HOLDEN, W.Va. — Those at the Department of Environmental Protection say they hope to get a Logan County road that has been affected by water spewing out after a mine break reopen soon.
Water is currently flowing from an old, abandoned mine, known as Island Creek Mine Complex in the Holden community in Logan County and out onto Holden Road and Orange Creek Avenue.
DEP Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Division of Land Restoration Director Rob Rice told MetroNews that heavy amounts of rainfall over the weekend caused the pressure of the water already inside the mine to blow out a portion of its surrounding hillside.
“When we get events like what we saw this past weekend, you will have an increase in groundwater and groundwater is what recharges these mine pools, so it’s not uncommon for us to have situations like this after heavy rain events,” Rice said.
Rice said the Island Creek Mine had stopped mining operations in the early to mid 1900s, so there was no one in the mine at the time of the mine break.
Being abandoned, however, Rice said there was more water built up in the mine than what could be released in a normal progression, allowing enough pressure to be created to cause what the DEP refers to as a “blowout.”
Rice said blowouts are a unique kind of affect that enough water has on mines.
“That’s essentially where the water becomes more than what the mine fill or the coal outcrop barrier can handle, and it just pushes its way out, so think of a dam breaking, that’s essentially what happened here,” he said.
Rice said the coal seams located along the hillside of the mine aren’t perfectly flat and are typically tilted a little, which causes portions of water to drain to one area. He said the area that blew out was actually the area around where the coal seam intersects with the outcrop or the side of the hill.
Rice said while it was a very old mine and blowouts like this happen more often in abandoned mines around the northern and southern coalfields when rain events like this happen, it was still a little unexpected for this particular mine, especially for the residents who live around it.
He said the closest resident got water underneath their house and crawlspace, and their yard got filled with mud and debris.
In addition, a portion of Holden Road in front of the person’s home eroded into the receiving nearby stream.
The Department of Transportation is working with the DEP to mitigate the effects of the water leaking from the mine. The DOT came to the site and brought some equipment such as concrete barriers to temporarily divert the water off of the main affected resident’s property.
Rice said, so, even though water is still flowing out of the mine, it’s no longer affecting that property.
DOT Public Relations Executive Director Brent Walker said the DOT is helping the best they can and will continue to do so.
“We’re there really just on standby working with our partners at the DEP best we can, but my understanding is that there’s still some water there and that road is still closed,” Walker said.
Rice said while it’s normal for water to flow out of mines, a process which can occur year-round, this phenomenon that happened on Monday is one they try best to avoid.
“It’s not uncommon to see water coming out of the mine, what we don’t want to see happen is what occurred Monday which is where water builds up to a point that it blows out,” said Rice.
Walker said fortunately, the mine is just under the state Route 119 so residents in the area for have a main access road while Holden Road remains closed.
He said they will be able to bring a more permanent fix to the roadway as soon as they can, however.
“It of course is an inconvenience to many, but there are some detours, and as soon as we see a decrease in the water that’s on the roadway and we can continue to get that off the roadway, then we will be able to continue to assess and make the appropriate repairs to open that road back up,” Walker said.
Rice said the DEP held a pre-bid conference Tuesday to hire a contractor to assess the situation and give estimates on what it’s going to take to repair the mine break.
He said the contractors they are going with brought in materials and equipment Tuesday night.
Rice said before they start making repairs to the mine itself, however, getting the road back open is their first priority.
“So, to do that, we’re going to kind of have to work from the creek up to the mine portal or the mine blowout, so they’re going to install culverts under the road so the water is able to get to the creek safely, which will allow the road to open back up,” he said. “Then, they will start creating a channel from those culverts to the blowout.”
Rice said, as far as repairing the mine itself, however, they are having to wait for the water that’s flowing out of it to recede down to what they call “baseline” levels, or normal flows of water out of the mine.
He said once the mine gets down to its baseflow, then they can install a permanent seal.