Episode 14

Wartburg, TN - Join us as Obed Wild & Scenic River, Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, and Cumberland Trail State Park hosts the annual Cumberland Trail Volunteer Day on Saturday, February 10. Please meet at Rock Creek Campground, located off Catoosa Road in Morgan County, at 10:00 AM (ET). Trail maintenance will be performed on the 2.5-mile section of the Cumberland Trail between Rock Creek Campground and Alley Ford. Efforts will concentrate on routine trail maintenance such as cleaning out water bars, removing downed logs and limbs, cutting back brush along the trail, and establishing the original trail base in some areas. The event is expected to conclude around 3:00 PM (ET). Please bring sturdy footwear, work gloves, and wear clothing appropriate for weather conditions, plenty of water, snacks, and a lunch. Volunteers are also encouraged to bring loppers and small bow saws or folding saws (no chainsaws). Other tools will be provided. In the event of bad weather this event may be rescheduled. Volunteers are a vital part of park operations, helping complete necessary projects. This event is an excellent opportunity to help make a difference. For more information on how to become a volunteer, call the park’s Volunteer Coordinator at 423-569-9778. For more information about this event, call 423-346-6294.
 A watershed is a region of land that drains rainwater and snow melts into a specific body of water. From Cityscapes to farmland, mountains and forests to wetlands, watershed water moves downhill from the highest spots we can see and eventually flows into the ocean. Almost half of the land in the continental United States drains into the Mississippi River and moves downstream to the Gulf of Mexico. The moving water in this enormous area ties all living organisms together. We are all interconnected. What occurs in one area impacts every living creature that lies downstream.

Frustrated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bypassed Kentucky and other major coal producers during its "listening session" tour on regulations for existing power plants, Senator McConnell, on Thursday, Nov. 7th, 2013 attended the EPA's listening session in Washington, D.C. and brought along a representative from James River Coal so that the EPA could hear the concerns of Kentucky coal miners and their families.

WET https://eec.ky.gov/Environmental-Protection/Water/Comp_Insp/Pages/Whole-Effluent-Toxicity-Testing.aspx Whole Effluent Toxicity Testing

 Surface sources provide about 95 percent of the water used in Kentucky. About 3.5 million Kentuckians are served by surface- water sources, which include nearly 700 drinking-water systems.

The Geology of Coal  https://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/watsol.sci.ess.water.geocoal/the-geology-of-coal/

 Kentucky Coal Mine Map https://eppcgis.ky.gov/minemapping/

Coal production and sulfur content. http://www.coaleducation.org/ky_coal_facts/coal_resources/us_coal_reserves.htm

http://www.coaleducation.org/ky_coal_facts/coal_resources/ky_resources.htm#:~:text=The%20resources%20currently%20remaining%20after,billion%20tons%20in%20Eastern%20Kentucky.

Comment about water pollution due to mines. Big South Fork https://www.nps.gov/biso/learn/nature/fish.htm

 https://www.fastcompany.com/91010056/the-zombie-coal-mines-of-kentucky-and-the-catastrophic-threat-they-pose

 https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/coal-and-water-pollution#:~:text=Coal%20mining,-Mining%20operations%20can&text=The%20fundamental%20issue%20involves%20contamination,known%20as%20acid%20mine%20drainage.

https://www.aquasana.com/info/sludge-in-the-water-pd.html

Chemical methylcyclohexane methanol release into Elk River January 2014 https://www.facingsouth.org/2014/01/wv-water-contamination-exposes-chemical-hazards-of.html

Confined or Artesian Groundwater https://www.ngwa.org/what-is-groundwater/About-groundwater/confined-or-artesian-groundwater

Coal Cleaning  https://www.uky.edu/KGS/coal/coal-ky-info-estimate-tons.php

Mitch McConnell has served as a United States Senator ,from Kentucky, since 1985 and is known to have his finger on the pulse of Kentucky politics. His wife, Elaine Chao, served as United States secretary of labor in the administration of George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. As the Secretary of Labor, she would have been charge of the Mine Safety and Health Administration or MSHA.

The EPA was formed on Dec 2, 1970. On February 26, 1972 both the EPA and MSHA were called to Buffalo Creek, West Virginia. Since that time they have made several visits “Coal Country”.  

Coal slurry Impoundments, such as the one associated with the Buffalo Creek flood, often contains mine drainage and is use as a water source in the process of removing mineral impurities from the mined coal. Depending on the coal type, coal has a specific gravity between 1,29 and 1.47 and will sink in water. Therefore, petroleum products such as Kerosene and Diesel Fuel or powdered Magnetite are added to the water to change the density and allow the marketable coal to float to the surface and the impurities to settle to the bottom. For every 100 ton of material that enters the wash plant, 25 to 30 tons of unwanted and unsellable materials are separated. Coarse disposable material, known as “gob”, is often used as backfill at the property or adjacent mine sites. Finer material, still suspended in the water solution, is allowed to settle in slurry ponds. The water is recycled in the prep plant as long as the desired specific gravity can be maintained.

Acid Mine Remediation https://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/watsol.sci.ess.water.amdren/acid-mine-drainage-remediation/

Environmental Impact of Acid Mine Drainage

https://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/watsol.sci.ess.water.envimp/environmental-impact-of-acid-mine-drainage/

Acid Mine Drainage https://youtu.be/x3eeZAkiBk0?si=5yvGpnZ4hLEnbOv5

Map of abandoned coal mines: https://skytruth-org.carto.com/viz/743a74d4-6e94-11e5-9f65-0ecfd53eb7d3/embed_map

Blankenship National Press Club https://www.c-span.org/video/?294695-1/surface-coal-mining

This map depicts all 48,529 Priority 1, 2, and 3 abandoned coal mine sites listed in the enhanced Abandoned Mine Lands Inventory System (eAMLIS) database maintained by the Office of Surface Mining (OSM). This map excludes all mines specifically listed under non-coal programs (NCA, NCF, NH1, and NH2). Red depicts “Priority 1” and “Priority 2” sites which threaten the “health, safety and general welfare of public. Orange depicts “Priority 3” AML problems known to be impacting the environment.

Source: skytruth-org.carto.com

 Mountaintop removal, a method of surface coal mining that devastates mountaintops and ridgelines, has significantly impacted the Appalachian region. Here are some key facts:

Total Area Affected:

Nearly 1.2 million acres of land have been surface-mined for coal in the Appalachian region.

Over 500 mountains have been destroyed due to mountaintop removal coal mining.

Process of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining:

Clearing: Before mining begins, all topsoil and vegetation are removed. Often, trees are not used commercially and are instead burned or illegally dumped.

Blasting: To access deep coal seams, up to 600 feet or more of elevation is removed using explosives.

Digging: Enormous earth-moving machines called draglines remove coal and debris.

Dumping Waste: Toxic mining waste, known as “overburden” or “spoil,” is legally dumped into nearby valleys, burying headwater streams and causing pollution.

Processing: Coal must be chemically treated before shipping, creating coal slurry containing toxic heavy metals.

Reclamation: While reclamation efforts are required by law, economic development rarely occurs on the newly flattened land, and forest regeneration may take hundreds of years 1.

Geographic Impact:

Mountaintop removal primarily occurs in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwestern Virginia, and eastern Tennessee.

Wise County, Virginia, for instance, has seen nearly 40% of its land area impacted by surface mining

In 1902, Justus S. Stearns of Ludington, Michigan bought 30,000 acres of virgin timberland in southern Kentucky. When coal was discovered soon afterwards, the Stearns Coal & Lumber Company was established. The company built the town of Stearns to serve as the hub of a logging and mining empire that would control over 200 square miles of land, build the Kentucky & Tennessee Railway, erect the first all electric sawmill in the U.S. and employ over 2,200 people living and working in 18 coal and lumber camps.

In the 1950’s, the Stearns Company closed several coal mines and the K&T discontinued passenger service. By 1976, the Stearns Coal & Lumber Company had sold its mining operations to Blue Diamond Coal Company. The Company’s vast land holdings transferred to the National Forest, the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, and private ownership. Coal mining ceased along the K&T in 1987.

https://eerscmap.usgs.gov/ncrds2/ Mine locations

Near the turn of the twentieth century, "Pine King" Justus S. Stearns was Michigan's largest producer of manufactured lumber and the owner of a prosperous coal mining operation headquartered in Stearns, Kentucky, a town he founded. Over the course of his career, Stearns would own at least thirty manufacturing businesses―making everything from finished lumber to kitchen utensils, game boards, and motors―as well as hotels, a railroad, and a power company. He was also an active member of the Republican Party who served one term as Michigan's secretary of state and a philanthropist who gave a great deal of his wealth to causes in both Michigan and Kentucky. In Justus S. Stearns: Michigan Pine King and Kentucky Coal Baron, 1845–1933, author Michael W. Nagle details Stearns's astounding range of accomplishments and explores the influence of both paternalism and Social Darwinism in his business practices.

Nagle begins by addressing key events in the first few decades of Stearns's life and his initial foray into the lumber industry. Subsequent chapters explore Stearns's political career, his timber operations in Wisconsin, and his coal, lumber, and railroad operations in Kentucky and Tennessee. Nagle also details the ancillary businesses that Stearns founded or purchased in the early twentieth century, even as his Stearns Salt & Lumber Company served as the anchor of his Michigan holdings, while Stearns Coal & Lumber did the same for his operations in Kentucky. The final chapter offers an overview and analysis of Stearns's lifetime of accomplishments, including his impact on the town of Ludington, Michigan, where he maintained a residence for over fifty years.

Nagle makes extensive use of primary source material from several historical archives as well as contemporary newspaper accounts, court documents, company records, and other primary sources. American history scholars, as well as general readers interested in Michigan's lumbering era and Kentucky's mining history, will enjoy this biography of an exceptionally influential businessman.

In 1903, Justus Stearns sent his only son, Robert L. Stearns, to reside in the small company town that bore his name so that he might oversee all the operations in the community.

The Stearns Coal and Lumber Company, later called the Stearns Company, built the town of Stearns to serve as the hub of a logging and mining empire that would, in its heyday in the 1920's, control over 200 square miles of land, build the Kentucky and Tennessee Railway as well as the world's first all - electric sawmill, and employ over 2,200 people living and working in at least 18 coal camps. Most all of the buildings in Stearns were painted the company's colors of white with green trim, and included residences, a freight depot, office building, pool hall, theater, the renowned Stearns hotel, and company store where all the residents could purchase nearly anything they needed with company issued money called scrip. The company also provided water, electricity, steam heat, tennis courts, a golf course, and a baseball field

Events at the Barthell Coal Mine https://www.barthellcoalcamp.com/history/timeline.htm

The big south fork national river and recreation area lies within the Cumberland Plateau, which is the southern part of the of the Appalachian Plateau of the Appalachian Mountains. Overtime these areas have been severely eroded… leaving the terrain sharp, beautiful, wild and rugged.

But that wasn’t always the case…Hundreds of millions of years ago… the areas shown in grey… used to be a swamp, where there was an extreme abundance of masses plants that were converting large amounts of energy from the soil, water, and sun.  When they died, they fell into the swamps and where eventually covered by deposits, dirt and rocks that resulted in extreme pressure and extreme heat squeezing out most of the oxygen and hydrogen and leaving seams of carbon material…call coal.

Therefore, the area in grey is now referred to as “coal country”. For buried within this landscape is masses amounts of stored energy brought forth by the extreme contrast of life and death. For centuries individuals have tried to extract and control this energy source. They dug deep into bowls of the earth to collect the remnants of death itself and expose it for the first time in millions of years to the moisture and oxygen that nature had worked so hard to extract from it. All in the name of converting this energy source into another form of energy such as heat, steam and electricity.

For energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can be converted and somewhat controlled. Those who control this power become powerful and those who do not fall under the control of those who do. The story of coal country is a battle of control over this power, is one of good and evil, conservation and greed, life and death, authoritative control and independence and is the deep-rooted as the coal itself. This story is as current today as it was a hundred years ago and it continues to positively and negatively impact you as it will your children’s, children.

In upcoming episode we will continue up through Eastern Kentucky and into West Virginia. We will discuss Coal refuse dumps, Slurry Impoundments, Floods, Lawsuits, politics, coverups, advocacy, water and stream conditions, whistle blowers, murder, mine disasters, solutions, reclamation, transitions, and the restoration of the chestnut trees. At each location we will be standing in the headwaters of major watersheds in which many of you obtain your drinking water. We do hope you come along as we explore the history and discuss these life sustaining issues. For now lets get back to one of my favorite places, the Big South Fork   

Established in 1974 and located on the Tennessee/Kentucky border, the Big South Fork is a 123,000-acre National River and Recreation Area which is very accessible from Nashville, Knoxville, Lexington and Cincinnati.

Today the National Park Service tries to hold a balance between promoting the area’s natural beauty and outdoor recreation opportunities while recognizing the area’s deep rooted historical ties to coal and lumber.

For one cannot truly understand or see the area’s true character until the mist of history settles and the area’s rugged beauty and character is exposed.

In coal country, coal barons calculated any given coal mine would play out in less than 20 years. Therefore, they often implement a “get in and get out fast” business philosophy to maximize profits. Building and towns were temporary, movable or disposable operational cost.

In many ways, this area was lucky to be greatly influenced by a lumber king who just happened to have coal on the property. Justus S. Stearns, known as the Michigan Pine King purchased 50,000 acres west of the Big South Fork River in 1898.

By 1905, Stearns owned over 100,000 acres, over a 200 square miles area, locates in six counties in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Although coal was part of this industrial empire, his business philosophy was a longer term, agricultural based business model, with trees being the cash crop.  Like Hershey, Pennsylvania, Pullman, Illinois, and Corning, New York. Stearns, Kentucky was a company town that integrated everyday life into the company’s endeavors and operations. This works for the employees, town, and company, if the CEO maintains a constant balance of growth and benefits for the company, community, and individual employee. This paternalistic, merit-based management style was practiced by several noted industrialists of the early 1900’s.

My first hint of this philosophy was when I learned of the Stearns golf course. The baseball field in the center of town was also an indicator. However, coalfield baseball has a rich history of company ran semi-pro and pro teams competing throughout coal country. But the 9 hole golf course open to the community was and is a notch above.

In its heyday, the Stearns Caol and Lumber Company, owned and operated the Kentucky and Tennessee Railway, with 25 to 40 miles of track and a fleet of 12 steam locomotives, as well as the world's first all - electric sawmill, powered by the company’s own electrical power plant.  and employ over 2,200 people living and working in at least 18 coal camps. By 1914, electrical service had reached the mines, with motor-driven equipment soon replacing mules. The mining technology used by Stearns during this period was far more advanced than that used by other mine operators in the region.

Most all of the buildings in Stearns were painted the company's colors of white with green trim, and included 100s of residences, a freight depot, office building, pool hall, theater, post office, doctor offices, schools, churches the renowned Stearns hotel and stores. The company also provided water, electricity, steam heat, and tennis courts.

By 1920, the Stearns Coal Company was the largest employer in the Big South Fork region, and one of the largest coal producers in the southern United States. In 1929, the company’s production reached more than 1,000,000 tons of coal, making Stearns the second largest coal mine operator in Kentucky. Despite the stock market crash in October 1929, Stearns continued to produce at capacity into the following year. It was not until a drought occurred in the region in summer 1930 that the company was forced to cut wages. Largely due to the management philosophies, the union was never able to organize the employees of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company. The Sterns Company continued to operate until 1976 when they sold it’s mineral operations to Blue Diamond Coal Company and transferred their vast land holdings to the Big South Fork National River E Recreation Area and other private ownership. Coal Mining ceased along the Kentucky and Tennessee Railroad by 1987.

Explosion in Kentucky Mine Had Bad Result Lawrence Journal World, Kansas February 9, 1910

 Stearns, Ky., Feb. 9. -- An explosion in Mine No. 1, of the Stearns Coal Company, today killed six men outright.  It is thought the victims ran into a pocket of gas which ignited when it came in contact with their lamps.

 The casualties were:

Fred Compton, G. W. King, Albert Thrasher, Edward Thrasher, Elihu Grundy, Benjamin Grundy, John Troxell

Stearns Coal and Lumber Company

Mine No. 4 Asphyxiations

Worley, McCreary County, Kentucky August 5, 1961 No. Killed - 3 https://www.nps.gov/biso/learn/historyculture/tragictale.htm

USBM Final Investigation Report  (1.9 Mb)  PDF Format

Three men were overcome by carbon monoxide and a deficiency of oxygen while the men were exploring the abandoned mine to determine the feasibility of additional pillar extraction.

Two men died that afternoon and the third died 18 days later.

The Stearns Kentucky story is one of the more positive stories involving the community and coal mining. Even today the community is quick to give credit to the Stearn’s management philosophy and to Justis Stearns himself. In the upcoming episodes we will find where mountain communities have been completely devastated and/or eliminated by the coal companies.   

Now to assume that living is Stearns Kentucky in the early 1900s  or coal mining or cutting timber is without strife and heartache would be fool hardy, the land was still rugged, the law was scarious, and hours, if not days away, and folks were self-reliant and had the right, and was willing, to take matters into their own hands when necessary.

I was able to identify 6 different mining accidents that claimed as many as 15 total miners. The events included 3) explosions, 1) asphyxiations , 1) Rock fall, and 1) Thanksgiving accident were a man was working by himself. There was a shooting over by the church that killed two.  the Jerome Boyatt shooting that lead to 5 deaths (including Jerome and another man being drug from jail and executed), and the burning of the Stearns hotel stemming from union activities.

 These are all part of the local story and history.

In regard to the impact on the land, I will say that very little mountain top removal or strip mining took place, so most of the scars are underground. Nature is quickly reclaiming land where infrastructure once stood, and a new growth of forest is well under way. And I believe that without this history and the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area would not exist today.

So that bring use back to todays issue of Acid Mine Drainage also known as Abandon Mine Drainage.  

By no means is this problem unique to this area, as we will discuss it is throughout coal country.

Using the Kentucky Mine Mapping Information System, I’ll place a marker at Sterns Kentucky. This is the location of the previous drone footage. The area in green is called the “mined out” area.

After years of mining this is a massive underground void.

And there lies the hidden problem, we know ground water will run in and out of these mine voids, with or without sealing the entrances. In fact, sealing the entrances may slow the exit of the water and increase the accumulated water within the mine. This would allow more volume and time to for the water to mix with the pryite, other minerals and metals. Depending on the elevation of the mine void, there is always a possibility that water leaving the mine is feeding confined aquifers, of course, we know the acid mine drainage entering the streams is feeding the unconfined aquifers.  

Once the pH level is lowered and the water becomes acidic, minerals and metals will dissolve into the water. The water will take on a yellow hue known as yellow boy, as the pH drifts back towards a neutral state, the metals will begin to appear in the water and dependent of the metal type the water color will change, for example aluminum will create a white haze and iron will rust and create an orange/brown or red hue, copper turns blue/green/turquois and cobalt turns blue. As the pH returns to normal the metals will fall out and coat the stream bed and Hyporheic zone. What the acid didn’t kill, will be smothered by this coating.

In the past The Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area has been working to remove coal refuse dumps, restore stream banks and install Open Limestone channels in which the Acid mine drainage can flow. The limestone increases the pH levels. This is not an end all solution and there is a lot of research that still needs to be done.

Just recently they received a 3-million-dollar grant to mitigate abandoned mine drainage, make safe open mine portals, implement invasive plant management and control the feral swine, which honestly, has always scared the hell out of me.

I have obtained permission to attend and film upcoming meetings, I plan to stay involved and keep you posted on the progress.

But do you want to know what really scares me? Let me go back to the map showing the 18 mines of the Stearns Coal And Lumber Company, again for reference, I’ll place a marker at Stearns Kentucky then I’m going to slowly pull back for you to see the rest of the United States.

Hyporheic zone and hydrology

Studying the hyporheic zone

Biogeochemical significance

Hyporheic zone: main characteristics and causes of the hyporheic exchange

In this episode, we start at Leatherwood Ford in the Big South Fork River and Recreation Area. We introduce Justis S. Stearns and the history of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company, in which Stearns, Kentucky is named. We will explain Acid Mine Drainage, also known as Abandon Mine Drainage or AMD.      

 This is the first episode in a series of videos associated with the coal industry and the impact on water quality and the surrounding communities. Each episode can stand alone and deep dives into different issues. In the upcoming episodes we will travel up through Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky and into West Virginia. We will discuss Coal refuse dumps, Slurry Impoundments, Floods, Lawsuits, politics, coverups, advocacy, water and stream conditions, whistle blowers, murder, mine disasters, solutions, reclamation, transitions, and the restoration of the chestnut trees. At each location we will be standing in the headwaters of major watersheds in which many of you obtain your drinking water. We do hope you come along as we explore the history and discuss these life sustaining issues.

 “Coal Country Series”