Reclamation Issues: Subsidence Evaluation And Control Technologies

State-Of-The-Art Mine Subsidence Evaluations 1

Kanaan Hanna, Jim Pfeiffer, and Steve Hodges

ZAPATA, Blackhawk Division
301 Commercial Road, Suite B
Golden, CO 80401
303-278-8700
khanna@zapeng.com, jpfeiffer@zapeng.com, shodges@zapeng.com

Dave Hallman and Jeffrey Nuttall

Tetra Tech MM, Inc.
350 Indiana St, Suite 500
Golden, CO 80401
303-217-5700
Dave.Hallman@tetratech.com Jeff.Nuttall@tetratech.com

Bill Locke and Vicky Zimmerman

Wyoming DEQ, Abandoned Mine Lands Division
510 Meadowview Drive
Lander, WY 82520
307-332-5085
BLOCKE@state.wy.us, VZIMME@state.wy.us

Abandoned mines can pose a serious threat to the public health and safety and the envi-
ronment. The presence of old mine workings or voids underlying residential and commercial
properties, transportation and infrastructure facilities can cause subsidence in the form of sink-
holes or catastrophic collapse, and differential settlement, resulting in adverse impacts in terms
of cost and safety.

The current state-of-practice for subsidence mitigation is based on traditional drilling and
grouting backfill programs, i.e., drill and fill, using a rule-of-thumb approach to assess risk. This
is generally a blind approach with borings conducted on a pre-determined grid but is largely un-
productive in determining the true conditions of the mine workings and subsidence risk. The un-
known location and condition of abandoned underground mines represents a significant chal-
lenge to geologists and engineers to accurately evaluate subsidence hazards and develop appro-
priate mitigation measures.

The use of state-of-the-art geophysical imaging techniques integrated with other engi-
neering disciplines can be confidently and practically applied to characterize overburden condi-
tions, delineate mine workings, and detect voids to allow subsidence hazards to be more accu-
rately defined. This in turn enables targeted cost-effective mitigation efforts to be employed in a
proactive rather than reactive manner.

Currently, ZAPATA, Blackhawk Division and Tetra Tech are applying a variety of high-
resolution state-of-the-art geophysical technologies to characterize subsurface geology, delineate
coal mine workings, and determine subsidence mechanisms in both developed and undeveloped
residential areas within the City of Rock Springs in conjunction with the State of Wyoming, De-
partment of Environmental Quality, Abandoned Mine Land Division. The City is largely under-
mined by historic multi-seam, room and pillar coal mining operations at depths ranging from 50
to 350 ft that represent a significant subsidence hazard. This paper describes the success
achieved by integrated engineering geophysics in subsidence evaluations using the City of Rock
Springs as an example.

1Presented at the 30th annual National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs Conference, October 26 –
29, 2008; Durango Colorado