U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
COAL RESOURCES IN ENVIRONMENTALLY-SENSITIVE LANDS UNDER FEDERAL MANAGEMENT
By William D. Watson, John K. Tully, Edward Moser, David P. Dee, Karen Bryant, Richard Schall, and Harold A. Allan
U.S. Geological Survey
National Center 956
Reston VA 20192
Open-File Report 95-631
This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards (or with the North American Stratigraphic Code). Any use of trade, product or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
ABSTRACT
This report presents estimates of coal-bearing acreage and coal tonnage in environmentally-sensitive areas. The analysis was conducted to provide data for rulemaking by the Federal Office of Surface Mining (Watson and others, 1995). The rulemaking clarifies conditions under which coal can be mined in environmentally-sensitive areas.
The area of the U.S. is about 2.3 billion acres. Contained within that acreage are certain environmentally-sensitive and unique areas (including parks, forests, and various other Federal land preserves). These areas are afforded special protection under Federal and State law. Altogether these protected areas occupy about 400 million acres.
This report assesses coal acreage and coal tonnage in these protected Federal land preserves. Results are presented in the form of 8 map-displays prepared using GIS methods at a national scale. Tables and charts that accompany each map provide estimates of the total acreage in Federal land preserve units that overlap or fall within coal fields, coal-bearing acreage in each unit, and coal tonnage in each unit. Summary charts, compiled from the maps, indicate that about 8% of the Nation's coal reserves are located within environmentally-sensitive Federal land preserves.
INTRODUCTION
The environmentally-sensitive lands considered in this report are National Parks, National Recreation Areas, the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, National Wilderness Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, the National System of Trails, the National Forest System, and National Historic Sites. These areas constitute most of the lands set-aside by the Federal government for the purpose of protecting special natural environments.
Current Federal and State regulations, principally those implemented under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), prohibit surface mining of coal in these Federal land preserves unless the coal owner has valid existing rights, the mining operation existed prior to SMCRA passage in 1977, waivers are granted, or the mining is determined to be compatible with other land uses (as specified in the existing regulations). In the case of underground coal mining, operations can be conducted beneath these areas if surface facilities (such as haul roads and mine entries incident to the underground mine) are kept out of the area. Additionally, coal owners can place associated surface facilities (such as haul roads and mine entries for underground mines) in these areas assuming they meet one of the conditions noted above for surface coal mining operations that by-pass the prohibition on mining activities.
For the most part (National Forests and National Grasslands excepted), commercial interest is low for coal in Federal land preserves and is expected to remain low as a consequence of these three factors: (1) limited private ownership of coal in Federal land preserves, (2) the limited attractiveness to the market for much of the coal located on Federal land preserves, and (3) the lack of deed authority in most coal-mineral deeds to carry out surface coal-mining operations. The last factor, lack of authority in deeds, has come about because many coal-mineral deeds have been "severed" from surface land deeds. Much of the severance occurred when coal came into prominent commercial development beginning a century ago. Prior to the early 1940's, surface coal mining was not a standard coal removal method. Under case law, the owners of severed coal-mineral deeds, when severance occurred before 1940, ordinarily would not have the authority to conduct surface coal-mining operations because at the time of severance surface mining was not an established mining method. Many coal-mineral deeds, especially in the eastern U.S., were severed prior to the 1940's. Thus, private owners of deeds to coal in Federal land preserves frequently do not have the authority to conduct surface coal-mining operations. Sample data for the U.S. indicates that only about 4% of deeds for coal in Federal land preserves provide the right to conduct surface coal-mining operations (Watson and others, 1995).
In contrast to other Federal land preserves, there is high commercial interest in some of the coal located on the lands within the National Forest System. Considerable quantities of coal, on the order of 30 billion tons of minable coal, are located in National Forests and National Grasslands (which are the major components of the National Forest System). The coal in western National Grasslands, located principally in the Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming, is of high commercial interest. This coal, which is mainly under Federal ownership, is being leased to private mining companies and is being actively mined by surface methods. The Forest Service has determined that the mining activity is compatible with other uses of the Thunder Basin National Grasslands and, consequently, the mining activity is allowed under existing regulations.
Similar compatibility determinations have been made for coal mining in western National Forests and eastern National Forests. In both of these cases, there also is high commercial interest in the coal. The coal in western National Forests is mainly under Federal ownership and is leased by the Federal government to private mining companies. Most of the coal under lease in western National Forests is being mined by underground methods. The coal in eastern National Forests is owned mainly by private individuals. The Forest Service allows access to the coal for underground mining when it is able to certify that the mining activity would be compatible with other uses of the National Forest lands.
Under existing law, private owners of coal in National Parks, National Recreation Areas, the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, National Wilderness Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, and the National System of Trails have a very limited range of options under which they can establish a legal basis for obtaining permits to conduct coal-mining operations. The major route of access is through the establishment of valid existing rights (VER). Under existing State permitting programs, coal owners can proceed to file plans for opening a surface coal mine if they have valid existing rights. A prior condition is that they have a valid deed for coal that gives them the right to conduct surface coal-mining operations. Similarly, coal owners can file a plan to place haul roads and mine-entry shafts (and other surface facilities incident to an underground mine) in protected areas if they have a valid deed and if they can establish valid existing rights. Currently, in most States a very restrictive VER criterion (good faith all permits) is applied: to establish VER coal owners must have undertaken a good faith effort to obtain all mining permits before SMCRA passed in 1977. Only rarely are coal owners able to meet this criterion for establishing VER. Therefore, under this criterion, access to privately-owned coal in National Parks, National Recreation Areas, the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, National Wilderness Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, and the National System of Trails is very infrequent via the VER route.
Private owners of coal in the National Forest System can expect to be able to obtain access to coal in order to carry out underground coal-mining operations. The Forest Service ordinarily makes the determination that underground coal mining is compatible with other uses of National Forest lands. Private operators, of course, are required to meet all applicable Federal and State regulations which protect the environment. The availability of such compatibility waivers has allowed extensive private underground coal-mining operations to be conducted in eastern National Forests, especially within the boundaries of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. In contrast, there are practically no surface coal-mining operations on privately-owned coal in National Forest lands. Existing law requires that private owners establish VER in order to conduct surface coal-mining operations. As discussed in the previous paragraph, the restrictive criterion of "good faith all permits" rarely results in VER being established. Therefore, there are very few surface coal-mining operations on private coal in National Forests.
The Federal government owns extensive amounts of coal in the National Forest System. As discussed above, some of this coal has high commercial interest and the coal is being leased by the Federal government to private coal-mining companies. The coal-mining companies, of course, are required to meet all Federal and State environmental regulations applicable to their coal removal operations.
A brief summary of current coal-mining activity in Federal land preserves is provided as follows:
Surface Coal-Mining
- There are no known surface coal-mining operations on-going in National Parks, National Recreation Areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers, National Wilderness Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, or National Trails.
- Limited surface coal-mining operations are occurring at Historic Sites through access granted under waiver provisions of existing regulations. The amount of disturbed acreage is estimated to be less than 10 acres per year (Watson and others, 1995).
- The National Forest System contains the Thunder Basin National Grasslands located in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The Powder River Basin of Wyoming is an active surface coal-mining area characterized by thick coal beds, shallow overburden, and low coal-mining costs. Federal coal in the Thunder Basin National Grasslands has been leased to private mining companies and extensive surface coal-mining operations currently are on-going. This mining activity has been determined to be compatible with multiple-use management of forest lands and is in compliance with existing regulations. It is expected that a high level of coal-mining activity in the Thunder Basin National Grasslands will continue in the future.
- There are a few surface coal-mining operations on-going or pending in eastern National forests. The amount of disturbed acreage is estimated to be less than 100 acres per year (Watson and others, 1995).
Underground Coal-Mining
- There are a few on-going underground coal-mining operations in units of the National Park System and in National Recreation Areas. The amount of undermined acreage is estimated to be less than 200 acres per year (Watson and others, 1995).
- Limited underground coal-mining operations are occurring at Historic Sites. The amount of undermined acreage is estimated to be less than 75 acres per year (Watson, and others, 1995). Federal and State regulations require repair of surface property damaged by coal removal.
- Federal coal, located principally in National Forests in Colorado and Utah, is being leased to private mining companies for underground mining. This mining activity has been determined to be compatible with multiple-use management of forest lands and is in compliance with existing regulations. It is expected that a high level of coal-mining activity on leased Federal coal will continue in the future in western National Forests. Currently, it is estimated that about 1,800 acres per year are undermined in western National Forests (Watson and others, 1995).
- There are considerable holdings of private underground-minable coal in eastern National Forests. Access to the coal is generally provided under compatibility findings issued by the Forest Service in compliance with existing regulations. It is estimated that about 1,200 acres per year are undermined in eastern National Forests.
The issue of general interest in this report is the quantity of coal located within the boundaries of Federal land preserves. Except for underground-minable coal in eastern National Forests, much of the privately-owned coal on Federal land preserves cannot be mined under existing law. The purpose in blocking access is to protect these special natural environments. These limits on access could be costly to the economy if the private coal in Federal land preserves is a large proportion of the nation's coal reserves. However, as the results of this report document, this is not the case. Except for National Forests, the amount of coal in total and in private ownership located within Federal land preserves is estimated to be a small proportion of the Nation's coal reserves. And, as discussed above, there is not an issue of access to the extensive coal owned by the Federal government on lands within the National Forest System.
METHODS
The coal resource estimates provided in this report are based upon data obtained from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses, Federal management agencies, and the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) estimates of demonstrated coal reserve base (DRB) (Energy Information Administration, 1993). For some Federal land preserve units, boundaries of the protected units and generalized boundaries of coal basins (Tewalt and Oman, 1993) were analyzed with GIS methods to estimate coal-bearing acreage within protected units. For other units, estimates of coal-bearing acreage were obtained from appropriate Federal management agencies (Watson and others, 1995). By county, the ratio of coal-bearing acreage of the protected unit to coal-bearing acreage of the county was applied against county surface-minable and underground-minable DRB estimates to obtain surface- and underground-minable tonnages. Estimates at the county-level were summed to obtain estimates for each specific protected unit that overlaps or falls within the boundaries of coal fields.
This method assumes that coal occurrence inside protected Federal land preserve units is not systematically different from coal occurrence in the counties where the protected units are located. The estimates derived from the averaging techniques employed in this report are best regarded as generalized indicators of coal occurrence. They provide insight on the areas with relatively large amounts of coal and provide information on the overall magnitude of coal likely to be found in protected Federal units.
Data on coal occurrence or ownership for some protected units are missing. Coal-occurrence data can be missing because the county does not have coal tonnage recorded in EIA's DRB or because the county does not have coal deposits even though the county is located within generalized coal boundaries. The DRB is based upon extensive data. It is likely that a county located inside a generalized coal region that has no recorded coal in the DRB has very little coal or coal with marginal commercial potential.
Other researchers have made estimates of coal occurrence for some individual protected units (M'Gonigle and Roberts, 1995). However, the estimates provided in this report represent the first attempt to compile comprehensive estimates of coal occurrence on Federally preserved lands at a national level. Based upon the application of GIS methods and the compilation of management data, this analysis has identified the units that potentially are coal-bearing. Any particular protected Federal unit should undergo careful geologic assessment in order to determine coal location and coal tonnage with control over measurement precision. As these studies are completed, they can be used to update and improve the estimates provided here.
RESULTS
Eight map plates accompany this report. Each map (except the map for Alaska) contains the borders of the United States, the boundaries of various coal fields, the boundaries or location of protected units that overlap or fall within coal fields, and the names of the protected units that overlap or fall within coal fields. The map for Alaska contains the borders of Alaska, the boundaries of various coal fields, the boundaries or location of protected units that overlap or fall within coal fields, and the names of the protected units that overlap or fall within coal fields. Each map plate also contains a text box, a data table, and summary statistics. The text box reviews the methods used to prepare the map and gives references for the data sources used in preparing each map. For each unit (e.g., a specific National Park, a specific National Wildlife Refuge, and so on) that overlaps or falls within the boundaries of a coal field, the data table provides estimates of the following items: unit or State name, unit area (acres) or length (miles), coal-bearing acres within the unit, coal-bearing private acres in the unit, total minable tons of coal in the unit, and total private minable tons of coal in the unit. The Summary Statistics provides these estimates: the percent of the protected area (i.e., the area for all units within a specific Federal land preserve category) that is coal-bearing, the percent of the protected area with private minable coal acreage, total minable tonnage of coal in all units of the protected area as a percentage of U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base estimates, and total private minable tonnage of coal in all units of the protected area as a percentage of U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base estimates.
The eight plates have the following titles:
Plate 1: Alaska: Coal in Federal Land Preserves
Plate 2: Coal Fields, National Park System, and National Recreation Areas
Plate 3: Coal Fields and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System
Plate 4: Coal Fields and the National Wilderness Preservation System
Plate 5: Coal Fields and National Wildlife Refuges
Plate 6: Coal Fields and the National System of Trails
Plate 7: Coal Fields, National Forests, and National Grasslands
The map plates are 30 inches high and 38 inches wide, resulting in variable scales of presentation. These dimensions were chosen so that the sheets could be mounted on foam-core poster board which has a dimension of 32x40 inches.
The tables and figures that follow in this report provide a summary of the information displayed on the map plates:
Table 1 provides aggregate estimates for each of the Federal land preserve categories whose units are located in the conterminous United States. The estimates indicate that National Forests and National Historic Sites account for almost all of the acreage (90%) and tonnage (96%) of coal located within Federal land preserves.
Table 2 provides aggregate estimates for Federal land preserves with coal in Alaska. Coal-bearing units of the National Park System and the National Wilderness Preservation system account for almost all of the tonnage (91%) of coal located within Federal land preserves in Alaska.
Figure 1 provides aggregate estimates of various percentages for the Federal land preserves in the conterminous United States. Except on lands in the National Forest System, it is unlikely that Federally-owned coal-bearing portions in Federal land preserves will be leased for coal mining. Thus, the privately-owned, coal-bearing portions are a more relevant estimate of acreage which could potentially be disturbed by future coal mining. The estimates presented in Figure 1 indicate that only about 0.8% of the area of Federal land preserves in the conterminous United States contain private minable coal and that this coal represents only about 2.0% of U.S. coal reserves, as measured by the Demonstrated Reserve Base.
Figure 2 provides aggregate estimates of various percentages for the Federal land preserves in Alaska. The estimates indicate that only about 1.6% of the area of Federal land preserves in Alaska contain coal and that this coal represents only about 0.6% of U.S. coal reserves, as measured by the Demonstrated Reserve Base.
Figure 3 provides estimates by specific categories of Federal land preserves of tons of minable coal as a percentage of the U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base for the conterminous United States and Alaska. As an aggregate, the coal in Federal land preserves is estimated to account for about 8.1% of the total U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base. The coal in National Forests accounts for 6.3% of the total U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base. Coal located in the other Federal land preserves accounts for 1.8% of the total U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base.
Figure 4 provides estimates by specific categories of Federal land preserves of tons of private minable coal as a percentage of the U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base for the conterminous United States. As an aggregate, the private coal in Federal land preserves in the conterminous United States is estimated to account for about 2.0% of the total U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base. The private coal in National Forests in the conterminous United States accounts for 1.5% of the total U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base. Private coal located in the other Federal land preserves accounts for 0.5% of the total U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base.
CONCLUSION
The estimates provided in this report support the conclusion that Federal land preserves (except for lands within the National Forest System) contain small amounts of coal. Federal land preserves (except for lands within the National Forest System) contain about 9 billion tons of coal or 1.8% of the U.S. Demonstrated Reserve Base. Given the vast coal resources available elsewhere, there is likely to be little or no economic cost involved in limiting access to the coal on Federal land preserves outside the National Forest System.
In the case of lands within the National Forest System, existing regulations allow access. In specific locations where commercial interest is high, such as in the western U.S., the Federal government is leasing Federal coal located on Forest Service lands to mining companies. Access to private underground-minable coal in eastern National forests is generally provided under compatibility findings issued by the Forest Service in compliance with existing regulations.
REFERENCES
Energy Information Administration, 1993, Coal production 1992: Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Energy, DOE/EIA-0118(92), Oct. 1993, table A-2, p. 73.
M'Gonigle, J.W. and Roberts, L.N.R., 1995, Coal geology and resources, in VanLoenen, R.E. and Gibbons, A.B., eds., Mineral Resource Potential and Geology of the San Juan National Forest, Colorado: Reston, VA, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2127, p.110-129.
Tewalt S.J. and Oman C.L., 1993, Coal regions and fields of the United States in digital form: Reston, VA, U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 93-396. 4p. and disks.
Watson W. D., Bryant, K., Lin, K., Tully, J. K., and Browne, T. E., 1995, Draft economic analysis: valid existing rights, proposed revisions to the permanent program regulations implementing section 522(e) of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and proposed rulemaking clarifying the applicability of section 522(e) to subsidence from underground mining: Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, September 1, 1995, 399 p.
Watson, W.D., Medlin, A. L., Krohn, K. K., Brookshire, D. S., and Bernknopf, R. L., 1991, Economic effects of western federal land-use restrictions on U.S. coal markets: Reston, VA, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1042, 197 p.
If any questions regarding the data arise, please contact John Tully - <jtully@usgs.gov>
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