fills Approved in West Virginia, 1970–2008 61 Abbreviations AOC approximate original contour EIA Energy Information Administration ERIS Environmental Resources Information System OSM Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement PMLU post-mining land use SMCRA Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 SMIS Surface Mining Information System This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. The published product may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without further permission from GAO. However, because this work may contain copyrighted images or other material, permission from the copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this material separately. Page iii GAO-10-21 Surface Coal Mining United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 December 9, 2009 The Honorable Norm D. Dicks Chairman The Honorable Michael K. Simpson Ranking Member Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations House of Representatives The Honorable Jeff Bingaman Chairman Committee on Energy and Natural Resources United States Senate Surface mining for coal in the mountainous areas of Appalachia—often referred to as mountaintop mining—generates controversy due to the scale of mining operations and concern about the post-mining appearance of reclaimed lands, among other issues. Mountaintop mining operations can involve thousands of acres and take a decade or more to complete. During this time, the land is cleared of forests and other vegetation, and explosives or other techniques are used to break up the earth, rock, and other materials (known as “spoil”). The spoil is then removed to expose the underlying coal seams and allow for its extraction.1 Once the coal has been extracted, some or most of the spoil is placed back on top of the mined-out area. Excess spoil is often placed in adjacent valleys. The area is then prepared for its post-mining land use. Surface mining is an important source of coal production in Appalachia, accounting for about 40 percent of the coal produced in the region in 2008, the most recent data available.2 In 2008, Kentucky and West Virginia accounted for about 76 percent of the coal produced from surface mines 1Mining breaks up solid rock layers and produces smaller, irregularly shaped pieces that are separated by voids, or air pockets. This causes the overall volume of the excavated material to increase, or “swell,” so that it no longer fits together as compactly as it once did. 2The remaining 60 percent of coal produced in Appalachia comes from underground mining. Page 1 GAO-10-21 Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia, producing about 120 million tons, making them the third- and second-largest surface coal-producing states in the nation.3 Almost all surface mining in Appalachia occurs on private land. Surface mining of coal is regulated by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA), which created the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) to implement and enforce the act. SMCRA allows an individual state to develop its own program to implement SMCRA if that program is in accordance with federal law and is approved by OSM. OSM is charged with enforcing states’ adherence to their approved programs or implementing a federal program in accordance with SMCRA if the state fails to submit, implement, or enforce its own program. OSM has approved programs for 24 states, including Kentucky and West Virginia in 1982 and 1981, respectively. Despite the public scrutiny that surface mining in mountainous areas has received, the public is limited in its ability to access information on the scope of these operations—their size, location, and how long they have been in operation—and on what the mountain can be expected to look like after mining operations have ceased and the land has been reclaimed. Although this information is available to the public, the public cannot readily aggregate these data over time to perform trend analyses, which is a key component to understanding the characteristics of surface mining in these states since mining operations can last a decade or more. In response to your request, this report provides information on the characteristics, over time, of (1) surface coal mining in mountainous areas in Kentucky and West Virginia and (2) reclaimed lands disturbed by surface coal mining in mountainous areas in Kentucky and West Virginia. This report focuses on surface coal mining in the mountainous areas of Kentucky and West Virginia because these are the states in which the majority of mountaintop mining that is the source of controversy in Appalachia occurs. These areas accounted for about 73 percent of Appalachia’s surface coal production in 2008. For Kentucky, we included in our analysis surface mining permits in the mountainous, eastern part of the state, which accounted for most of the state’s surface coal production. We excluded permits in the flatter, western part of Kentucky, which accounted for about 9 percent of Kentucky’s surface coal production in 3Wyoming produced about 464 million tons of coal from surface mines in 2008. Page 2 GAO-10-21 Surface Coal Mining 2008. We included surface mining permits from all of West Virginia in our analysis. To address our objectives, we relied extensively on the two states’ electronic databases, which contain select information from the states’ surface mining permit files. The permit files provide detail on mining operations that are not contained in these databases. The Kentucky database is called the Surface Mining Information System (SMIS). The West Virginia database is called the Environmental Resources Information System (ERIS). Through extensive discussion with state officials familiar with these electronic databases, and our analysis of the information from the databases, we determined that specific data elements are sufficiently reliable within certain time frames. Specifically, due to limits on data reliability and to be consistent between the states, we are reporting on the characteristics of surface mining in Kentucky and West Virginia from January 1990 through July 2008 and on the characteristics of reclaimed lands that were disturbed by surface mining from January 2000 through July 2008, except for Kentucky’s data on variances, for which we are reporting from January 2002 through July 2008. However, SMIS and ERIS also contain data on these characteristics for prior years, in some cases dating to 1961. For some of these years, for some data elements, we determined that the data is reliable; in other instances, we identified specific data limitations. Although the general public has access to data from all years—the surface mining permit files in Kentucky and West Virginia are public documents—the data are readily accessible to the public by electronically accessing SMIS and ERIS. We include data from all years in many of the graphics in our report in order to provide a comprehensive overview of the data in SMIS and ERIS that clearly identifies the years for which there are data limitations and what those data limitations are. We believe that presenting data from the earlier years—and its limitations—decreases the likelihood of misuse or misinterpretation because the limitations on the data are not disclosed on the Web sites from which the public accesses SMIS and ERIS. Additionally, for West Virginia, we combined data from ERIS with electronic geospatial files of permit boundaries from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to determine which permitted areas were adjacent to each other. From this information, we identified the largest, contiguously permitted areas in West Virginia. We had insufficient data to identify contiguously permitted areas in Kentucky. We also reviewed relevant federal and state laws, regulations, and policy guidance on surface coal mining and reclamation; visited several active mining operations and reclaimed sites in the two states; and met with officials from OSM, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, and the Kentucky Department for Natural Resources. A more detailed description of our scope and methodology is presented in Page 3 GAO-10-21 Surface Coal Mining appendix I. We conducted our work from March 2008 to December 2009 in accordance with all sections of GAO’s Quality Assurance Framework that are relevant to our objectives. The framework requires that we plan and perform the engagement to obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence to meet our stated objectives and to discuss any limitations in our work. We believe that the information and data obtained, and the analysis conducted, provide a reasonable basis for any findings and conclusions in this report. Background This section provides background on surface coal mining techniques used in Kentucky and West Virginia, coal production data, and SMCRA’s requirements for coal mining operations. Surface Coal Mining A number of different surface mining methods are used to mine coal in Methods Used in Kentucky Appalachia—including in Kentucky and West Virginia. The method used and West Virginia depends largely on the geology, terrain, and the accessibility of the underlying coal seam. Three of the most commonly used methods are contour mining, auger/highwall mining, and area mining. What is conventionally referred to as mountaintop mining is typically mining using one or more of these methods in mountainous areas. Contour mining is typically used where coal seams are exposed in outcrops on hillsides and mountainsides. A cut is first made in the hillside above a coal seam to remove the overburden—the dirt and rock above a coal seam. This further exposes the coal seam and creates a flat area, called a bench, and a highwall—a cliff of exposed rock left after a surface mining operation has cut into the landscape. The mine is then enlarged by successive cuts that follow the coal seam around the side of the hill. The mining extends into the hill to the point where the overburden is too thick to make further exposure of the coal seam economic. The overburden— which is called spoil once it has been removed—can be placed back on top of the mined-out area. Any excess spoil that is not replaced because of stability or other reasons is placed in nearby valleys and hollows. Additionally, auger mining often is used at this stage to maximize the amount of coal recovered. Auger mining involves drilling into an exposed coal seam at the highwall, from the bench—much like a carpenter drills through wood. If coal seam characteristics permit, a “highwall miner” may be used in place of an auger. A highwall miner typically uses rotary cutting heads to extract the coal from the exposed coal seam. Both methods are secondary methods that permit the recovery of additional coal that would Page 4 GAO-10-21 Surface Coal Mining not be economically recovered through surface or underground mining. Figure 1 depicts contour, auger, and highwall mining. Figure 1: Contour, Auger, and Highwall Mining Original contour Overburden Highwall Auger and highwall mining Bench Coal seam Source: GAO depiction of an OSM figure. To recover additional coal that cannot be recovered through contour and auger mining, some or all of a mountaintop can be area mined. To provide a flat surface for the operation of equipment, a first cut is made parallel to the top of the ridge after vegetation and topsoil have been removed. The overburden is loosened by blasting and removed. Once the coal seam is uncovered, the coal can be removed. As with contour mining, the overburden can be placed back on top of the mined-out area or in nearby valleys and hollows. Figure 2 depicts area mining on a mountaintop. Page 5 GAO-10-21 Surface Coal Mining