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of the accessible ground water supplies over longwall panels, all partly dewatered supplies had partial recovery, but only one-half of the completely dewatered supplies had a partial recovery, with complete recovery observed.

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Johnson (1984), in an internal coal company report study in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, stated: Approximately 80 percent of the wells and springs went dry after mining.

Coe and Stowe (1984) studied a high extraction operation in eastern Ohio and concluded in part:

...nearly all water sources were affected as the result of the surface fracturing of a shallow sandstone aquifer, which effectively drained the aquifer.

All of these results for wells were based on levels of water in the wells. If any of the results had been based on pumping tests which indicate yield, it is likely that more supplies would have been judged to have been affected. All wells should be evaluated by carefully conducted pumping tests at the driest time of the year before and after mining.

References

Cifelli, Robert C. and Rauch, Henry W., 1986. Dewatering Effects from Selected Underground Coal Mines in North-Central West Virginia. In: Proceedings Second Workshop on Surface Subsidence due to Underground Mining. College of Mineral and Energy Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, pp. 249–263.

Coe,

C. J. and Stowe, S. M., 1984. Evaluating the Impact of
Longwall Mining on the Hydrologic Balance. In: Proceedings

of the National Water Well Association Conference on the
Impact of Mining on Ground Water. National Water Well
Association, pp. 248-259.

Johnson, Kenneth L., 1984. Hydrologic Impacts of Longwall Mining: Project Site Description and Initial Data Analysis, Shoemaker Mine, West Virginia. Conoco, Inc. Research and Development Department, Coal Research Division, Ponca City, Oklahoma, 36 pp.

References (continued)

the

Tieman, Gregory E. and Rauch, Henry W., 1986. Study of Dewatering Effects at an Underground Longwall Mine Site in Pittsburgh Seam of the Northern Appalachian Coalfield. In: Proceedings Bureau of Mines Technology Transfer Seminar Eastern Coal Mine Geomechanics, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. IC 9137, pp. 72-89.

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CITIZENS ORGANIZED
COAL

AGAINST

Betty Wells
Rt. #1

Radcliff, OH 45670

COAL P.O. BOX 107 WILKESVILLE, OHIO 45695

I am Betty Wells, and I want to express my apprciation to the committee for this opportunity to express the concerns of Citizens Organized Against Longwalling, (COAL). We are a group of property owners and residents in the coalfields of Southeastern Ohio. We live in Meigs and Vinton Counties, over a three mine complex owned by Southern Ohio Coal Co. and American Electric Power. COAL has been waging a major struggle against subsidence damages caused by longwall mining, for the past 5 years. This method of high extraction coal removal is adversely affecting the surface of the land.

Well, Congressmen, Gerald Blackmore and the coal industry sold you a pig-in-a-poke. And now you are left holding the bag! What

was proclaimed to be the salvation of the coal industry is quickly becoming a monster. This monster is devouring our homes, streams, springs, pond, and damaging everything in it's path. Nothing or no one remains untouched.

I was born, raised and live in Vinton Co. I work with the people being adversely affected by longwall mining. I see the subsidence damages to the land surface, cracks up to 18" wide, trees dying, the contours of our land being changed by the surface

dropping, up to 4 feet. I watch the water in our streams disappear. into these cracks. I note the water wells that no longer hold water, and are now dry or contaminted by surface water. I stand and watch SOCCO turn spring fed ponds into surface run-off ponds.

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State highways, existing rural water lines, country roads, septic systems, cisterns, everything we own or use in some way is being adversely affected by longwall mining.

I feel the shock, anger, hurt, resentment and the whole spectrum of emotions each surface owner is subjected to by the

coal company.

The Jordan family lost their water supplies in 1981 and 1982, and their home was destroyed.

Mark Spezza lost his pond and his century old barn was

damaged.

This happened in 1982. His barn is no longer stable and has been shifting with the ground for the last 5 years, and there is no end to the movement of the earth in sight.

Opal Fitzpatrick's orchard was destroyed in 1983 and her apple storage barn damaged. SOCCO now owns that property.

Kathleen Ragan, a 72 year old woman was forced to put up with having her house jacked-up on steel beams and left-up for a year. She was withour heat for 3 nights during the coldest weather of January of 1986. Her 50 year old flower beds were destroyed, and there were hundreds of other inconviences she was forced to endure. Gail and Margaret Christian are due to be undermined in December of this year. They are already suffering damages to their 7 year

old home. This is from a longwall panel mined in August 1986 and 1,200 feet hehind their home.

These are but a few of the many stories in an endless path

of longwall destruction.

You might say, sell, move and get away. Well, no one but SOCCO is purchasing land. So, again, property owners are being forced to

wait until everything they own is destroyed or disturbed, and then they deal with the coal company on the company's terms.

It doesn't occur to the company that maybe you don't want their money, that all you want is to have your rights as a surface owner respected. The coal company is required to get a waiver of subjacent support before they are allowed to mine under property, but they have totally disregarded this law.

Of the 60,000 acres scheduled to be undermined, SOCCO now owns 15,000 acres. The land values cannot even be figured. No land has been bought or sold in the last 5 years except by the company. Coal members have been forced into the judicial system in an attempt to get their rights as surface owners clarified. The wording in our coal deeds does not give anyone the right to remove our subjacent support without a specific waiver form the current landowner. COAL's case is before the Vinton County Court, but this mine has operated for 5 years without obtaining these required waivers. The Ohio Division of Reclamation and the Office of Surface Mining refused to give us a ruling on this issue because SOCCO is and underground mine. Does our deed convey "valid existing rights" to this longwall mine under our properties? The federal Act is very clear on this where it applies to surface mines.

The monumental passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 was a big step in the direction of protecting other resources and citizens rights. We want to see it expanded further and include regulation of underground mining. The rights of surface owners over underground mines need to be protected. water and other resources need protection just as the strip mine areas.

Our

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