KU geophysicist serves on national team studying dam safety

LAWRENCE -- A University of Kansas distinguished professor of geophysics was among 14 National Academy of Sciences committee members reporting to Congress on dam safety in the nation's coal fields in October 2001, according a report in the December edition of Coal Age magazine.

Don Steeples, Dean McGee distinguished professor of applied geophysics, attended congressional briefings for members of the House and the Senate. Steeples and his colleagues have published previous research with abandoned coal mines around Scammon and Pittsburg.

Congress ordered the $2 million study by the academy following an Oct. 11, 2000, slurry spill at Martin County Coal Co. in Kentucky. Although no human lives were lost in the spill, environmental damage was significant and local water supplies taken from the rivers were disrupted for days, according to the report. In March 2001, the National Research Council of National Academy of Sciences convened a committee to prepare a report by September 2001 on ways to reduce similar accidents in the future.

The study, "Coal Waste Impoundments: Risks, Responses and Alternatives," called for new regulations and more inspections of the 700 impoundments in the nation's coal fields. The scientists further recommended that two federal regulatory agencies take greater responsibility for safety. The full report is available online at National Academy Press Web site.

In Appalachia, coal mines typically use the natural topography -- steeply sloping valleys -- to store mining waste, known as coal slurry. The report noted that several coal waste accidents have occurred since 1972, when 125 people were killed, more than 1,000 injured and more than 4,000 left homeless by the collapse of a dam on Buffalo Creek in West Virginia.

Coal Age magazine reported on the Oct. 12, 2001, news conference in Washington, D.C., during which Steeples said, "It's pretty well established that the impoundments, the dams, the part that holds the water are not the major problems. The question is, can we keep the slurry from going into mine works that we don't know about?"

Steeples suggested that if a dam broke and slurry flowed into underground mine workings and he were living a couple hundred yards below the dam, he likely would have damage in his yard, "but in terms of my house and family getting swept up in the creek, that's not likely to happen.

"The size of the pathway in the coal mine limits the flow rate," he continued. "You might have an environmental disaster and an economic disaster, but the chance of losing lots and lots of lives is really pretty much nil through that sort of disaster."

Steeples was the lone geophysicist on the team. Franklin M. Orr Jr., dean of Stanford University's School of Earth Sciences, who is a petroleum engineer, chaired the committee.