The underground coal industry has moved from room and pillar mining (50% +/- extraction to protect the surface estate) to longwall mining (80% extraction with controlled subsidence, usually about 80% of seam height). The first experimental longwall equipment in IL was bought by the U.S. Bureau of Mines and was placed underground in 1977. An 84 in. seam would yield about 5.5 feet of subsidence over a wide area.

To legally subside the surface estate the company needs a "right to subside" contract with the surface owner. This relationship of mineral estate and surface estate owners was established in English Common Law in the 1500s. In IL, some of the county boards sold old coal mining rights to new companies. They also sold the subsidence rights with NO input from the surface estate owner. This type of contract sale must be stopped. As one can easily see, the rich coal companies can overwhelm the pocketbooks of the surface estate owners in court. The net result is that their prime farmland will be destroyed by longwall mining. This will be an economic disaster to the farmers, the local economy and America. Congress must not allow the "energy frenzy" to overcome our agricultural economy and our surface environment.

Subsidence over room and pillar mines is a rare occurrence in IL even though approximately one million acres of IL is undermined. Additionally, seventy-three percent of IL is underlain by coal deposits. It has been estimated that about fifty percent of the coal is recoverable, assuming present day economics and technology. Most of the surface mineable coal is mined out and underground mining is therefore the primary method of extraction. The coal companies are pushing to have the higher rate of extraction with longwall mining as it increases their profit. Occasional subsidence does occur over room and pillar mining, but if in a field, the small subsided areas can be easily repaired. If a structure is damaged, PA, IL, KY, OH and IN have a Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund which will repair the home or farm building. A major problem today with the coal companies is that they are denying that the round ponds (sags) in the middle of fields are due to subsidence. The State regulators are sometimes helpful with resolution of these situations. However, since some feel that they work for the coal companies and not the people, they frequently downplay the necessity for investigations. The landowner then has to sue to get both justice and compensation.

IL also has some of the most productive farmland in the world. Much of the glaciated areas of the State are either flat or have 0 to 4% slopes. The farmers who broke the prairie in the 1800s determined through experience that the level areas did not have good drainage. They installed field tile and dug ditches to improve their crop yields. There are millions of dollars invested in the drainage systems in the State (there is enough field tile in IL to reach to the moon and back).

The longwall method of mining coal involves 100% extraction in a panel that may be 3 miles long and 1000+ feet wide. This creates a "bathtub" effect on the surface because room and pillar areas, which function as air, men and material passageways, parallel the panel. On the ends of the panel there are "room and pillar mains" which do not subside to the same extent as the panel. These "bathtubs" obviously ruin the field tiles and large areas of standing water are the result.

The Surface Mining Act states: "affected land shall be restored to a condition capable of supporting the uses which it was capable of supporting prior to any mining, or higher or better uses of which there is reasonable likelihood". This has been achieved in a surface mine, for which the law was written, but is impossible with a longwall panel. In the Mt. Vernon Hill Country in Southern IL there have been many successful longwall panels because the land is rolling with slopes between 5 to 15%. Good floodplain land has been undermined and this level land is now largely elongated lakes. But subjacent to our level prime farmland the "bathtubs" on the landscape cannot be restored to a condition capable of supporting the yields of the fields prior to mining. Longwall Mining should be banned under prime farm land that has zero to three percent slopes because it cannot be reclaimed to its original production*. The existing SMCRA law does not even have any verbiage dealing with the devastating effects of large scale subsidence.

*NOTE-The Dept. of Agriculture measures slope in their modern SOIL SURVEYS OF THE COUNTIES IN U.S.A., thus the slopes are already mapped and ready for use.

Rural families usually depend upon groundwater for their water supply for both home and animals. The IL. State Geological Survey has conducted studies concerning the effect of longwall mining and bedrock aquifers. They have shown that there is draining of the bedrock aquifer for a year of so but the aquifer normally will recover. Those farmers or rural residents, who depend on shallow wells, usually in glacial derived sandy materials, sometime lose their water supplies for many years. The coal companies who conduct longwall mining in areas of 5%+ slopes and shallow aquifers should be required by law to conduct studies to determine the effect on aquifers and in both shallow and deep aquifers. Additionally, the coal companies should be required by law to supply adequate water to any landowner without the necessity of a law suit. The new SMCRA should make it very clear that the companies have that responsibility.

There have been many complaints by the public that the regulatory agencies, OSM and State Departments that enforce SMCRA, are not doing their jobs. The professional people working in many of these agencies are doing their jobs and enforcing the 1977 law. The problem is that the current law (SMCRA) was not written with any consideration of the devastating effects of either longwall mining or mountaintop removal mining. The agencies must have a law which contains clear and complete verbiage to stop the coal companies from deliberately changing the surface landscape.

A good example is a permit which was issued in 2006 by the IL Dept. of Natural Resources. A permit was issued to Steelhead Development Co. LLC, which changed its name to Williamson Development Co., LLC. Williamson is affiliated with The Cline syndicate which consists of six or seven LLCs and LLPs, ending up with Natural Resource Partners or NRP of Houston whose owners are unknown. The permit was for 540 acres of land, which they purchased, 434.25 acres of which was farm land. The reclamation plan calls for the "bathtub lands" to be converted to wildlife habitat with no cropland, 19.26 acres of water and forest land. As an item of interest, Williamson Co. Illinois, where the mine is located, does not need any more wildlife land.

The writer is also very suspicious of the chain of limited liability corporations, some of which are most likely foreign investors. It is possible that these new "companies" will be like some of the old strip mining companies, who were put out of business by the 1977 law. For the old companies the way to operate strip mines was rape, ruin and run. I am concerned that is what the new IL longwall companies (with local offices) are planning to do. It is already an established fact that the coal companies in the Eastern U.S. are doing this with mountain top removal mining. The USA will be treated like a third world country supplying raw materials. The writer is not an attorney--who would a landowner or the states or Federal Government sue in the LLC chain?

Disposal of coal waste is a major problem in all coal fields. On the level surfaces of the Midwest, slurry (fine material carried to the waste pile by pipeline) and coarse refuse (which is transported by truck) contain many hazardous materials. The Bevill amendment to the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts states that coal cannot be considered a hazardous material. Coal waste contains most heavy metals, crystalline compounds that change into dangerous gases and high amounts of sulfur compounds. The toxic gases and sulfur compounds are released into the atmosphere around the waste piles.

There is an excellent example in Clinton Co. Illinois, on level prime farmland, of two waste piles that are 40 to 60 feet high and contain about 30+ million tons of waste. The piles were built on top of an unusually large shallow aquifer and Monterey Coal Co. (owned by Exxon-Mobil) knowingly poisoned the aquifer. Neither IEPA nor IDNR had laws that enabled them to modify the construction methods of the company. In a meeting after the old waste pile had poisoned the aquifer and the coal company was looking to obtain a permit for a new pile, an employee of IL. Dept. of Natural Resources asked "are you not going to put a liner under the new pile since we all know that the old pile leaks?" The coal company representative said nothing. IDNR and IEPA did not have any authority to stop the permit from being issued. Now, the mine is closed and they operate pumps to remove the poison, direct the poison into settlement basins and place it a pipe line to the Kaskaskia River, a source of drinking water. The toxic materials will not be leached out of the pile for 500+ years, according to their consultant. The company was allowed to place only 2 feet of dirt on top rather than the required 4 feet. No one knows why , yet the regulators in the IDNR and IEPA let them get away with it. Who will clean up this mess in the future? It will be the taxpayers of IL and America! The writer recommends that extensive hearings should be held so the decision makers can design a new SMCRA that will be similar to the law for sanitary landfills to stop the pollution from coal waste.

As I have stated, the professional people, who do the work, are limited by the current law to protect the property of the people in their state. One of the major problems is the fact that "the fox is watching the chicken house". The $0.15 tax on underground mined coal and the $0.35 tax on surface mined coal go to the regulators, OSM and the respective state regulatory agencies. The more coal that is mined, the more dollars the politically appointed managers in the states have to spend. Of course, these managers tell the professionals what to do, since they are the boss. It is the writer's opinion, that Congress should review this fact and write into the new law a means to modify this management system and replace it with an independent group that answers to Congress and the people and not to the coal companies. Also, the other environmental portions of the present law are not strong enough. Congress has mandated the National Environmental Policy Act, which works very well because it MANDATES planning, scoping and public input.

Getting a public hearing on a mining permit is similar to having a tooth pulled sans anesthetic. The state agencies are very reluctant to face an angry public.

The writer would be very willing to work with a congressional aide as the (Senate) (House) moves forward with the modification of the Surface Mining Act. 

Please assist with updated protection for our health, safety, welfare and our environment.

Respectively submitted,