Summer - Northern Plains Resource Council

On June 8, members
of Northern Plains’
affiliate Bull Mountain
Land Alliance (BMLA) met with
representatives from Montana’s
Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) and the federal Office
of Surface Mining (OSM), as well as
staff from Signal Peak Energy. They
took them on a tour of the surface
effects of underground longwall coal
mining in the Bull Mountains.
While some surface subsidence
cracks caused by mining the
coal underground are “healing”
(recompressing), some are not. The
unhealed cracks on steep slopes are
particularly troubling as they pose a
risk of slope failure.
land and water
Officials tour mine land subsidence
Coal industry representatives have
long said that cracks would heal
on their own, a claim the state has
historically seemed willing to accept.
The trip provided conclusive evidence
that, to date, the industry’s claims
don’t hold up.
Along with subsidence, the tour
highlighted the risk that coal mining
poses to water resources. A visit to
Litsky’s Spring, which sits above one
of the panels of coal that has already
been mined, revealed substantial
drawdown in an adjacent deep
monitoring well due to mining. The
spring pond itself was well below
its high water mark. The deeper
monitoring well at the site has
recovered a small amount.
Gaining ground
Bull Mountain Land Alliance
members are confident that their
efforts to protect agricultural land
above mined areas are making
headway. For instance, DEQ and
Signal Peak have committed to
monitoring the length and width of a
long crack on Dunn Mountain. This
physical monitoring goes beyond
prior monitoring which, up until now,
has only measured elevation change.
DEQ has also pushed Signal Peak to
establish a subsidence reclamation
plan and to do more emergency
response planning to reduce surface
disturbance in the future.
Surface equipment
Also of note, the mine has recently
Photo courtesy of Don Thompson
Onlookers view subsidence cracks, like the one in the foreground, on Ellen Pfi ster and Don Golder’s ranch high in the
Bull Mountains during the Bull Mountains Land Subsidence Tour and Picnic on July 15.
Tour, picnic highlight mine cracks on ranchland
Ellen Pfi ster
had to pump nitrogen into the
underground operations due to
carbon monoxide problems – a
process that had large surface effects.
A surface pad, pipeline, equipment
for injection, and more tore up Ellen
Pfister and Don Golder’s land.
The mine has now moved the
equipment underground to reduce
future surface disruption. Signal Peak
purchased a nitrogen generator and
on-site lab for maintaining air quality
in its underground operations.
There are, however, new challenges
and trade-offs. Signal Peak has
encountered unforeseen problems
with the predictability and stability
of the longwall roof under Dunn
Mountain and are having to “seal
the gob,” a process which involves
About 35 people from around the state
gathered July 15 to tour land subsidence
on Northern Plains members Ellen Pfister
and Don Golder’s Hereford ranch in the Bull
Mountains, north of Billings.
Ellen and neighbor Steve Charter, both
longtime member leaders in Northern Plains
and affiliate Bull Mountain Land Alliance,
injecting a special expanding concrete
into the mine to separate mined-out
areas from the rest of the mine as
they proceed. The former nitrogen
injection sites have been replaced by
concrete injection sites. Signal Peak
plans to construct an industrial road
with a 90-foot right-of-way through
some of the roughest drainages below
Dunn Mountain.
Water protection bonding
Also, BMLA’s calls for additional
bonding to protect water over the
long-term remains unresolved.
Still, there is no doubt the group has
made noteworthy progress and is wellpositioned
to go even farther in the
future.
– Svein Newman
showed the subsidence cracks and other surface
damage caused by underground coal mining by
Signal Peak Energy. In addition, they provided
history and other context for how coal mining
is affecting ranching in the area.
After the tour, the group enjoyed a picnic, silent
auction, and live music.
– Svein Newman
30¢ a ton lease near
The State Land Board on June 27
received a bid of 30 cents per
ton from Signal Peak Energy to lease
state-owned coal in the “life of mine
area” of its Bull Mountain coal mine.
The bid, for coal destined for export
to Asian markets, is identical to the
amount for which the Bureau of Land
Management leased federal coal in the
Bull Mountains earlier this year.
Northern Plains has challenged the
BLM’s valuation as too low, given that
the government is getting over a $1 per
ton for coal in Wyoming, and Asian
markets have paid coal companies
record prices of over $100 per ton. The
Land Board will soon decide whether
to proceed with the lease.
– Svein Newman
The Plains Truth Summer 2012 Page 6