Mine flooding and barrier pillar hydrology in the Pittsburgh basin

Pennsylvania began requiring barrier pillars between mines as early as 1930. The Ashley formula, resulting from a early commission on the problem, requires 20 feet of coal plus a thickness of coal equal to four times the seam height plus an additional thickness of coal equal to one tenth of the overburden thickness, or the maximum potential hydraulic head. For a 6-foot thick coal seam under 400 feet of cover, the barrier would be 20+24+40=84 feet. The Ashley formula is intended to protect coal miners from a catastrophic failure of a barrier pillar which has a high head of water impounded behind it. The paper gives several examples of flooded and unflooded mines and the performance of their barrier pillars with respect to acid mine drainage. It is concluded that for all practical purposes, barrier pillars designed with the Ashley formula are able to hydrologically isolate mines from one another. This hydrologic isolation promotes the inundation of closed mines. Inundation effectively stops acid formation, thus, fully inundated mines do not represent a perpetual source of acid mine drainage. Infiltrating ground water improves the mine water chemistry resulting in a net alkaline discharge which has greatly lowered iron concentrations. The best locations for acid mine drainage treatment plants is at the lowest surface elevation above the mine with mine flooded to near that elevation