Abstract
The hydrology of a 14,672 acre (5,940 ha) coal mine complex in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, USA, was characterized. This flooded mine complex was evaluated to determine the potential of using the mine water for downstream agricultural purposes in an adjoining watershed. The hydrologic characteristics of the mine complex dictate the amounts and rates of mine water discharge that are available. The original coal extraction rate was known to be 63%, but post-mining subsidence has reduced the effective porosity to a mean of 11%. Thus, the mine stores considerably less mine water than was anticipated, a priori. The mine receives vertical recharge averaging 0.27 gallons (gal) per minute per acre (24.6 L/s per ha), which is equivalent to 11.6% of the mean precipitation. The recharge rate fluctuates about the mean by ±22%. The low storage capacity combined with the moderately low recharge rates allow the large mine complex to be rapidly drawn down when the pumping rate is raised from 4.68 to 9.36 × 106 gal (17.7–35.4 × 106 L/day). Conversely, the mine refills rapidly, up to 0.8 ft (0.24 m) or spatially 33 acres (13.4 ha) per day, once the pumping rate is reduced back to 4.68 × 106 gal/day (17.7 × 106 L/day), which is well below the total recharge rate. In addition to vertical recharge, 6.3–40.4% of the inflow into the mine pool complex occurs from coal barrier seepage from an adjacent flooded mine. The seepage rates are relatively constant and are estimated to be insensitive to changes in head up to 50 ft (15.2 m).
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank our colleagues Eric Perry, Bob Evans, and Jack Felbinger for their significant contributions and in depth technical discussions. We also thank Dan Sammarco of Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation who was instrumental in the completion of the project. We also would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful comments and suggestions. Finally, we express our gratitude to Dennis Lloyd of Lloyd Environmental for his generous sharing of data and insight of the entire mine complex.
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Hawkins, J.W., Dunn, M. Hydrologic Characteristics of a 35-Year-Old Underground Mine Pool. Mine Water Environ 26, 150–159 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10230-007-0003-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10230-007-0003-7