The health of the Wabash River Valley was positively impacted recently when an old abandoned coal refuse pile in northwestern Vigo County was leveled and grass planted by the Partners for Reclamation Project. For many years, farmer Leon Klueh had to watch the old gob pile left by the Sanford Mine, Pittsburg 1 & 2 pollute his nearby farm field with acid runoff, and with the advent of ATVs, endure countless trespassers using the pile as an off road course. Leon had even tried installing a grassed filter strip between the pile and the farm field to prevent the acid runoff from damaging his crops. The filter strip was not enough to filter all the acid.

When the Partners for Reclamation Project kicked-off recently, Lloyd Lenderman, a Vigo County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor, appointed by the county commissioners and friend of Leon saw the opportunity to help Leon and the watershed. Lloyd took this project to Charlie Lee, Sycamore Trails Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council, Terre Haute representative and Chairman of the RC&D Council's Abandoned Mine Lands Committee which oversees the Partners Project to seek help in reclaiming the gob pile. Cleaning up this gob pile was of special interest to Charlie. It seems after investigation, it was discovered that it was Charlie's great grandfather W.W. Ray who had operated the mine that left the coal refuse from 1907 to 1928. . Leaving coal refuse and mining structures was acceptable until just a few years ago when the Reclamation laws went into effect in the 1970s. That makes Charlie the fourth generation to work in the coal industry. In fact, Charlie, his father, Hugh Lee, and son Stephen Lee all work together today in the same office at the Sycamore Building operating Midwest Mining Company.

Lloyd and Charlie went to work to reclaim this old gob pile. The project was presented to the AML committee for consideration. The committee saw the benefits to funding the reclamation of this gob pile and approved Lloyd and Charlie's proposal.

Reclamation of the gob pile began this fall when John Jones Logging of Bruceville, IN came in at no cost to the landowner and cleared the site of poor quality trees to help facilitate the grading of the pile. All trees removed were chipped for paper pulp and delivered to International Paper in Terre Haute. This reduced the size of the area that had to be disturbed and utilized a resource that would have been wasted. Once the area was cleared, it was ready for Steve Lubovitch, Lubovitch Excavating, Clinton, IN to bring in the big iron and level the pile for seeding. Prior to seeding and after grading, 100 tons of agricultural limestone was applied to neutralize the acid in the old gob. A short slope draining to the field was covered with soil material hauled to the site to enhance reclamation efforts. The old pile was then fertilized, seeded and mulched putting the final touches on a project that Leon, Lloyd, Charlie and the other two generations of Lees were happy to see put to bed.

This was just one of eight projects that have been successfully completed by the Partnership since it's inception 1999. The Partnership is currently working with 11 other landowners in the service area that includes Clay, Fountain, Owen, Parke, Sullivan, Vermillion and Vigo Counties. Sycamore Trails Resource Conservation and Development Council, sponsor of the project, receives funding from Indiana Department of Environmental Management for administration and Indiana Department of Natural Resources for the actual site restoration. How do projects like this get done? The Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Sycamore Trails Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council have joined together to provide an opportunity for local landowners. Funding is being made available on a competitive basis through the IDNR's Division of Reclamation for property owners to restore certain lands that have been adversely impacted by coal mining operations. Once the projects have been accepted by the county Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), the Division of Reclamation (DoR) will review the proposed project for compliance with all applicable regulations and fund up to eighty-five percent of the project cost through the RC&D. The RC&D can assist the property owner with contracting and other aspects of the project.

This program is designed to assist property owners who have been adversely impacted by abandoned coal mining operations. Examples of common mining related problem types that may be addressed are:

• acidic water runoff,
• barren or poorly vegetated mine spoil,
• coal refuse including both coarse and fine refuse,
• old mine haul roads,
• highwalls or other steep embankment problems,
• reduced stream flow capacity that results in periodic flooding,
• mine subsidence or similar mine related ground displacement,