Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
fires burning across Pennsylvania have destroyed floral and faunal habitats, consumed buildings, emitted toxic
fumes into houses, contributed to respiratory illnesses, induced land subsidence over mine tunnels, burned
precariously close to natural gas lines, and contributed to making Pennsylvania the leading acid rain producing
state in the United States (Glover, 1998; Piposzar and Jones, 2000; Pennsylvania Environmental Network, 2003).
According to data from The National Abandoned Land Inventory System of the PDEP (2001c), there are currently
140 underground coal mine fires and 58 burning refuse piles in Pennsylvania (Figure 6.1.2).
In Pennsylvania, coal fires have been fought using the slurry flushing and surface sealing techniques used in China. In
some underground fires, mine tunnels have been sealed with brick, tile, cement blocks, or clay barriers to cut off the
oxygen supply and reduce the risk of explosion (Glover, 1998; PDEP, 2001a). Aqueous foam firefighting technology
is currently under consideration (PDEP 2001b) as well as pneumatic injection of dry fly ash (Magnuson, 2003).
Unfortunately, numerous underground coal fires in Pennsylvania are burning unchecked because they are elusive,
unpredictable, and cost prohibitive to extinguish. One of the worst underground fires in the United States is the
Centralia mine fire (Figure 6.1.2), burning since May 1962 (Geissinger, 1990; Memmi, 2000).
The Centralia fire began when the Centralia Borough Council decided to burn trash to reduce the volume and
control rodents in an abandoned strip-mining cut used as an unregulated dump at the edge of town. Burning trash
ignited anthracite in the Buck Mountain seam concealed behind the refuse and the fire spread along the seam to
tunnels beneath Centralia (DeKok, 1986, p. 20; Geissinger, 1990; Memmi, 2000). Between 1985 and 1991, the US
Congress appropriated $42 million (the United States) for Pennsylvania to relocate the 1100 residents of Centralia
and its businesses. About 5 people are left in a town and its environs damaged by toxic gases, subsidence, smoke-
filled valleys, polluted streams, scorched woodlands dusted with sulfur, highways cracked by temperatures as high
as 455°C, surficial fires induced by heat from subsurface burning, and an underground fire that may burn for
another 100 years (Memmi, 2000; Schogol, 2001). Because of deteriorated living conditions and the state
s
declaration of eminent domain in 1992, these people, now living in a town with an unmanned firehouse, may be
forced to relocate (Schogol, 2001).
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The Percy mine fire in Youngstown, Pennsylvania (Figure 6.1.2), has been burning underground for over 30 years.
Like the Centralia fire, it apparently started when people ignited trash near a coal seam. Although fly ash has been used
to plug conduits to the fire, the town also appears to be destined for the same fate as Centralia, with an estimated cost of
$30
40 million (the United States) necessary to extinguish the fire. Neither the state nor the federal government has
offered to extinguish the fire or relocate the town
-
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s residents, whose homes are worthless (Glover, 1998).
Jharkhand, India
Commercial coal mining in India began in 1774. Production was at first slow, but it increased with the advent of
steam locomotives in 1853 (Ministry of Coal and Mines (MCM), 2003a). In order to improve safety standards and
develop coal resources judiciously, coal mines were nationalized between 1971 and 1973 (Bharat Coking Coal
Limited (BCCL), 2003; MCM, 2003a). Consequently, 90% of Indian coal is currently mined by subsidiaries of
Coal India Limited, a holding company headquartered in Calcutta (World Bank, 1997; MCM, 2003b). Singareni
Collieries Ltd., co-owned by the state of Andhra Pradesh and the central government of India, in addition to
privately owned companies, mines the remaining 10% (World Bank, 1996; MCM, 2003a). Today, India is the third
largest coal-producing nation in the world. Two-thirds of its energy requirements are supplied by coal, 68% of
which is used to generate electricity (Table 6.1.1). The remainder is used to produce steel and as boiler fuel in
industrial plants (World Bank, 1997).
Fires have beset Indian coalfields since the earliest days of mining (Sinha, 1986; BCCL, 2003). Surface and
subsurface fires burning throughout the Jharia coalfield (JCF) (Figure 6.1.3) comprise one of the largest coal-mine-
fire complexes in the world (Gupta and Prakash, 1998; Western Pennsylvania International Business Newsletter,
1998). The JCF is located in the Dhanbad district, north of the Damodar River, in the state of Jharkhand. It is the
largest coalfield in India and the country
s primary source of coking coal (Gupta and Prakash, 1998; Prakash and
Gupta, 1998). Mining in the JCF began in 1894, and the first coal fire broke out at Bhowrah in 1916. By the 1960s,
numerous fires spread throughout the entire coalfield, with flames locally reaching heights of 20m (BCCL, 2003).
Today, about 70 fires are burning in the JCF (PDEP, 2001d; BCCL, 2003; Figure 6.1.4).
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Most fires in the JCF were ignited by the spontaneous combustion of coal subsequent to opencast and deep mining.
Exploitation without fire prevention codes prior to nationalization was responsible for these fires (BCCL, 2003). In
