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As per 1513.13 of the Ohio Revised Code, this is an official notice
of appeal for the Ohio Division of Mines and Reclamations Decision 11-30-98
on the Buckeye Forest Council and Ohio University Lands Unsuitable Petitions.
As required in ORC section 1513.13 (A)(1), this notice contains a copy
of the decision, and the grounds upon which this appeal is based.
Table of Contents
Plus 61 pages of Appendix as follows: Appendix A: Watershed buffer zone and supporting reasoning by Dr. Moid
Ahmed
Standing for Appeal Statement by Chad Kister, appellant: "I grew up camping and hiking in the unglaciated forest of Ohio. I am at home in the land of my ancestors who settled two centuries earlier in southeast Ohio. Dysart Woods is the last remnant of the great old-growth forest that once covered the hills of unglaciated Ohio. The Book The Trees by Conrad Richter has always been dear to my grandparents, aunts and uncles. The book reads, "Down in Pennsylvania, you could tell by the light. When a faint white drifted through the dark forest wall ahead, you knew you were getting to the top of a hill, or an open place ... but away back here across the Ohio, it had no fields. You tramped day long and when you looked ahead, the woods were dark as an hour or a day ago," wrote Conrad Richter in his historical fiction story, The Trees about a pioneering family as they ventured into Ohio a little more than two centuries ago. ...The family rounded a high ridge "For a moment, Sayward reckoned that her father had fetched them unbeknownst to the western ocean and what lay beneath was the late sun glittering on green-black water. Then she saw that what they looked down on was a dark, illimitable expanse of wilderness. It was a sea of solid tree tops broken only by some gash where deep beneath the foliage an unknown stream made its way. As far as the eye could reach, this lonely forest sea rolled on and on till its faint blue billows broke against an incredible distant horizon." Ohio was once 95 percent forested with ancient Oaks, Hickory, Sugar Maple, Beech, Sycamore, Elm, Tulip and Buckeye up to a millennia old, 12 feet in diameter and more than 150 feet high. The canopy was entirely connected to form a forest ecosystem hundreds of miles across. Ohio was the heart of the eastern heartwood forest. It is among the most diverse of forests in the United States. What is left has been cut over many times, criss-crossed with toxic-spewing utility lines, roads, suburban sprawl, parking lots, malls, chemical golf courses, toxic dumps, leaking oil and gas wells and monoculture chemical farms. Public forests represent only 4 percent of Ohio. The giant trees of Dysart Woods are magical and wise, uplifting those who choose to visit them with wisdom and understanding like no other place I have been in Ohio. Many are more than four feet in diameter and 150 feet tall. The majestic White Oaks, Sugar Maple, Hickory and Beech stand as living weathervanes to the health of the environment upon which we all depend. They are the last place where one can come and see the ancient forest that once covered all of Ohio. I have been to Dysart Woods more than a hundred times. As a Graduate Student in Environmental Studies, it is critical to my thesis which is about the need to protect Dysart Woods, the last benchmark of our southeast Ohio forest. Dysart is a critical resource because it is the last. We have destroyed 99.996 percent of the original ancient forest in Ohio. Nowhere has a 400 year old tree grown back since Ohio was founded, and in very few places are forests allowed to regrow to old-growth. Further, as I have studied in Forest Ecology, it takes far longer than the 400-500 year old life spans of these trees to recreate an old-growth forest. The structure of second-growth forests is impoverished so as to withstand wind and lightning. The old-growth trees at Dysart Woods are often 80 feet to the first branch, showing the extended structure of an old-growth forest that we do not find in second-growth forests. It is the conclusion of my vast research for my Masters Thesis that Dysart Woods must be saved in perpetuity by protecting the full watershed buffer zone from all types of coal mining. My goal is to restore a forest reserve in southeast Ohio to increase the tourism economy and the ecological integrity of our region, which is experiencing a decline of forest interior species such as the Indiana Bat and the Cerulean Warbler. These species also need mature forest, such as the finest left in unglaciated Ohio, Dysart Woods. Dysart Woods is a critical and irreplaceable benchmark that can no longer be a benchmark if mining takes place. It would be a study area for the affects of mining on forests, but not for the study of undisturbed old-growth forests, which is what makes Dysart Woods so unique. I plan to continue to go back to Dysart Woods regularly as a critical reserve to maintain my spiritual, intellectual, educational and ecological well being. It is of the utmost importance for me to save Dysart Woods, and I have helped to organize dozens of rallies, events and conferences in the effort to save this magnificent forest from coal mining. I helped to organize and participated in the full 75-mile walk from Ohio University to the Statehouse in Columbus. We stopped at Dysart Woods as the last benchmark to show what Ohio was like in the 850 mile Walk for a Green Ohio in 1994 that I coordinated and participated in. I walked with hundreds of others from Cincinnati to Toledo to Cleveland, Youngstown, Dysart Woods, Marietta, Coolville, Athens and then to the Statehouse in Columbus, where Native American drums greeted us in support. I have seen the state of Ohio first hand in the fullest of ways, and I know how unique and how valuable Dysart Woods is. I argue it is the most valuable resource Ohio owns, worth far more than all the coal reserves in the state, let along the relatively tiny 4,170 acre watershed buffer zone that I am requesting be protected from mining. I would personally be adversely affected if mining is permitted in the buffer zone of Dysart Woods as given in Appendix A, meeting the requirement of ORC section 1513.13 (A) (1). I regularly spend much time in Dysart Woods to experience and study an old-growth forest that has been unaffected by humans to the maximum extend possible in today's landscape and air pollution. To allow coal mining within the buffer zone that scientists say could affect the forest would eliminate this value for this priceless forest. This is the value that makes Dysart Woods so unique and so important to preserve. This is the value that makes Dysart Woods a spiritual Mecca for me and many others, including my advisor Ted Bernard. To further show my standing, the following is my testimony to
the ODMR at their public hearing October 9 for this Lands Unsuitable Petition.
Board members can also hear the statement from the ODMR's tape of the proceedings
which the ODMR has in its possession.
I am going to speak now for Dysart Woods and for the Buckeye Forest Council's Lands Unsuitable for mining Petition for the watershed buffer zone of Dysart Woods. The Buckeye Forest Council's Lands Unsuitable Petition should be passed. Ohio University's cutting of this buffer zone by seven times is unscientific and wrong. I will also dispute some of the coal industry's claims and show that democracy and truth are on the side of the Lands Unsuitable Petition submitted by the Buckeye Forest Council. In a study by Reed Noss of the United States Department of the
Interior, "An important contextual consideration for conservation on a
state scale is the entire geographical range of a community or species.
If the outcrop community occurs only in Pennsylvania but the old growth
forest was widespread across the eastern United States, the order of priority
for conservation would be the old growth forest first. The Nature
Conservancy recognizes the problem of scale by giving higher priority to
global than state rankings. However, not all state governments recignize
trends beyond their boundaries and may be extremely provincial in their
decisions. In many states, characteristic regional vegetation types
have suffered massive declines, yet, agencies do not consider them of high
priority for protection. Instead, agencies often focus on the curiosities,
such as relict or peripheral community types that were never common.
For example, the natural areas program of the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources devotes more attention to bogs, fens and other Pleistocene relics
that can be managed conveniently in small
Ohio was dominated by old growth forest that we have a little bit left of at Dysart. We have destroyed 99.996 percent of the original ancient forest that once covered Ohio. We have but .004 percent left and Dysart Woods is the only significant tract of its type of mixed mesophytic forest. It is all we've got. This is the only place where we can go to and see what forests once were like in Ohio. This is one of the only places left in Ohio with 100 percent native species -- species that were always here. It is a place in balance. It is a forest that must be preserved. Dysart Woods was protected by the long and tireless campaigning of a St. Clairsville native here, who fought long and hard hours. John Kinder raised money for the Nature Conservancy in the early 1960s to buy Dysart Woods in 1962, and save it from loging. In 1966 Ohio University acquired Dysart Woods. The first coal mining threat came in 1970. And the watershed buffer zone that we have here today in the Buckeye Forest Council's petition was first presented back in 1970. So the claims that this coal company is losing billions of dollars in takings is hogwash. It is wrong. It is ridiculous. They have known about this buffer zone for almost 30 years. And the coal company just acquired the coal rights in 1988. And yet now their attorney here is claiming and lying that Ohio Valley Coal Company had money invested before 1977. That again is hogwash and that is wrong. In 1977, the Surface Mine Reclamation Act was instituted because of the widespread concerns nationwide over the destruction and ravages of the coal industry. And they have a provision for the protection of lands from coal mining and that is the lands unsuitable petition process. Dysart Woods meets the letter of the law of this process better than any petition the state has received yet, and two have been granted successful. And I argue better than any other place in the state. And I quote right from the law, that states, Ohio Revised Code Section 1513.02 (B) authorizes Lisa Morris, Chief of the Ohio Division of Mines and Reclamations to "designate as unsuitable for coal mining natural areas maintained on the registry of natural areas of the department of natural resources...publicly owned or dedicated parks and other areas of unique and irreplaceable natural beauty or condition, or areas within specified distances of a ... public park. Such a designation may include land adjacent to the perimeters of such areas that may be necessary to protect their integrity." Clearly, the watershed is critical to protecting the integrity of Dysart Woods. The Buckeye Forest Council's legally delineated watershed buffer zone as has been known since 1970 by the coal company and the Division of Mines and Reclamations must be passed in full. And in fact the Ohio Division of Mines and Reclamation in 1988
called for the preservation of this very buffer zone. And I quote
right from the chief of the Ohio Division of Natural Resources from a press
release issue on March 2 of 1988, "as director of the Department of Natural
Resources I want to make sure that nothing is done to harm Dysart Woods,
a precious
Then-Chief of the Ohio Division of Mines and Reclamations Tim
Dieringer called for the protection of the entire watershed buffer zone
in 1988. This watershed buffer zone is effectively what the Buckeye
Forest Council has submitted and that the ODMR is considering today.
So the ODMR has already asked for this and must uphold this decision that
was made in 1988 when there was massive concern for this save buffer zone,
and this same forest and protect the full watershed.
The comments made by the anti-environmental contingent that has been paid by Ohio Valley Coal Company, who have claimed that in 200 years there aren't going to be any old trees left because these trees are dying are part of their misinterpretation of fact; the lies that Ohio Valley Coal Company is using to destroy Dysart Woods. Because in fact there are 200 and 300 year old trees that will replace the 400 and 500 year old trees as they die of old age. This is a continual forest. Old growth forest perpetuates itself. The 200 year old trees will replace the 400 year old trees in 200 years. But the lies that you hear from the coal company -- the misinterpretation of fact -- that is what is blinding the process and skewing the truth. Lastly, the truth. We have irrefutable scientific evidence that coal mining can affect the hydrology that can affect forest. We have all kinds of documentation as has been submitted in both the Buckeye Forest Council and Ohio University's Lands Unsuitable Petitions showing scientific facts that longwall mining within the buffer zone could destroy Dysart Woods. And, for democracy. There have been more than 8,000 people in the state who have submitted petitions and letters to the Ohio Division of Mines and Reclamations calling for the preservation of this watershed buffer zone. The people know the truth, and the people have spoken in large numbers. And I am going to submit almost 800 more signatures today on top of the more than 8,000 letters and petitions that have already been submitted to the Ohio Division of Mines and Reclamations, calling for the passage of the Buckeye Forest Council's Lands Unsuitable Petition to protect Dysart Woods, a critical resource in perpetuity. Grounds for the appeal
(A)(1) Upon petition pursuant to division (B) of this section,
the chief of the division of
(2) Upon petition pursuant to division (B) of this section, a
surface area may be
(a) Be incompatible with existing state or local land use plans or programs; (b) Affect fragile or historic lands in which the operations could
result in significant
(c) Affect renewable resource lands in which the operations could
result in a substantial
Relief Sought
Dysart Woods is the among the most endangered ecosystem in Ohio
The Department of Interior report reads, "An important contextual consideration for conservation on a state scale is the entire geographic range of a community or species. The Nature Conservancy (Master 1991a) recognizes the problem of scale by giving higher priority to global than state rankings. However, not all state governments recognize trends beyond their boundaries and may be extremely provincial in their decisions, yet, agencies do not consider them of higher priority for protection. Instead, agencies often focus on the curiosities, such as relict or peripheral community types that were never common. For example, the natural-areas program of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources devotes more attention to bogs, fens, and other Pleistocene relics that can be managed conveniently in small reserves as living museums than to the forest ecosystems that once dominated the state (R. Noss and personal observance). Forest area in Ohio recently increased to about twice its value in 1939-42 but is still only 27 percent of the state, whereas it was more than 95 percent before European settlement (Good 1979; King 1990). The secondary forests, mostly in the Appalachian Pleateau of Ohio, are heavily fragmented by roads, gas pipelines, unreclaimed strip mines, clear-cuts, and other intrusions. Like most second-growth forests, they are structurally impoverished compared to old-growth forests. Only some small patches of old-growth forest remain in Ohio (Good 1979)." And because Dysart Woods is the only significant mixed mesophytic old-growth forest in Ohio, it is of even greater importance to save. The Ohio Division of Natural Resources decision of March 2, 1988
should not be violated
All forms of underground coal mining should have been declared unsuitable
for mining
Ohio Valley Coal Co. admitted their room and pillar mining of #8 seam caused near-surface dewatering and pollution. In a letter written to the ODMR and signed by David L. Bartsch, Project Engineer for The Ohio Valley Coal Company, Bartsch states, "As a result of a squeeze that occurred within the room and pillar portion of this permit, in a small area several wells were dewatered. The wells are being monitored at the present time to determine how long before the water returns and at what level. No pre-subsidence samples were recorded from the wells. One well has collapsed and will have to be re-drilled, in order to make it useable, Two wells have been covered with dirt and are not available for sampling. One well has water within 25 ft of the surface. Another well that was discolored during the incident now has clear water again. Two years is generally thought to be the amount of time required for the ground water sources to become viable after being dewatered. The incident (squeeze) occurred about two years ago. OU Professor Moid Ahmed found that room and pillar mining caused dewatering of surface wells. "Room-and-pillar mining in Section 18 of Washington Township, four miles south of Centerville, dewatered five wells in March, 1987 which have not yet recovered. Similar situations may be repeated ... if room and pillar mining is allowed. This may cause serious dewatering at the Dysart Wood. Because of the dip of the Pitsburgh #8 seam, Ahmed showed how room and pillar mining could cause serious surface dewatering because it would increase the subsurface flow of water toward lower levels, harming all areas above it. "Geological and hydrological evidence indicates that the room-and-pillar or longwall mining in the buffer zone around Dysart Woods may lower the water levels and affect the 400-year-old trees. The model studies reinforce the geological and hydrological analysis. The model further indicates that the existing buffer zone may not be adequate to protect the dewatering of the Dysart Woods... (Ahmed, 1988) (Appendix A) Ray Southwood of 43933 Gelncoe-Whitney Road, about three miles from Dysart Woods, was undermined in 1924 with room and pillar mining of the Pittsburgh number 8 coal seam. Over the past few years, longwall mining has come within a mile and a half of the area. Southwood's well – his only water supply – was suddenly dewatered in September, 1998. The water had not returned as of December 29, 1998. Room and pillar mining clearly can severely affect the surface hydrology of the Dysart Woods area, refuting the Ohio Division of Mines and Reclamations claim in the LUP decision that room and pillar mining would not affect Dysart Woods. Southwood filed a complaint with the ODMR on September 11 (Appendix C). A map of the Delura room and pillar mine in the section 5 under Southwood's home is provided in Appendix D). ODMR investigator Mary Ann Borch is studying the case. The close proximity of this situation to Dysart Woods and the fact that it was undermined with room and pillar mining of the #8 coal seam indicates that Dysart Woods could be affected by this type of mining. The ODMR's decision to allow this mining would only delay the affects so Ohio Valley Coal Company's political henchmen will be out of office by the time Ohio's last ancient forest falls. Another well about 2,000 feet farther from the longwall mining panel, that was undermined with room and pillar mining was dewatered near Southwood's house. That well was owned by Ron Williams. USGS Water-Resources Ingestigation Report 95-4025, 1995 found that underground coal mining caused subsidence of the Right Fork of Miller Creek, Utah. "Fractures stemming from subsidence-related deformation drained perched aquifers and reduce discharge from three springs above the mined area." Closer to Dysart Woods, in West Virginia, studies published in USGS Water-Supply Paper 2384 (1993) show that underground mining causes wells to fluctuate 100 feet, drained streams, and caused surface subsidence. The report reads, "Data are presented on undermined basins, flow duration, streams draining mined areas, specific conductance, groundwater levels, mine collapses, and surface subsidence. The study reveals that at mines above major drainage, water levels in some wells can fluctuate as much as 100 feet causing higher base flows or increased leakage into mines." Ohio University Professor Emeritus of Botany Warren Wistendahl, who has studied Dysart Woods for many decades, found that the ancient forest likely depends upon percehed aquifers which he warned could be affected by room-and-pillar or longwall coal mining. The U.S. Geological Service reports confirm his fears, and show why this appeal must be granted for the relief of protecting of the entire watershed buffer zone from all types of mining. OU Forest Ecology Professor Brian McCarthy
"For the conservation biologist, these forests contain certain species, genetic material and habitat found nowhere else in the landscape of Ohio. As such, these stands are critically important to the preservation of biological diversity. There are also a variety of nonscientific values. Dysart Woods, and all old-growth, is a legacy of our past and a part of our natural heritage. These are the forests that our forefathers came to and where we can bring our children and our grandchildren to teach them about our history. They should be sources of pride for our future, as well as a link to our past. "Ultimately, there is no group of scientists, miners, agency personnel, or lawyers, that can unequivocally guarantee that subsurface mining will not affect this forest. No professional in a clear conscience can make such a statement. view any type of subsurface mining under or immediately near Dysart Woods as unacceptable. Long-wall mining often has immediate surface repercussions; room and pillar mining just delays the problem to a future generation, when manmade support structures will ultimately fail. Unfortunately, whether now or in the future, there is no way to remediate any damage that occurs. One cannot replant a 400-year-old tree or recreate a forest that took thousands of years to develop. "Given the rarity of old-growth in the landscape, the uniqueness of this particular woods to the State of Ohio, the delicate balance of its ecology, and the virtual absence of human disturbance for hundreds of years, the prudent environmentally conscious person would not even consider mining under these woods. "The role of the reasonable person is the underpinnings of our
jurisprudence system in this court. I submit that there is no better
time to apply this notion at this time to this case. The potential
for damage is too great the ability to remediate is nonexistent.
Mining of any type should not be permitted under or near the old-growth
sections of Dysart Woods. It is only logical that a reasonable person
would arrive at this conclusion. This forest is the environmental
crown jewel of Ohio's natural areas and should be preserved in perpetuity."
"These are significant because they appear at various locations along the hill slopes not just near the main valley bottoms. Some were associated with topographic slope changes, steep V more gentle1 indicating that changes in rock sequences hence contrasts in the permeabilities of bedrock units were impart responsible for the springs observed. "Further, landslide-scars were especially welt developed on the Red Trail. Other small crescent shaped topographic benches noted on the Blue Trail were very likely landslide scars as well. These were rather subtle, but because they often had a shallow bowl shaped feature above, and minor seeps below, these justify examination as potential landslides! None appeared to be active and some benches had old growth trees rooted on them indicating that they predated these trees (>200 to 400 years ago). They may well have formed as early as the time of glaciation to the north in Ohio, Indiana, etc. under periglacial climatic conditions. "These are all important observations because many of the old growth forest trees were located in close proximity to seeps, above, below and adjacent to seeps indicating that they wore in equilibrium with available soil and groundwater. Seeps high on the hill slopes but with nonseep areas below support the stair step model for shallow groundwater flow. Water not noted as surface runoff below seeps must travel downslope within residual and colluvial soils at or near the bedrock contact. "These shallow groundwater sources are particularly prone to mining influences that cause the redistribution of rock stresses even if this water is never intercepted by underlying mine voids. ... "Clearly, near vertical zones of fracture concentrations delineated by fracture traces (linear surface features less than about a mile in length v lineaments more than a mile in length) are present and abundant within the Dysart Woods region: 3 to 5 zones within a 40 acre parcel are common. These structures enhance fracture permeability of bedrock strata, will account for some of the gullies and seeps noted and facilitate vertical migration of water with or without the presence of underlying mines. These structures are particularly prone to stress readjusiments related to mining hence, are more likely to cause changes in groundwater flow rates, paths, etc." "Changes in groundwater flow paths, the redirection of groundwater to form more concentrated seeps downslope for example, could trigger new landslides and reactivate former slides that appear to be inactive at present. "Deep leakage into mine openings along fracture zones can cause me dying up of seeps and springs, hence a reduction in or loss of available soil moisture. Development of vertical tension fractures associated with mining also can intercept important sources of shallow groundwater, perched groundwater and stormwater runoff." Ohio Valley Coal Company's scientists say Dysart geology is fragile
Jeff Holt, an employee at P Squared Technologies (the firm hired by Ohio Valley Coal Company to provide suedo-science to support its mining permits) found that the underlying strata was "brittle," (ODMR public hearing page 97). Further, he found that the subsurface water was more than twice as shallow as had been reported in the Buckeye Forest Council's Lands Unsuitable Petition. This would indicate that it is used by trees and the replenish surface water used by the ancient forest. Holt said that "groundwater is not lost but merely deeper below the surface than before mining." The water usually falls to the depth of the mine, Holt said, in
this case about 400 feet down, rendering it totally useless to trees that
would be stressed by this loss.
Geological faults exists near Dysart Woods
Ohio Valley Coal Company reports that they hit a fault in previous
mining just south of Dysart Woods, adding further credence to this concern.
The Department of Geological Survey found that "water can be transmitted through this zone in the presence of faults or joints." With the known faults in the Dysart Woods area, the ODMR LUP decision was arbitrary and capricious in reducing the buffer zone submitted by the Buckeye Forest Council to a sheer linear distance without taking into account the watershed geography and geology. The size of the buffer zone should not be cut 7 times
"Dysart Woods in Belmont County is one of the few truly old-growth remnants left in the state of Ohio - some of the white oaks are probably over 400 years old. When it was originally protected by The Nature Conservancy, longwall mining was unknown. Today, the technique and its effects are all too well known. This forest perched on the ridge yet having so many characteristics of a forest growing in more moist soil is obviously dependent on a steady source of ground water. "Ask any farmer who has had long-wall mining pass under his farm and you learn the first effect is severance of long-time water movement in the soil. I do not know of a single spring that has re-established itself. This disruption of processes under the surface of the ground is very long-lasting if not infinite "No one with knowledge of forest ecology would make the claim that a forest that has developed with certain groundwater characteristics for thousands of years (to have 400 year old oaks requires many years of succession of forest types and tree species) could possibly remain in good health if that water source were removed. "This is the real issue in this case. Th& effort at protection has been made although it is now realized what seemed ironclad at the time is not much protection at. all given new mining methods. Dysart Woods is totally dependent on the state permitting system for protection. Please, do not fail to do what you can to make sure our grandchildren will be able to walk with the same awe and conviction under these giant trees as we can." The full 4,170 acre watershed buffer zone should be protected from all mining (Appendix A) Given the removal of 500 acres because of the completion of permit D-0360-7 prior to the BFC's LUP, the full 3,756 acre buffer zone as applied for in the BFC petition should be protected from mining. But this shows how it is politics, the legal restrictions of who applied first, and not science that is guiding decisions about the fate of our last significant ancient forest in unglaciated Ohio. The Lands Unsuitable Petition decision should be based on the science of where coal mining could significantly impact Dysart Woods. The ODMR needs to consider the larger matrix in which Dysart Woods is located, and the complex geology that the ODMR admits it does not have enough scientific data to understand. Scientific data does show that dewatering upstream in a watershed can affect areas downstream. Moyd Ahmed showed in his study of the geology of Dysart Woods how it is critical to protect the watershed to maintain the hydrologic balance of the old-growth forest (Appendix A). Further, Ohio University Vice President for Administration Gary North and OU's attorney David Northrop both called for the protection of this buffer zone at the ODMR public hearing August 4, 1997. Their statements follow: A law firm representing Ohio University submitted pages of
"The unique value of the woods caused the area to be declared
as a
"The old growth trees in Dysart Woods, because of their great
size
Ohio University Vice President for Administration spoke against
We are greatly concerned about this continued encroachment.
Northrop said, "In our view this is a superficial analysis and
"The Southwest portion of area #7 goes through and is located
upon
Northrop continued, "We need site-specific information to
The Division of Soil and Water Conservation found that "There was evidence of seepage (spring flow) coming from an approximate elevation of 1,260 that may supply some additional water to several large trees on a bench below the WkD map unit on sheet 52 in the Belmont Soil Survey (ODMR 6-24-98)" This shows that it is the ground water that mining would disrupt if it is allowed in any form in the watershed buffer zone (as delineated by Moid Ahmed). The Division of Water found, "These studies indicate that water that might be available for the trees to use would be from infiltration of precipitation at the immediate area or from higher elevations. All the springs ... are gravity type springs (ground water moving downward that intercepts the hillside)..." The Division of water reported that Ohio Valley Coal Company's data showed that 90 percent of water wells within 700 feet of a longwall panel edge were impacted. "Ground water effects in the zone of surface fracturing ... are variable because strata are susceptible to recharge and dewatering as fractures develop." The ODMR reported that Ohio Valley Coal Co. statistics found that 100 percent of developed springs within 700 feet of a longwall panel edge were impacted, 76 percent with significant impact. The Division of Geological Survey found that Dysart Woods' soils were well drained, moderately permeable, and on steep slopes. The division found that Dysart Woods was susceptible to erosion and slippage. Thus, the ancient forest would be prone to slippage and other affects if mining of any type, including room and pillar, were allowed underneath or nearby. Also, a lowering of the regional water table would very likely harm Dysart Woods because water is so permeable at the surface. "The root-throw of fallen trees at Dysart Woods proper indicates that most, if not all, trees are relatively shallow-rooted in collubium...it seems possible that sudden movement within colluvium could topple trees that are shallow-rooted in colluvium (ODNR, 6-24-98). The ODNR team furthers the warnings of this appeal that room and pillar mining is just a means to delay the affects until later. "Length of time for mine subsidence to occur increases with increasing depth of mining and increasing competency of overburden. Also, the type and amount of roof support in addition to pillars of coal left in the mine contribute to subsidence. Most underground mines in Ohio used wooden timbers as additional roof support. Roof bolting is another type or roof support being used in Ohio mines. With time, following abandonment of an underground mine, these types of additional roof support would eventually rot or deteriorate a lowing subsidence to occur, depending on width of unsupported roof, pillar dimension, and load-bearing capacity of pillars. Because of the complexity of the variables which contribute to mine-related subsidence, no acceptable system exists which is capable of accurately and precisely predicting the exact time or amount of subsidence in a variety of geological settings, especially for mines with an irregular pattern of room and pillar of mining. However longwall mines induce subsidence rapidly, beginning almost immediately after mining begins. Generally, most of the subsidence occurs at the surface within nine months of mining. Residual subsidence may occur up to several years until Smax is achieved (ODNR 6-24-98). Ohio Division of Mines and Reclamations does not have adequate information
Given the rarity and importance of Dysart Woods, it is critical that the ODMR protect the full watershed buffer zone given the lack of knowledge by the ODMR. With the evidence in this appeal showing the affects of room and pillar mining on the surface hydrology, room and pillar mining must be declared unsuitable for mining in the ODMR Lands Unsuitable Petition decision for Dysart Woods. Further, ODMR geologists and decision-makers that were questioned
at the ODMR
The big picture
Dysart Woods is being studied as the only significant old-growth mixed mesophytic forest left in Ohio. It can only be studied as a benchmark of how our forests once were if it is left intact. Mining within the 4,170 acre watershed buffer zone would likely severely impact Dysart Woods, as outlined above. Top scientists including Ohio University Botany Professor Irwin Ungar, Geography Professor Ted Bernard and Forest Ecology Professor Brian McCarthy have all called on the protection of the watershed buffer zone from all types of mining for Dysart Woods to be protected. Dysart Woods is the last .004 percent of old-growth forest left in Ohio, which was once 95 percent covered with ancient forest. This should require extra protection to ensure that the ecological integrity of this last significant unglaciated ancient forest left in Ohio be protected for generations to come. Relief requested in this appeal
Signed December 30, 1998
61 pages of Appendix followed (most of them are at other sections of these web sites) |