In the West, Coal's Boom Resonates Across the Land

Ranchers have seen public grazing lands be swallowed up by coal mining in Wyoming. Photo: Clay Scott
400 million tons of coal are produced by the Powder River Basin. Photo: Clay Scott
Three-story haulers move coal out of a mine in the Powder River Basin. Photo: Clay Scott
You move coal "12 ½ hours, minus your half-hour lunch break," says one miner. “It is very, very repetitious.” Photo: Clay Scott
Led by production from its Powder River Basin, Wyoming produces 40 percent of U.S. coal. Photo: U.S. Geological Survey

April 3, 2015

This story was supported by High Plains News. It’s part of the ‘The Future of Coal’—a collaboration of The Allegheny Front, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and Inside Energy.

Driving south of Gillette, Wyoming, through an arid and austere landscape once home to herds of bison, you pass coal mine after coal mine, for 70 uninterrupted miles, carving deep troughs into the prairie. Seen from the road, the immensity of the mining activity is striking. But descend into one of these open pit mines for the first time, and it’s hard not to be overwhelmed.

Colossal digging machines called coal shovels load hundreds of tons at a time into haul trucks three stories high. Giant bulldozers rip away layers of dirt to get at rich coal seams, and clouds of brown and black dust darken the air.

This is the Powder River Basin, the new home base for the U.S. coal industry. If coal has started to leave Appalachia, the American West is now coal’s heartland. Production has dipped slightly in Wyoming, but the state still produces 40 percent of the nation’s coal—far more than any other state. The impact of this industry on the land and the people run deep in Wyoming.

WORKING THE COUNTRY’S COAL SEAM

J. D. Dietsche showed the coal shovel he’s operated for Alpha Coal for a decade, seven days on, seven days off. On a frigid day, bare hands stick to the metal rungs in the $50 million machine.

“You drive your truck to the dirt shovel, get a load of dirt, drive it to the dump, come back and do it again and again and again and again, for 12.5 hours, minus your half-hour lunch break,” says a laughing Dietsche. “It is very, very repetitious.”

It’s repetitious work, often dangerous. And the hours are long. But coal is a vital part of the economy of this sparsely populated state.

“There’s 20-some mines in the basin. If coal takes a hit like it did back east in Virginia, Gillette would be a ghost town,” says Dietsche. “Everybody and everybody’s family depends on coal. On one of these coal mines out here. I know we got the oil and gas, but for the most part, Gillette wouldn’t be Gillette without coal.”

The 7,000 or so coal jobs here are highly sought after. Miners like Carrie Sieh, who’s worked in coal for 30 years, have raised their families with their earnings. But it’s more than just a paycheck, she says.

“Because we are willing to go out, run that equipment, and mine the coal, and bring it out of the earth, and we work holidays, 24/7, and through snow, through rain, through…all kinds of weather, then everybody else has the luxuries of electricity, and running water…the things that people take for granted that coal does provide for people,” says Sieh.

COAL’S CLASH WITH RANCHERS

The 400 million tons of coal mined each year in the Powder River Basin supplies power for millions of Americans, and gives an important boost to the Wyoming economy. It’s lower in polluting sulfur than eastern coal, and closer to the surface. And while you might not have to blow the tops off mountains to get at the seams, coal mining here has still impacted the land, and the people who depend on it, in far reaching ways.

Just ask L.J. Turner, whose family has ranched in the southern end of the Powder River Basin since 1916.

“From our perspective in here, it really seems that most of the time, we’re the only ones that don’t have the ranch for sale and hoping to sell it to the coal company,” Turner says. “We don’t have any plans of going to Phoenix, or Tucson, or Baker, California, or anywhere else. This is home. It’s been home for all of our lives.”

Turner’s ranch looks out onto the North Antelope-Rochelle coal mine. The mine sprawls for miles over pastures where cattle once grazed. Ranchers in this area have historically depended on public grazing leases to make a living. But those leases are superseded by mineral development, and the Turner family has lost thousands of acres to mining.

This is—or was—a landscape of rolling grassland, punctuated by rugged breaks where mule deer took shelter. But the undulations of the land have been leveled to get at the coal. By law, the coal companies are bound to “reclaim” the land when they’ve finished mining it. But Turner says that in practice, reclamation has been incomplete, at best.

“The coal miners over here whenever they moved in and started taking our pastures, they said, ‘Oh, you just wait until we’ve reclaimed this land. It’s going to be so good you won’t believe how good it’s going to be,’” says Turner. “And that’s been…30 years, maybe? And our cows have never had a mouthful of reclaimed grass in those 30 years.”

Of even greater concern, says Turner, is the steady drying up of local water sources in recent years, which he attributes to the water needs of coal mining.

“Are they going to be able to reclaim the aquifers and the creeks?” Turner says. “Because I don’t think they can. They say they can, but all they’re doing is talking theory.”

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT UNRESOLVED

In western Montana, in his house along the banks of the Bitterroot River, Bill Ritchie is someone who has given quite a lot of thought to the impacts of western coal mining—on water. For more than 20 years he managed several Powder River Basin coal mines.

“There are problems,” says Ritchie. “The really complex stuff was the environmental issues, tracking the water, trying to de-water, trying not to pollute streams. Really it took a lot of work, a lot of effort, and a lot of money.”

When Ritchie first started working in coal, he says, western mines were being applauded for producing a product that was much cleaner than eastern coal. But Toward the end of his career, he says he started to reexamine some of his assumptions about coal mining.

“We actually felt we were doing very good work by replacing high-sulfur coal with low-sulfur coal where we could get our foot in the door,” says Ritchie. “We were doing good work, and it was a good, clean environment.”

But some things about coal weren’t well understood at the time, he says.

“We didn’t understand the impact on the atmosphere and the greenhouse gases. We didn’t understand mercury as well, or the problem it creates in peoples’ health, just burning it,” Ritchie says. “We worked on clean coal projects from the time I was first starting in the coal business. And they still are working on ‘em. here is no such thing currently as clean coal. The net result is still…polluting…the atmosphere.”

All coal mines, says Bill Ritchie, including the ones he managed, begin by taking the coal that’s closest to the surface, and easiest and cheapest to get at. As the mine goes deeper in its life, the coal will be deeper and thinner-seamed and more costly to recover.

“Hopefully someday they will figure out a technology on a commercial scale that can burn coal cleanly,” Ritchie says. “But what a pity if we’ve mined all the coal, burned it, then polluted the hell out of everything. Then when it’s time, when we have the ability to burn it well, we don’t have the resource.”

Bill Ritchie says the type of clean coal technology he’s talking about is not likely to be perfected anytime soon. In the meantime, coal, that powerful and dirty and much debated black rock, is certain to remain a feature of the economy and landscape of the West for years to come.

April 24-30, 2015, coal, Feature, Future of Coal, Climate, Energy

Transcript

IN COAL’S NEW HOME, HEAVY IMPACTS

HOST INTRO:
If the coal industry has started to leave Appalachia (APP-ah-LATCH-uh), the American West is now coal’s new home base. Production has dipped slightly in Wyoming, but the state still produces 40% of the nation’s coal – far more than any other state. As part of the Allegheny Front’s series on the Future of Coal, Reporter Clay Scott went to America’s current capital of coal, and found the industry’s imprint on the West runs deep.

AMBI – DRIVING (5) (20:46)
CLAY: Driving south of Gillette, Wyoming, through an arid and austere landscape once home to herds of bison, you pass coal mine after coal mine, for 70 uninterrupted miles, carving deep troughs into the prairie. Seen from the road, the immensity of the mining activity is striking. But descend into one of these open pit mines for the first time, and it’s hard not to be overwhelmed. (21) (21:07)
AMBI – SOUND OF TRUCKS (5) (21:12)
CLAY: Colossal digging machines called coal shovels load hundreds of tons at a time into haul trucks three stories high. Giant bulldozers rip away layers of dirt to get at rich coal seams, and clouds of brown and black dust darken the air.
AMBI – SOUND OF CLIMBING LADDER (4) (21:40)
J. D. Dietsche showed me the coal shovel he’s operated for Alpha Coal for a decade, seven days on, seven days off. On a frigid day, my hands stick to the metal rungs as we climb into the $50 million machine. (13) (21:49)
J. D. DIETSCHE: 0344 You drive your truck to the dirt shovel, get a load of dirt, drive it to the dump, come back and do it again and again and again and again. 0352 (laughs) for 12 ½ hours. Minus your half hour lunch break. It is very, very repetitious. 0358 (14) (22:03)
CLAY: It is repetitious work, often dangerous, and the hours are long. But coal is a vital part of the economy of this sparsely populated state.
J. D. DIETSCHE 0531 There’s 20-some mines in the basin. If coal takes a hit like it did back east in Virginia, Gillette would be a ghost town. 0540 Everybody and everybody’s family depends on coal. On one of these coal mines out here. I know we got the oil and gas, but for the most part, Gillette wouldn’t be Gillette without coal. 0551
CLAY: The 7,000 or so coal jobs here are highly sought after. Miners like Carrie Sieh, who’s worked in coal for 30 years, have raised their families with their earnings. But it’s more than just a paycheck. (22) (22:25)
CARRIE SIEH: 0430 Because we are willing to go out, run that equipment, and mine the coal, and bring it out of the earth, and we work holidays, 24/7, and through snow, through rain, through…all kinds of weather, then everybody else has the luxuries of electricity, and running water…the things that people take for granted that coal does provide for people. 0456 (29) (22:54)
CLAY: The 400 million tons of coal mined each year in the Powder River Basin supplies power for millions of Americans, and gives an important boost to the Wyoming economy. It’s lower in polluting sulfur than eastern coal, and closer to the surface. And while you might not have to blow the tops off mountains to get at the seams, coal mining here has still impacted the land, and the people who depend on it, in far reaching ways. (25) (23:19)
L. J. TURNER from our perspective in here, it really seems that most of the time, we’re the only ones that don’t have the ranch for sale and hoping to sell it to the coal company. 0203 (9) (23:28)
CLAY: That’s L. J. Turner. His family has ranched in the southern end of the Powder River Basin since 1916. (6) (23:34)
L. J. TURNER: 0220 we don’t have any plans of going to Phoenix, or Tucson, or Baker California, or anywhere else. This is home. It’s been home for all of our lives. It’s uh…it’s going to continue to be so. 0238 (18) (23:52)
CLAY: We’re standing on a low ridge at the eastern edge of L. J.’s ranch, looking out at the North Antelope – Rochelle coal mine. The mine sprawls for miles over pastures where cattle once grazed. Ranchers in this area have historically depended on public grazing leases to make a living. But those leases are superseded by mineral development, and the Turner family has lost thousands of acres to mining. This is – or was – a landscape of rolling grassland, punctuated by rugged breaks where mule deer took shelter. But the undulations of the land have been leveled to get at the coal. By law, the coal companies are bound to “reclaim” the land when they’ve finished mining it. (41) (24:33)
L. J. TURNER: 1351 The coal miners over here whenever they moved in and started taking our pastures, they said, oh, you just wait until we’ve reclaimed this land. It’s going to be so good you won’t believe how good it’s going to be. 1406 and that’s been…thirty years, maybe? And our cows have never had a mouthful of reclaimed grass. 1417 in those thirty years. 1419 (28) (25:01)
CLAY: Of even greater concern, says L. J., is the steady drying up of local water sources in recent years, which he attributes to coal mining. (7) (25:08)
L. J. TURNER: 2134 Are they going to be able to reclaim /// the aquifers and the creeks? 2140 because I don’t think they can. They say they can, but all they’re doing is talking theory. And here I’m living the practical thing. 2149 (13) (25:21)
AMBI – RAISE SOUND OF TONGUE RIVER WATER (5) (25:26)
AMBI – GEESE ALONG BITTERROOT RIVER (5) (29:09)
CLAY: In western Montana, in his house along the banks of the Bitterroot River, I met Bill Ritchie. He is someone who has given quite a lot of thought to the impacts of western coal mining - on water. For more than 20 years he managed several Powder River Basin coal mines (28) (29:37)
BILL RITCHIE
There are problems. The really complex stuff was the environmental issues. 0940 Tracking the water. Trying to de-water, trying not to pollute streams. Really took a lot of work, a lot of effort, and a lot of money. 0950 (14) (29:51)
CLAY: When Bill first started working in coal, he says, western mines were being applauded for producing a product that was much cleaner than eastern coal. (9) But Toward the end of his career, Bill says, he started to reexamine some of his assumptions about coal mining.
BILL RITCHIE: We actually felt we were doing very good work by replacing high sulfur coal with low sulfur coal where we could get our foot in the door. 1102 and so that’s kind of the mindset we had. We were doing good work, and it was a good, clean environment. 1111 (18)
RITCHIE: We didn’t understand the impact on the atmosphere and the greenhouse gases. We worked on clean coal projects from the time I was first starting in the coal business. And they still are working on ‘em. 1509 There is no such thing currently as clean coal. The net result is still…polluting…the atmosphere.
CLAY: All coal mines, says Bill Ritchie, including the ones he managed, begin by taking the coal that’s closest to the surface, and easiest and cheapest to get at
As the mine goes deeper in its life, the coal will be deeper and thinner seamed and more costly to recover.
RITCHIE: Hopefully someday they will figure out a technology on a commercial scale that can burn coal cleanly. But what a pity if we’ve mined all the coal, burned it, then polluted the hell out of everything. Then when it’s time, when we have the ability to burn it well, we don’t have the resource.
CLAY: Bill Ritchie says the type of Clean coal technology he’s talking about Is not likely to be perfected anytime soon.
In the meantime, coal, that powerful and dirty and much debated black rock, is certain to remain a feature of the economy of the West for years to come.
For the Allegheny Front, I’m Clay Scott in Gillette Wyoming.

That story was supported by High Plains News. It’s the first part of a series ‘The Future of Coal’. -- a collaboration between The Allegheny Front, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and Inside Energy. Look for more on this series at alleghenyfront.org and listen to the Allegheny Front 7:30 Saturday mornings on WESA.