CONSOL Makes Its Case to VMRC for Permit

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
  If water flowing into the Buchanan #1 mine is not removed, the mine will be flooded and will have to be abandoned, Dr. Jim Roberts told members of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, Monday in support of a request before the VMRC to issue a permit to allow the company to construct a diffuser system in the Levisa River to disperse the mine water into the Levisa.
  Roberts, a professional engineer hired by CONSOL as a consultant on its plans to permit the mine water discharge, is a founder of Civil and Environmental Consultants Inc.
  Roberts gave a brief project overview and a powerpoint presentation  to commissioners attending the public hearing by video-teleconference Monday (see related story, page one).
  He summarized the importance of the project to CONSOL.
  He said the company has already filled the Beatrice and VP1 mine voids with the water coming from Buchanan #1, coupled with natural water now seeping into those abandoned underground facilities.
  Additionally, water is being stored in VP3 and he said it is from there the company plans to pump it into storage tanks and then into the Levisa River mixing zone area which the company is seeking to permit.
  The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy has approved the discharge permit, however that approval is now under appeal. In the meantime, the company is seeking the VMRC permit it needs to construct the diffuser and is finishing up construction of a $17 million overland pipeline to carry the water from the mine site to the river discharge point.
  Water inflow rates into the Buchanan mine, Roberts said, are projected at 1,500 to 3,000 gallons per minute over the next 17 years of the Buchanan mine’s projected life.
  Roberts noted Buchanan #1 is the largest mining operation in the state of Virginia, employing 443 people with an annual payroll of $29.9 million. He suggested that economic models showed the mine creates some 1,772 indirect jobs as well. Additionally, he said the mine pays both state and local taxes as a result of its operation in Buchanan County.
  Revenues at Buchanan #1 in the next 17 years, he said are projected at $7.2 billion based on proven reserves and using what Roberts called a conservative coal value estimate of some $60 per ton.
  Roberts said the company had considered five alternatives in how to address the need to rid Buchanan #1 of excess water, but he said the untreated discharge is the most cost effective.
  The only two the company considered feasible are the planned discharge or treatment by reverse osmosis, Roberts said.
  He suggested if the company were to use reverse osmosis or electrodialysis to treat the water prior to discharge, it had been deemed by the company to be “prohibitively expensive” considering an initial capital investment of $20 million and operational costs of $5 million annually for reverse osmosis. Over the 17-year life of the mine, he said, that would amount to a cost to the company of some $105 million.
  Additionally, he suggested reverse osmosis would potentially not be reliable due to the nature of mine water and because the mine pump discharge would be intermittent.
  Roberts said the Buchanan mine water quality is high in chlorides and sodium and would have high conductivity and total dissolved solids due to chlorides and sodium content. He said the salinity levels render it one-quarter as salty as the ocean. The water has a neutral PH, low levels of iron which he said require simple treatment. Lab tests have shown it to be colorless and odorless.
  The levels, he added would be 35 parts Levisa to one part of mine water.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.

Speakers Ask VMRC to Deny Permit
CONSOL Seeks Approval from State Agency

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
  Some speakers attending a Virginia Marine Resources Commission public hearing Monday told commissioners that the VMRC was the Levisa River’s last hope for protection from a planned mine water discharge by Consolidation Coal Company.
  Without the commission’s permit to construct a diffuser system in the river bed, they suggested, the discharge won’t be possible.
  CONSOL attorneys argued on behalf of the company that monitoring systems built in to the project will ensure that river water quality levels as a result of the discharge will be what Department of Environmental Quality water quality regulations allow (see related story, this issue).
  Some speakers at the hearing, however, were skeptical.
  The hearing was held by video teleconference on the campus of Southwest Virginia Community College in Richlands while five of nine VMRC commissioners attended the hearing from across the state in Hampton Roads.
  Del. Dan Bowling asked the commission to consider the Levisa River in the same light they would the James River or the Chesapeake Bay. He asked commissioners to consider how they would vote if the mine water discharge being planned by Consolidation Coal Company was planned to occur in those bodies of water and further requested that they apply that same consideration in rendering a decision when they look at the Levisa River.
  VMRC Environment Engineer Randal Owen gave a brief powerpoint presentation on the proposed project in order to give commissioners and overview of the project.
  He noted CONSOL has received approval from the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy to conduct the discharge, however that permit approval is now under appeal.
  The discharge plans calls for water from Buchanan #1 to be transported to VP3 and then pumped from there to a storage tank to be released into the river. Construction of a $17 million overland pipeline to transport the mine water is nearing completion now, despite the fact the company does not yet have all the permits necessary to conduct the discharge and despite the fact that the main permit allowing the discharge is now under appeal, County Attorney Mickey McGlothlin pointed out during his presentation. No permit was required for construction of the pipeline.
  The diffuser pipe itself, has already been purchased by the company and is now stored at VP3.
  CONSOL is now requesting permission to install the diffuser pipe in the riverbed which will involve the excavation of a two-foot deep trench in the river bed for a distance of 60 to 70 feet, Owen explained. Four diffuser outfall pipes will then protrude from the riverbed and be protected by what were described as concrete-filled steel pipe bollards to protect the pipes from any river debris.
  Owen noted the river is already considered to be an impaired stream.
  Permits related to the discharge, he added, have already been issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the DEQ and DMME, although that permit approval is now being appealed.  The Office of Surface Mining and the Environmental Protection Agency have concurred with decisions made by other regulatory agencies thus far.
  “CONSOL lacks only the VMRC permit to be able to do this,” Owen explained to commissioners.
  The VMRC’s consideration of the permit requested now is limited to the impact of the physical encroachment of the construction of the diffuser system in the river, it was noted. The commission has no controls or ability to regulate the effluents from the diffuser, it was explained.
  Wade McNeely was the first citizen speaker at Monday’s hearing.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.