By Carol McIntire
Editor
March 31, 2009
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| Paul and Linda Dowdell look for their property on the county map at Monday's meeting. |
“Carroll County is a county whose time has come,” Mike Jamison, manager of Ohio operations for Rosebud Mining Company, told between 325 and 350 people gathered in the high school auditorium Monday evening.
Jamison used a map of Carroll and the surrounding counties to make the point that the other counties surrounding Carroll are dotted with mines, both surface and underground, and Carroll County has only a few scattered mines.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “They’ve been mining all around Carroll County for years and years. The reason it has taken so long to get to Carroll County is because the coal is only about 42 inches thick. There is over one billion tons in Carroll County and its time has come.”
Rosebud is not the only company with its eye on the county. According to the presentation, Sterling Mine plans to remove coal from under 1,024 acres; Buckeye Industrial 2,600 acres and Rhino Mining, 10,700 acres in Leesville and the surrounding area along with the 10,000 acres Rosebud plans to mine.
He said with the technology of today, the room-and-pillar method of mining Rosebud plans to utilize are the most advantageous way to mine the coal. A video presentation outlined how the room-and-pillar method is utilized extracting coal across a horizontal plane and leaving pillars of untouched coal to support the overburden and provide open rooms underground. The average depth of the coal seam in Carroll County is 350 feet.
Jamison reviewed highlights of Rosebud’s plan before the microphone was turned over to the residents.
He noted the portal (entrance) and facilities will be located on 131 acres the company recently purchased from Jerry and Kerry Teeter, just north of Penny Rd. in Union Township. Facilities at the site include:
*A box cut excavation and over 700 foot slog to the Middle Kittanning No. 6 coal seam, adjacent to the east side of Honey Run, west of Alamo Rd.
*A mine office, warehouse and parking facility, all located north of Penny Rd.
*An airshaft and fan located near Alamo Rd., northwest of the intersection of Penny Rd.
*A coal stockpile in the area north of Penny Rd., east of SR 332.
*A haul road from the stockpile west to SR 332.
Jamison noted at first the company wanted to utilize Penny Rd. to gain access to SR 332 to haul the coal, however in working with the Ohio Department of Transportation to determine the best access to SR 332, ODOT is requesting the access road intersect with SR 332 at the intersection of Emerald Rd.
The projected time frames include submitting the permit in June 2009 and issuance of the permit by June 2010, site development and construction from June 2010 through December 2011 and possible start up of the operation between September and December 2011.
He said there is 750,000 saleable tons of coal in the reserves the company owns. They plan to work two 10-hour shifts per day, five days per week and haul the coal from the mine to a proposed processing plan located at the intersection of SR 151 and SR 332 in Harrison County 12 hours per day, five days a week. That translates into 170 to 200 truckloads of coal leaving the mine per day.
Lanny Erdos, deputy chief of the Ohio Division of Mineral Resources Management (DMRM) with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, assured those in attendance he was working for them.
“I am here to protect your interests,” he said. “I’ll leave my business cards after the meeting; call me 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
He noted Rosebud has not filed an application for a mining permit for the area they plan to mine. When the application is received (which Jamison said should be June of this year), it can take six months to two years to complete. “It depends on the complexity of the application and how well Rosebud turns around the revisions. If Rosebud complies with the permitting process, we are required by law to issue them a permit.”
Erdos addressed the issue of subsidence. “Can I guarantee you today there will be no subsidence? No I can’t,” he stated. “After many years, 100, 200, 500, the pillars of coal left will begin to subside, but I can’t pinpoint when that will happen and to what extent it will occur.”
When it was suggested homeowners may want to consider purchasing subsidence insurance, which is available in Ohio, Rosebud Mining Company owner Ron Forrest?? Suggested homeowners not jump the gun. “We’re don’t plan on opening the mine until the fourth quarter of 2011 and even then they won’t mine under everyone’s property so he suggested holding off on the purchase until it was necessary.
Brent Heavlin, permitting manager for DMRM, reviewed the process the company must follow.
“I want it to be very clear that we want the public to be involved,” he said. “Once an application is received, we will ask for comments from township trustees, commissioners, etc. Then Rosebud is required by law to publicize it in the local paper for four week. A copy of the permit application will also be available in the county courthouse for residents to make comments on. We want to hear from you.”
After nearly an hour-long presentation, resident were afforded the chance to ask questions.
Erdos and Jamison addressed the question on many residents’ minds: water and the replacement of a water supply if is disrupted. “All wells will be identified on a map with the permit,” Jamison said. “A study will tell us what wells are at risk. If we disrupt a water supply, we are required to have the residence an alternate water supply in 48 hours.”
Jamison said if a city water hookup is nearby, it is the most economical way to go. When pressed about who would pay the monthly water bill, he replied, “the resident would,” and then went on to say it would be worked out on a case-by-case basis. If a city water supply is not located nearby and hookup is not possible, he said a tank is utilized and the company hauls water in.
“We have also drilled water wells off the property and piped the water to the residence,” he added.
Ohio Revised Code requires the company to reimburse the cost of obtaining an alternate water supply until the main water supply is replaced.
Carroll County Common Pleas Court Judge Dominick Olivito Jr., who said he was attending as a private citizens who owns land south of Penny Rd., asked who was going to compensate landowners for a decrease in property values. As Jamison began to answer the question saying he couldn’t site any of Rosebud’s Mining locations where property values decreased, Cliffored Forrest walked to the microphone, introduced himself as owner of the company and began to speak.
“I started this company in 1979 and I know no one wants a coal mine in their backyard, but we have built this company to be the largest independent producing coal company in Pennsylvania and we have done it in communities like Carrollton. “We have busted our *##@ to make sure we have mitigated problems closes to the mine situation,” he said. “Over $7 billion will be created by this activity. These are American jobs and an American product. We have already invested $20 million in this project and expect to have another $30 million in it before we remove a ton of coal. How many other activities can do that?”
Jamison added that 99.9 percent of the people Rosebud has come into contact with through its mining operation are happy with the job they’ve done. “We want to lay the cards on the table and say this is what we are doing.”
A resident, who didn’t identify himself and later said he’s been a truck driver for 27 years noted he drives past the Buckeye Industrial processing plant near Kensington on US 30, where there is dust all over the highway and the “road is a mess.”
Jamison noted the coal is between five and 6.5 percent moisture when it comes out of the mine, so there should not be a dust problem, and if necessary and required, the company would install a “wheel washer” at the exit to the coal storage area and if necessary, would use a broom to sweep the highway.
Carrollton resident Ralph Lloyd asked what happens when rain water washed the coal dirt at the mine and it runs off the property. Jamison said 100 percent of the runoff must be captured in treatment and sediment ponds.
Jean Martin, who lives at the intersection of Emerald Rd. and SR 332, said she was concerned about the truck traffic that would be driving past her bedroom window. “What can be done?” she asked.
“We can’t do anything about the truck traffic,” Jamison replied. “We have to get the coal to market.”
Market, as he described it, includes trucking it to Scio where it will be processed and loaded on rail cars for marketing. Forrest said the Middle Kittanning Coal is a high quality coal that can be burned in most plants on the east coast. “It will most likely go the Ohio River and be loaded or it will go directly to power plants,” he said.
One woman asked what the company planned to do with the coal rights when the company is finished mining. “Can we have them back or will you back in and mine again?”
Forrest said the company has not ever re-opened mine and that in at least one case, the mineral rights were returned to the landowner.
Handouts were available during the meeting that list contact information for Rosebud Mining and the agencies that regulate the company. Rosebud, located at 101 East Market St., Cadiz, can be reached by phone at 740-942-1500. The Ohio Division of Mineral Resources Management, located in New Philadelphia, can be reached by calling 330-339-2207; and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, headquartered at Columbus, can be reached by calling 614-644-3020. |
