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"The longwall threat" fact sheet
Description: This fact sheet is associated with the Longwall Mining Reform Campaign. It provides general information about the longwall mining process, along with more detailed statistics on the size of longwall mines, the impacts on water supplies, and methane release.
Longwall mining panel size: The information on longwall panel average size originates from the 2014 "Longwall Census" published by Coal Age magazine, a coal industry publication. The dimensions for a longwall panel were given as 1,188 feet in width, and 11,207 feet in length. These two numbers multiplied together equal 13,313,916 square feet (surface). 1 acre is equal to 43,560 square feet. Thus, 13,313,916/43,560=305.65 acres.
Source: Coal Age, Feb. 2014
Highest-producing longwall mine in the U.S.: The 2014 "Longwall Census" in Coal Age magazine also provides production statistics, and indicates that Bailey Mine in Greene County, Pennsylvania is the most productive longwall mine in the country.
Source: Coal Age, Feb. 2014
Acreage of Bailey Mine: Because of the unfortunate nature of the coal mining permitting process, coal companies are allowed to submit permit requests in bits and pieces. This makes getting a holistic picture of not only the size but the impact of the mine in its entirety extremely difficult. Citizens Coal Council has worked in conjunction with Schmid & Co., Inc., Consulting Ecologists, who have gone through all of the Bailey Mine permit files and its 100+ revisions, and have determined the size of Bailey Mine. The total size of this mine is over 38,000 surface acres.
Acreage of the largest surface coal mine in the world: The Black Thunder Coal Mine is the largest surface coal mine operation in the world. It covers approximately 24,300 acres.
Source: The Energy Library
US population and drinking water: "In the continental United States, about 117 million people, over one third of the total U.S. population, get some or all of their drinking water from public drinking water systems that rely at least in part on intermittent, ephemeral, or headwater streams."
Source: "Geographic Information Systems Analysis of the Surface Drinking Water Provided by Intermittent, Ephemeral, and Headwater Streams in the U.S.", United States Environmental Protection Agency
Longwall mining and water loss: While more extensive studies are mind-bogglingly absent, extant research (that is not funded by the coal industry) shows the inescapable truth that longwall mining causes long-term, widespread damage to water resources. A 2003 report prepared for the West Virginia Water Research Institute by Professor Ben Stout of Wheeling Jesuit University concluded that "longwall mining results in a net loss of one-half of all headwater streams in Marshall County, West Virginia". This pattern has been observed time and again, but regulators regularly downplay or ignore it.
Source: "Impact of Longwall Mining on Headwater Streams in Northern West Virginia", Ben M. Stout III
Longwall mining and methane: Only by contacting the EPA directly through their Coalbed Methane Outreach Program were we able to obtain concrete statistics on methane from longwall mining. According to the correspondence, 40 CFR 98, Subpart FF (which requires facilities emitting more than 25,000 metric tons of CO2e per year to report their emissions), longwall coal mining accounts for 43% of methane from all mining methods.
According to 2012 Subpart FF data, longwall mining is responsible for 60.9% of methane originating from underground mining methods.
The page below is taken from the EPA's document "Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2012" Executive Summary. You can read individual chapter descriptions and download them as .pdf files here.
The EPA has a handy tool called the "Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator" that you can find here. As mentioned earlier, based on our correspondence with the EPA Coalbed Methane Outreach Program, we determined longwall mining is responsible for 43% of methane out of all coal mining methods. This means that longwall mining's methane contribution is approximately 23.99 Tg CO2 Eq. By clicking on the "If You Have Emissions Data" tab on the Calculator, and entering the CO2e tonnage in the first space, you will see the equivalency in greenhouse gases emitted by more than 5 million passenger vehicles.
Longwall mining panel size: The information on longwall panel average size originates from the 2014 "Longwall Census" published by Coal Age magazine, a coal industry publication. The dimensions for a longwall panel were given as 1,188 feet in width, and 11,207 feet in length. These two numbers multiplied together equal 13,313,916 square feet (surface). 1 acre is equal to 43,560 square feet. Thus, 13,313,916/43,560=305.65 acres.
Source: Coal Age, Feb. 2014
Highest-producing longwall mine in the U.S.: The 2014 "Longwall Census" in Coal Age magazine also provides production statistics, and indicates that Bailey Mine in Greene County, Pennsylvania is the most productive longwall mine in the country.
Source: Coal Age, Feb. 2014
Acreage of Bailey Mine: Because of the unfortunate nature of the coal mining permitting process, coal companies are allowed to submit permit requests in bits and pieces. This makes getting a holistic picture of not only the size but the impact of the mine in its entirety extremely difficult. Citizens Coal Council has worked in conjunction with Schmid & Co., Inc., Consulting Ecologists, who have gone through all of the Bailey Mine permit files and its 100+ revisions, and have determined the size of Bailey Mine. The total size of this mine is over 38,000 surface acres.
Acreage of the largest surface coal mine in the world: The Black Thunder Coal Mine is the largest surface coal mine operation in the world. It covers approximately 24,300 acres.
Source: The Energy Library
US population and drinking water: "In the continental United States, about 117 million people, over one third of the total U.S. population, get some or all of their drinking water from public drinking water systems that rely at least in part on intermittent, ephemeral, or headwater streams."
Source: "Geographic Information Systems Analysis of the Surface Drinking Water Provided by Intermittent, Ephemeral, and Headwater Streams in the U.S.", United States Environmental Protection Agency
Longwall mining and water loss: While more extensive studies are mind-bogglingly absent, extant research (that is not funded by the coal industry) shows the inescapable truth that longwall mining causes long-term, widespread damage to water resources. A 2003 report prepared for the West Virginia Water Research Institute by Professor Ben Stout of Wheeling Jesuit University concluded that "longwall mining results in a net loss of one-half of all headwater streams in Marshall County, West Virginia". This pattern has been observed time and again, but regulators regularly downplay or ignore it.
Source: "Impact of Longwall Mining on Headwater Streams in Northern West Virginia", Ben M. Stout III
Longwall mining and methane: Only by contacting the EPA directly through their Coalbed Methane Outreach Program were we able to obtain concrete statistics on methane from longwall mining. According to the correspondence, 40 CFR 98, Subpart FF (which requires facilities emitting more than 25,000 metric tons of CO2e per year to report their emissions), longwall coal mining accounts for 43% of methane from all mining methods.
According to 2012 Subpart FF data, longwall mining is responsible for 60.9% of methane originating from underground mining methods.
The page below is taken from the EPA's document "Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2012" Executive Summary. You can read individual chapter descriptions and download them as .pdf files here.
The EPA has a handy tool called the "Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator" that you can find here. As mentioned earlier, based on our correspondence with the EPA Coalbed Methane Outreach Program, we determined longwall mining is responsible for 43% of methane out of all coal mining methods. This means that longwall mining's methane contribution is approximately 23.99 Tg CO2 Eq. By clicking on the "If You Have Emissions Data" tab on the Calculator, and entering the CO2e tonnage in the first space, you will see the equivalency in greenhouse gases emitted by more than 5 million passenger vehicles.