POWER July 2016 - 56

FUELS
The Coal Refuse Dilemma: Burning
Coal for Environmental Benefits
The niche alternative energy industry that generates power from hazardous
piles of coal waste that litter the U.S. is facing an environmental Catch-22.
Sonal Patel
T
he torrent of coal mined and processed
in the U.S. since the mid-1700s-
first sorted by the little, raw fingers
of " breaker boys " (Figure 1) and, later, by
machinery-has produced hundreds of millions
of tons of coal " refuse " that was discarded
for its very low heat content. This
waste coal-also known as culm, gob, or
boney, and often mixed in with rock, shale,
slurry, slate, clay, and other materials-has
been randomly stockpiled high on thousands
of acres of abandoned mine lands (AML),
scattered across landscapes in coal country,
sometimes filling up entire valleys with dark
gray moonscape-like formations.
But over the years, the environmental impact
of these dumps has also crested. Refuse
mounds, toxic to plant life, are barren and
therefore highly erosive. Unstable coal refuse
piles can collapse, becoming potential
disasters. And bituminous piles, in particular,
can leach concentrated levels of acid mine
drainage. " The cost of reclaiming these piles
using conventional AML techniques is high,
and the extremely poor water quality is often
beyond the reach of current passive treatment
technology, " noted ARIPPA, a trade organization
that started as the Anthracite Region
Independent Power Producers Association
but that has since adopted its acronymic
name, along with a broader mission to produce
power from all varieties of the nation's
coal refuse.
In Pennsylvania alone, where coal miners
have extracted about 16.3 billion short
tons of anthracite and bituminous coal
since commercial mining began in 1800,
the state is scarred by more than 5,000
abandoned, unreclaimed mining areas that
cover 184,00 acres. Coal refuse piles at
these mines undulate over an aggregate
area of 8,500 acres and contain a total volume
of more than 200 million cubic yards.
And that's a conservative estimate: ARIPPA
guesses the amount of coal refuse in
the state is actually about 2 billion cubic
yards, split equally between the anthracite
and bituminous coal regions. The Pennsylvania
Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation
(PBAMR), meanwhile, estimates
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that a complete cleanup of AML sites will
cost about $16.1 billion.
Then, there's the ever-present, exorbitant
risk of fire. In 2014, PBAMR paid (using
emergency funds in a trust partially funded
by the coal industry via fees paid per ton of
mined coal) Pennsylvania firm Minichi Inc.
$2.2 million to snuff out a stubborn blaze at
the 100-foot-high, 4-acre bank of the Simpson
Northeast coal refuse pile. The fire,
which started out smoldering and ignited into
flames at the periphery of a vastly larger coal
refuse area, took nearly six months to extinguish,
requiring material excavation, millions
of gallons of water, and thousands of
gallons of firefighting foam (Figure 2).
That's just one example. At least 40 other
coal refuse piles-not including underground
mine fires-are currently burning just
in
Pennsylvania and will need to be addressed
at some point, the state agency says.
There's not much the commonwealth can
do, beyond reclamation-which is a complicated
task that requires addressing water
pollution from run-off and acid mine drainage
discharges, site stabilization, covering
the pile with soil, and planting vegetation. In
1968, Pennsylvania became the first state to
pass a law to address air pollution associated
with coal refuse disposal.
On a federal level, it's a similar struggle,
ARIPPA noted. " Laws were enacted in the
late 1970s that now require coal mining companies
to reclaim the sites that they currently
mine. But by the time these laws were enacted,
a billion tons of coal refuse had been
stockpiled, thousands of mine sites were
abandoned-and the former legally responsible
parties had vanished, " it explained.
From Refuse to Resource
That's why, ARIPPA says, its solution to use
coal refuse as fuel at power plants sited near
piles across the nation is indispensable.
1. Breaker boys. This photo from 1911 captures a view of the Ewen Breaker of the Pa. Coal
Co., where boys-most aged eight to 12-spent 10 hours a day, six days a week, breaking and
sorting coal, and picking out slate and other impurities, which were then dumped in coal refuse
piles. The record notes that the " dust was so dense at times as to obscure the view. " Source:
National Archives and Records Administration

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POWER July 2016

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