Davis Creek Research Station

Geophone Blasting Monitor setup on 10/6/2011 in response to our blasting complaints

2011-10-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

Virginia Blasting, the blasting subcontractor for Davis Creek Energy Mine Area #1 hired a company called Vibra-Tech from Scott Depot, West Virginia to come and install a 3 geophone array with a digital recorder, satellite uplink, and a fancy solar panel in response to our previously noted blasting complaints to the Office of Surface Mining on this mine site. After calling another geophone company we learned that renting this geophone equipment could cost anywhere from $4,000- $6,000 for a year. Virginia Drilling has secured this equipment for the next year to year and half which is how long they think it will take them to finish blowing up this mountain. The 3 geophones are housed in a unit which is buried at the base of the metal post and the recorder is contained underneath the solar panel. Here is some helpful info about geophones. http://www.goodquarry.com/article.aspx?id=16&navid=1
The movement of any particle in the ground can be described in three ways; displacement, velocity and acceleration. Velocity transducers (geophones) produce a voltage which is proportional to the velocity of movement, and can be easily measured and recorded. They are robust and relatively inexpensive and so are most frequently used for monitoring. The velocity of ground vibration is usually measured in millimeters/second (mm/s) or inches/second in the US. Geophones are only able to respond to vibration in one dimension and so to capture the complete signal it is necessary to have three geophones arranged orthogonally (at right angles). One will always be vertical and the other two will be horizontal, but the horizontal geophones can either be aligned with the cardinal points of the compass or they can be arranged with reference to the blast position. In the latter case, one geophone would be set along the line from blast to monitor (this is known as the longitudinal or radial) so that the other would be perpendicular to this line (this is known as the transverse).

I had a very informative conversation with the Vita-Tech representative who had been doing this work for the past 26 years mainly in West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky around coal mines and other rock quarries. This was only the second time that he had been to Tennessee and the first time that he had been to coal country in Tennessee. He said the mountains were a lot smaller here. We spoke about West Virginia and the impacts of the coal industry there and in the Coal River Valley and on Kayford Mountain which was near his home. He said that hopefully the next time that we met that he could convince me to start liking coal. I said, "I like coal, when it stays in the ground and filters the water and doesn't pollute the air or surface waters." He laughed.

Hopefully we will begin to get data from this monitor and will be sharing it with you shortly.

2011-10-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

Fall Colors start to peek out at Research Station

2011-10-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

This last week the trees and plants began to change colors. If you haven't seen fall in Southern Appalachia it is well worth the drive, hike, bike, or float to get here. The colors are intensified by a light rain just before the leaves begin to change and that light rain should be coming within the next 24 hours. The land where the Research Station is located is an old strip coal mine which was mined back in the 1970's. I will gather some more info about previous mining and post it here. The land is in a state of recovery and it is interesting to see which plants have been re-establishing. Till then here are some beautiful photos that we took this past week. Enjoy!

Got an idea for research for the Davis Creek Research Station?

2011-10-04T14:17:00.000-07:00

We spotted a deer track close to the Research Station.

Share your ideas with us. Email them to umdvolunteerhouse@gmail.com

Here is one that we found online. Does anyone want to help out with it?

Here is the website where I found it-- https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/publiclaboratory/UxK5v0xVRk8/ewWf04eouA4J

Anyone interested in proposing a mapping project with these folks? It'd be great to support their monitoring efforts with some aerial photography as some of us did with Mountain Justice folks in 2010:

http://publiclaboratory.org/map/marsh-fork-elementary-coal-river-west-virginia/2010-6-1

http://publiclaboratory.org/map/black-mountain-virginia/2010-5-30

Perhaps there's an opportunity to try some infrared vegetation analysis at a reclamation site, or to use Photosynth and bundle adjustment to generate a 3d model of a mining site, and quantify the amount of mountain that's been removed.

Thanks in advance, Davis Creek Research Volunteers

We are looking for volunteers to staff the research station. Contact us at umdvolunteerhouse@gmail.com

Blackside Dace Fish found in Davis Creek, TDEC denies public hearing, Alden Resources begins using blast sirens

2011-10-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

Davis Creek is currently being impacted by 2 active surface coal mines and there is a third coal mine proposed which will directly discharge into Davis Creek. Davis Creek is a Tennessee Exceptional Waterway because it is listed as a habitat for the federally threatened Blackside Dace fish. This fish is extremely threatened by coal mining and only exists in a very small part of Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky. The last of the 3 coal mines, Davis Creek Energy Mine Area #5 will discharge directly into Davis Creek upstream of Sandlick Branch and into the location where the Blackside Dace fish was last spotted.

Here is a copy of the field note from TWRA for Aug 23.
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) collected 3 blackside dace in Davis Creek upstream of the mouth of Sandlick Branch on August 23.
Date: Tuesday, 23 August 2011 Field No. RDB-2011-21

Stream Name: Davis Creek
County: Campbell

Location: Pool on downstream side of culvert on Davis Creek Road, approx. 0.1 mi. upstream of Sandlick Branch.

Notes: Fish collection with a small one-man seine and one dipnet in the pool below the culvert. Collected three Phoxinus cumberlandensis, along with Lepomis cyanellus, Semotilus atromaculatus, Luxilus chrysocephalus, and one small Etheostoma kennicotti (all were released). Preserved one Belostomatidae - Lethocerus (Lethocerus) americanus.

Coordinates: 36.48368N – 84.00663W Reach No. 05130101-21,0
Quad. Map: LaFollette, Tenn., # 136 NE Elevation: 1,460 ft.
Collectors: Rick D. Bivens and Carl E. Williams

Email from Jonathon Burr of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Jonathon.Burr@tn.gov
Thursday Sept 29, 2011

Hi Matt:
Finding these dace is good news. We had been proceeding all along on the assumption that the dace were present - we have classed Davis Creek as Exceptional Tennessee Waters (ETW) because of the dace records, and treated the permit application accordingly. The Anti-deg proceedings and the social and economic justification steps you were a part of what the regs require when the discharge is proposed to an ETW. So even if their survey had turned up none of the dace, we still would have proceeded on the assumption that a population was still there.

A public hearing is indeed being scheduled - you should get a notice soon.

Thanks - JEB

On Monday October 3, 2011 Jonathon Burr of TDEC sent the following email:

Hi Matt:

See the attached - the original will be mailed. We have decided against holding a Public hearing on Davis Creek 5, for reasons detailed in the attached letter. I am sorry for the confusion - I know I told you in the last e-mail that we would schedule the hearing, but we have reconsidered our stance on this.

JEB

Here's what EPA had to say about it on Oct 4, 2011.
I just received this email from the EPA about TDEC denying our request for a public hearing. TDEC officials bragged in Jan 2011 that they had never denied UMD a public hearing on a coal mine permit, guess they can't say that any longer.

Dear Mr. Landon-

Thank you for interest and message to us regarding this draft permit.

Federal regulations at 40 CFR 124.12 require the state to hold a public
hearing when they find, on the basis of requests, that there is a
significant degree of public interest in the permit.

Federal regulations at 40 CFR 124.11 require that a request for a public
hearing be made in writing and state the issues proposed to be raised in
the hearing. The state is required to consider those comments and to
respond to the comments when a final permit is issued, as required by 40
CFR 124.17.

Based on the information you've provided below and information provided
the state (attached) by it appears that the state has considered your
request for a public hearing and determined that there is not a
significant degree of public interest.

Please let me know if I can provide you with any more information on
this issue.

Sincerely,

Mark Nuhfer, Chief
Municipal and Industrial NPDES Section
EPA Region 4
61 Forsyth Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30303
404-562-9390
404-562-8692 (FAX)
nuhfer.mark@epa.gov

BLASTING
Alden Resources/ Davis Creek Energy began using a blast siren after a visit from Office of Surface Mining inspector Tim Rudder. Inspector Rudder issued two blasting related violations to Alden Resources/ Davis Creek Energy. Research Station volunteers began recording the use of sirens on 9-28-2011. There have been two blasts per day for the last two days. UMD will be getting a copy of the blasting log to create a map to learn about the progress of the coal mine and blasting. Stay tuned.

Blasting Concerns for Davis Creek Energy Mine Area #1

2011-09-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is part of an email that was sent to the Office of Surface Mining and the insurance company for Davis Creek Energy today.

"I would also like to find out if OSM officials have figured out how UMD can more easily get copies of the blasting log since we had to drive to Corbin, KY to pick them last time for DCE Mine Area #1 in Campbell County, TN. I would specifically like to know how close the blasts that occurred on this past Friday Sept 16 and on Tuesday Sept 20 were in relation to the Davis Creek Research Station and the surrounding houses and why we didn't hear a blast siren or the all clear signal, this may be a violation and I need to find out the exact distance before filing this violation. Yesterday Sept 20, 2011 one of our Research Station volunteers was walking down Westbourne Lane and monitoring Hogcamp Branch and Wolf Branch. The volunteer reported that a blast occurred at 4:03pm while they were monitoring at Wolf Branch and Hogcamp Branch and they didn't hear any blasting sirens at all either before or after the blast. They weren't able to tell if the roadway was blocked off but they had walked the mile from Davis Creek to Wolf Branch and weren't stopped by any mine site trucks or anything. People generally walk about 2 miles an hour so the volunteer was on Westbourne Lane for about 30 minutes before the blast and wasn't warned at all. They entered an active blasting zone unknowingly and Alden Resources and Davis Creek Energy didn't do anything to keep this from happening. We need some answers right away. The Research Station is currently staffed and will be staffed for the foreseeable future and I would like to know how OSM will protect our volunteers since they are out there on private property and on the public road ways without any structure and since Davis Creek Energy is allowing Alden Resources to use rock dust as a stemming agent which can lead to fly rock. According to the permit Davis Creek Energy will be blocking the roadway for .5 miles away from any blast zone and they will be traversing the county roadways lying within .5 miles of the blast zone at least 30 minutes prior to any planned detonations to insure that no one is in harm’s way. Obviously this didn't happen in this instance."

9-16/ 9-18 First monitored blast, water quality, and beautiful waterfall

2011-09-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

On 9-16-2011 at 5:04pm a blast from an unknown orgin was heard at the Davis Creek Research Station. We are not sure if this came from Davis Creek Energy Mine Area #1(the mine we are set up beside) but we will be requesting a copy of the blasting log to find the exact location of this blast in relation to the station. If it is within .5 miles then we should have heard a warning siren followed by two more warning sirens when it was all clear. We didn't hear anything except for the blast.

On 9-17-2011 at 9:45am a white pick up truck drove by on the road below, stopped, threw up a hand and drove away. At 1pm a swarm of about 50 dragon flies started buzzing around. At 5:30pm the water monitoring team started at the confluence of Davis Creek and Hogcamp Branch and walked about a mile along Westbourne Road monitoring at various spots including Wolf Branch. The data can be seen in the following Google Doc which will be updated on a regular basis.

Google Document Spreadsheet with Davis Creek Research Station Data

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoE1rrIihXGUdGE4UlM0Q3FYTjJIaVg4cTVwUWVJb0E&hl=en_US

On 9-18-2011 the Research Station Volunteers went on a hike to a beautiful waterfall on Pine Mountain about 10 miles downstream of the Research Station and visited a local refrence stream with a conductivity of 46 microsiemens per centimeter. Here is a picture below.

We are also looking for volunteers to help out with staffing the research station. If you would like to help out please contact mattlandon2001@yahoo.com or umdvolunteerhouse@gmail.com or come to the United Mountain Defense weekly volunteer meetings every Tuesday night at 7pm upstairs at Barleys Resturant located at 200 East Jackson Street in Old City, Knoxville, TN.

Approximate location of Davis Creek Monitoring Station on Map

2011-09-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Scale is 1 inch for 400 feet

Monitoring begins at Davis Creek Research Station

2011-09-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Scientific Monitoring Station
On Friday Sept 16, 2011 volunteers with United Mountain Defense and Mountain Justice set up a scientific research station in Campbell County, TN adjacent to Davis Creek Energy Mine Area #1 ((OSM permit #3207, NPDES #TN0069248)on private property. This station was established in an effort to collect data about several coal mines in the immediate vicinity and their impacts on air and water quality. Volunteers at the station will record rain fall, wind speed, wind direction, blasting, and water quality along Davis Creek, Wolf Branch, Hogcamp Branch and other locations as well. Volunteers plan to be in the field each day collecting data and will be recording it on this blog. You can also check out www.unitedmountaindefense.org for more info about this monitoring effort and to get involved.

Elevation 1379 feet

GPS location
36 29 18.5
-84 03 12.8