This collection was donated by the Raymond Proffit Foundation in 2004.
CONSOL Energy Inc. Mine Maps and Records, 1857-2010, AIS.1991.16, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Wyona S. Coleman Papers, 1971-2005, AIS.2000.21, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
No restrictions.
Playback of tapes requires use of VHS machine which is available in the Archives Service Center.
About Raymond Proffitt Foundation
Still in existence, the Raymond Proffitt Foundation (RPF) is a public interest non-profit organization concerned with the enforcement of environmental protection laws. It has helped individuals and grassroot organizations understand and change government inaction to protect the environment, frequently solving problems through discussion with agency officials. When discussions failed, however, the Foundation would file citizen lawsuits against governments, companies or individuals violating the law.
In the past, RPF sued on various environmental issues, including water quality, wetlands protection, solid waste disposal and mining pollution. In 1996, RPF won a major four-year lawsuit resulting in the establishment of federal anti-degradation standards for water quality in Pennsylvania. Similar standards were adopted soon afterwards by the Commonwealth. Since that time, RPF and others have used the principles won in that lawsuit to advance protection of surface waters across Pennsylvania.
About Longwall Mining
In longwall mining, a panel of coal, typically around 450 to 900 feet wide, 3,000 to 10,500 feet long and 6 to 15 feet thick, is totally removed by longwall shearing machinery, which travels back and forth across the coalface. The shearer cuts a slice of coal from the coalface on each pass and a face conveyor, running along the full length of the coalface, carries this away to discharge onto a belt conveyor, which carries the coal out of the mine. The area immediately in front of the coalface is supported by a series of hydraulic roof supports, which temporarily hold up the roof strata and provide a working space for the shearing machinery and face conveyor. After each slice of coal is removed, the hydraulic roof supports, the face conveyor and the shearing machinery are moved forward.
Before the extraction of a longwall panel commences, continuous mining equipment extracts coal to form roadways (known as headings) around the longwall panel. These roadways form the mine ventilation passages and provide access for people, machinery, electrical supply, communication systems, water pump out lines, compressed air lines and gas drainage lines. The roadways, which provide access from the mine entrance to the longwalls, are referred to as the main headings. Once the main headings have been established, additional roadways, known as development headings, are driven on both sides of the longwall panel and are connected together across the end of the longwall. The longwall face equipment is established at the end of the panel that is remote from the main headings and coal is extracted within the panel as the longwall equipment moves towards the main headings. This configuration is known as retreat mining. Typically, a longwall face retreats at a rate of 150 feet to 300 feet per week, depending on the seam thickness and mining conditions. The coal between the development headings and between the main headings is left in place as pillars to protect the roadways as mining proceeds. The pillars between the development headings are referred to as chain pillars.
When coal is extracted using this method, the roof immediately above the seam is allowed to collapse into the void that is left as the face retreats. This void is referred to as the goaf. Miners working along the coalface, operating the machinery, are shielded from the collapsing strata by the canopy of the hydraulic roof supports. As the roof collapses into the goaf behind the roof supports, the fracturing and settlement of the rocks progresses through the overlying strata and results in sagging, bending and/or cracking of the near surface rocks and subsidence of the ground above.
Surface subsidence and water flow diversion are the most visible and well known environmental impacts associated with longwall mining, since building foundations crack and sink and water from wells, rivers and streams disappears.
Raymond Proffitt Foundation Video Collection on the Environmental Effects of Longwall Mining, 2000-2003, AIS.2004.04, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Raymond Proffitt Foundation Video Collection on the Environmental Effects of Longwall Mining, 2000-2003, AIS.2004.04, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
The University of Pittsburgh holds the property rights to the material in this collection, but the copyright may still be held by the original creator/author. Researchers are therefore advised to follow the regulations set forth in the U.S. Copyright Code when publishing, quoting, or reproducing material from this collection without the consent of the creator/author or that go beyond what is allowed by fair use.
The Raymond Proffitt Foundation Video Collection on the Environmental Effects of Longwall Mining contains VHS footage documenting the surface devastation caused by longwall mining in Green and Washington Counties, Pa.