Nov 20, 2004 4 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – More than 100 out-of-work coal miners crowded into a hearing room or braved steady rain outside as their idled company sought an emergency order to continue longwall mining underneath what company officials say is a ditch but the state maintains is a vital tributary to a creek. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) last week barred Bentleyville-based Maple Creek Mining Inc. and its subsidiary, UMCO Energy Inc., from using a certain mining technique in a section of more than 16,000 acres of coal reserves in Washington County.

State environmental officials say a tributary leading to Maple Creek would be irreparably harmed by longwall mining, a technique that uses large machines to chew through underground seams of coal in swaths as large as 1,000 feet across. As the machines move along, hydraulic roof supports are also moved and the empty seam left behind subsides.

Coal companies prefer longwall mining because it is more efficient and less costly than the traditional room-and-pillar method, where miners leave behind pillars of coal that can support the surface but can also collapse.

State environmental officials say it is impossible for the company to prevent or repair the damage to the tributary or the creek from longwall mining because as the land settles it will likely destroy a dozen springs that feed the tributary. The springs are perched between layers of rock and clay that will likely crack and the springs will drain away, state environmental officials claim.

Officials with Maple Creek Mining and its parent companies say that the tributary is nothing more than a ditch that a farmer lets his cow drink from and walk in. Company officials also say state environmental officials illegally and suddenly changed their requirements to bar longwall mining in the 3,500-foot-long, 800-foot-wide section, forcing the company to stop mining altogether.

“This is putting my life’s work … into bankruptcy over a ditch in which there is no water flow at times,” said Robert Murray, president of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. which owns Maple Creek Mining and UMCO Energy. “… There are 497 people’s lives that are being destroyed over a ditch.”

State environmental officials acknowledge that they initially permitted the company to mine in the area because they thought the tributary didn’t flow year-round and the impact would be minimal.

The agency “realized that it made a mistake, changed its mind and its permit to protect the waters of the Commonwealth,” said Michael Heilman, an attorney for the DEP.

Most of the testimony before the state Environmental Hearing Board early Friday centered on the potential hardships the company could face if the order barring longwall mining wasn’t overturned.

Murray said the mine barely breaks even and customers, including U.S. Steel, Allegheny Power and Reliant Energy, have threatened to sue the companies for breach of contract and buy coal on the open market, charging the companies the difference.

“The company is idle, the workers are idle. They are losing money, a million dollars a day, and this company cannot survive if the order is not lifted,” Murray said. Murray said the company was losing $18,000 for every hour the company can’t mine.

State environmental officials say the order simply bars longwall mining in one particular section and the company could use other methods or move to other sections to mine. But Murray said the mine would lose money using other methods, and preparing other sections for mining would take months.

The hearing is scheduled to continue today with a field trip to the mine site.

State environmental officials will present their arguments on Monday.

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On the Net:

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection: http://www.dep.state.pa.us

Maple Creek Mining Inc.: http://www.maplecreekmining.com