Report to Congress: Responses to Recommendations in the National Research Council's Report 'Coal Waste Impoundments: Risks, Responses, and Alternatives'.

摘要

On October 11, 2000, an accident occurred in Martin County, Kentucky when over 300 million gallons of coal-waste slurry broke into an underground mine from the Big Branch Slurry Impoundment. Slurry flowed through and out of the mine and contaminated over 80 miles of creeks and rivers. Following the accident in Martin County, Congress provided funding for the National Research Council (NRC) 'to examine ways to reduce the potential for similar accidents in the future.' The NRC appointed a Committee on Coal Waste Impoundments, which prepared a report, entitled 'Coal Waste Impoundments: Risks, Responses, and Alternatives.' The report, released in October 2001, contained twenty-eight recommendations, most of which were aimed at helping to prevent future breakthroughs. These recommendations fall into the following categories: Impoundment Plans and Permits: Administrative Issues (Three Recommendations); Impoundment Plans and Permits: Technical Review Issues (Nine Recommendations); Mine Surveying and Mapping Issues (Ten Recommendations); Use of Geophysical Methods to Locate Mine Workings (One Recommendation); Chemical Properties of Coal Waste (One Recommendation); and Alternative Coal Waste Disposal Methods (Four Recommendations). To determine how the NRC's recommendations could be used to help reduce the potential for impoundment breakthroughs, MSHA and OSM formed a 'Steering Committee.' A work group was assigned to each of the recommendation categories indicated above. Chapters II through VII of this report correspond to the above categories and have been prepared based on the work groups' findings. In addition, as requested by Congress, Chapter VIII summaries the other actions that MSHA and OSM have taken since the October 2000 Martin County Coal Corporation slurry breakthrough accident.