Mountgomery C: Hillsboro, IL: Deer Run Coal Mine (Longwall)

(Satellite)

There were so many coal mines in Illinois that I normally just add them to a reference post. But this mine was, and hopefully soon will be, active.

One of  18 photos posted by Dan Hopley
Hillsboro Mine
Daniel Watson It got to the point it was getting to be a tight fit with the 11. Under the staker or lowering well whatever you wanna call it.
Dan Hopley Million tons
Nick Stork Did they have to sink a new shaft because of fire at this mine?
Dan Hopley No just sealed that area off from what I heard.
Billy Hammond III so Hillsboro is up and running again?
Dan Hopley No these are from 2010 to 2015
Ryan Jostes Be backed to mining coal by February I’d say.
Dan Hopley That’s the rumor.

Since someone is trying to get it operational again, I thought it was worth some research.

It is a longwall mine that had a fire in March, 2015. After unsuccessfully spending almost a year to put out the fire, Foresight Energy announced an indefinite shutdown. [sj-r] There are some people in the Hillsboro area that would be glad to see the mine shutdown. [CitizensAgainstLongwallMining] Of course the 160 coal minters are not happy. But longwall mining's "planned subsidence" seems to be equivalent to "destroying farmland" because the 6' drop of the land surface destroys the drainage they have installed in this flat land. Since the land will be below the local creeks, the coal company is supposed to build deep drainage ditches. I wonder how the number of farm jobs (don't forget the grain elevators and tractor dealers as well as the farm families) compares to 160 and how the property taxes on the farmland compares to the $7.5m the county got when they sold the coal rights for 120,000 acres in 2004.

ChannelMap from Deer Run Mine

The red line on the above map is IL-185. I used that to help determine the boundaries of the longwall panels on a satellite image. Note that they carefully avoid their own land, the railroad that was built to connect to Norfolk Southern's NKP (Cloverleaf) remnant to the Coffeen power plant, and the prison. (NS has trackage rights on BNSF between Sorento and Centralia where they access their own former Southern tracks.)

Satellite plus Paint

The channel map specifies that they would do the light-blue LW Panel 1-2 in 2011 and then a panel each year until they do 2-2 in 2016. If you look at the homesteads that have been torn down and turned into storage lots (an example) and a homestead that still exists, it looks like they have not finished LW Panel 1-2. I can't find when they actually started mining. I think I saw 2012. After all, they have to build a lot of infrastructure to clean and ship the coal including an impoundment pond for the toxic coal slurry. The IDNR allowed a 80' high High Hazard dam to be built around one square mile of land without any public hearings. And that "pond" is good for just five years of production. The mine is supposed to have enough reserves to support 20 years of production. [SourceWatch]

The reason the mining stopped was that high carbon monoxide readings were detected at 7:30pm July 14, 2014 indicating the existence of a fire. "All underground employees were safely evacuated and none sustained injuries. Hillsboro officials identified the affected area and have been working with federal and state officials implementing an approved plan to contain and extinguish. Two holes have been drilled into the coal mine and water is being pumped into the affected area." [MarketWatch]

I wonder who pays for the road repairs and vehicle damage when there is a mini-earthquake. Note the ridge in the distance. The land over the access tunnel and conveyor belts between the panels does not fall.

Feb 5, 2016 AP Photo by Alan Scher Zagier from WashingtonTimes

ktrs

They were able to put out the July 2014 fire in a couple of weeks [e-mj], but there was another fire in March, 2015. In 2016 the fire was still smoldering, so Freeport Energy's "solution" was to ask IDNR for a permit to expand into another 7,731-acre area that is not affected by the fire. "The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has said the underground fire - a not uncommon occurrence in mines - poses no immediate threat, and a spokesman for the state agency indicated the fire likely won’t have a bearing on the permit expansion review." [WashingtonTimes]

A mining engineer with expertise in mine fires, who asked his name not be used for professional reasons, said area residents could be at risk, and he thinks the company and federal regulators are shirking their responsibility. He said the fire could continue to burn underground, eventually collapsing the earth above already destabilized by longwall mining. That could allow deadly carbon monoxide to waft up into the atmosphere through fissures opened by the mining, he said. He said he has investigated cases around the country where carbon monoxide in such situations travels along the beds of pipes or ditches and can enter homes. [EnergyNews]

Evidently the second fire is in the remnant coal in the collapsed part of the mine. They can't put it out because they can't find it. "Locals say they have not been given any information about the status of the fire, but it just increases their doubts about the ability of Foresight to act responsibly and of regulators to keep tabs on the company....'The current mine atmosphere problems will have no influence on the review process for the proposed expansion of mining,' said Chris Young, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)....A spokesman for the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement said that the federal agency has no jurisdiction over subsidence from current mining operations, or any carbon monoxide leakage that could result from fires. He said the IDNR and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency are responsible for regulating these issues....Foresight was pumping nitrogen into the mine in an attempt to cut off oxygen fueling the combustion, but those efforts have reportedly stopped." [EnergyNews]

Foresight Energy controls over 1.7 billion tons of coal reserves in the Illinois Basin, but it is not willing to do room-and-pillar mining because that wastes 40% of the coal in the pillars that keep the land from collapsing. Room-and-pillar mining also would retain access to the coal faces so that they could find and extinguish fires. But longwall mining not only gets more of the coal in a seam, the cost per ton of production is lower.

Young said state regulations require mining companies to repair or compensate landowners for any damage caused by subsidence or drainage problems. “To date, the company is meeting its obligations in this regard,” he said. [EnergyNews]

From what I can gather by reading various articles is that the company meets their obligations by buying the land and kicking the people out of the area.

Seven coal miners died in Illinois between 2013 and 2015 and Freeport Energy's Sugar Camp Mine was responsible for three of them.

It seems coal mining companies compete well with cigarette companies (lung cancer) and oil companies (climate warning) when it comes to "influencing" regulators and lying to the public.
"Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office is considering legal action against the state’s natural resources agency for what prosecutors call a failure to follow the terms of a court-brokered plan to toughen oversight of coal mines. The tougher regulations were part of broader reforms touted with much fanfare two years by the administration of former Gov. Pat Quinn. They followed criticisms by environmentalists who alleged the state Department of Natural Resources was too cozy with mining companies and other businesses it regulates." [TheTelegraph, 2016]

May, 2018 "FORESIGHT WILL CLOSE DEER RUN MINE" [CoalAge]

Dec, 2018: "Foresight Energy is moving to reopen its long-idled Deer Run longwall mine in Montgomery County, Illinois, which the company "permanently" closed last February after a "combustion event" occurred in 2015." After months of efforts to fight the "combustion event" in a longwall area, they sealed the area off. "Now 'there's no fire' in the mine." Also, the coal market is up. "The company posted record export sales of 2.4 million st in Q3." [spglobal] When they sealed off the longwall with the fire, they "also lost equipment that cannot be recovered." [stltoday]

Unfortunately, Foresight continues to have a poor safety and pollution track record. "More than 125 state and federal violations by Sugar Camp in the past three years: 'black water' and coal slurry being released into waterways; coal waste overflowing its impoundments; aluminum, manganese and other compounds above allowable levels in effluent; “orange staining” of waterways; waste containment structures not adequately maintained; coal dust and mud accumulating on a road; failure to follow record-keeping procedures." [EnergyNews2018]

See Planned Coal Mine Subsidence in Illinois: A Public Information Booklet, published by the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois State Geological Survey for detailed information about coal mine subsidense. [SierraClub]

Deer Run, other Illinois Basin mines could change coal market dynamics

Deer Run "has largely been idle since a combustion event in March 2015, but resumed production earlier this year [2019]. In 2014, its last full year of production, the mine produced 5.6 million st, the sixth highest in the basin. That year, total basin production totaled 137 million st, and exports out of New Orleans totaled 7.1 million st, or 5.2% of annual production. In 2018, IB production totaled 106 million st, and New Orleans exports totaled 17.5 million st, or 16.5% of annual production. In other words, the domestic IB market in 2014 totaled roughly 130 million st, but shrunk to 88.5 million st in 2018, a drop of nearly one-third."

(source)

David Jordan Deer Run was one of two mines that supplied coal to ADM's Cedar Rapids co-generation plant from January 2011. Shay seems to have all of that business now so it will be interesting to see if Deer Run resumes its role from several years ago. Both mines are served by NS and UP.

David Jordan Shay supplies ADM's Decatur co-generation plant as well.

I've been reading about mines closing in southern Illinois and Indiana, so it is nice to see the production of this mine has evidently increased.

Adam Reyling posted the comment: "Has anyone else noticed alot more traffic on the evwrr last few days? I'm from Dahlgren, thismorning a empty coal train going west, early afternoon another coal train going east. And now the local train is heading west to work, and be back late tonight."

Will Rasmussen There are currently two coal sets being shuttled between Deer Run Mine in Hillsboro, IL (on the NS) and either the Vectran Spur or Mount Vernon, IN. Both sets have been running for a bit over a week with one set starting a couple weeks ago.