New Castle Colorado - Underground Coal Mine Fire (Colorado Springs, Boulder: 2014, homes)

[Katarina Witt]

I stumbled on this article via Facebook. An interesting read.
New Castle's Coal Legacy Smolders Under Burning Mountain | KUNC

[Mike from back east]

Interesting stuff, didn't know we had any of that here. Back east, the granddaddy of such underground coal mine fires is in Centralia, PA. For pix of that area click here, what a mess.

The extractive industries sure leave a toxic legacy.

[Katarina Witt]

There is coal burning underground on the Marshall Mesa east of Boulder as well.
https://bouldercolorado.gov/pages/coal-seam-qr

I went there once on a field trip with my daughter's 3rd grade class. We could see smoke wafting up from underground.

[vfrpilot]

In 2008, a boy burned his feet on a smoldering coal dust fire in a Colorado Springs park>>
Coal dust burns boy walking in park
At the time, I thought this was the strangest thing I had ever heard of. Really random, and sad for the boy.

[WyoNewk]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

... The extractive industries sure leave a toxic legacy.

Most underground coal fires have nothing to do with extractive industries. I live in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, where roughly 40% of the nation's coal is currently mined. Coal mines here are relatively new, but underground coal fires are anything but new. The Powder River Basin got its name from the coal ash in the air when early explorers visited the area.

I've heard stories about how teens, a century argo, used to grab a few steaks and head out to the prairie where they could grill them over cracks in the soil. And how even now, ranchers and their livestock will stay away from certain areas where smoke still comes from the ground.

The CCC extinguished many underground coal fires in NE Wyoming during the 30s, but some were just too deep and too big to extinguish. Lightening storms still start them every summer, although most are put out by ranchers and the county fire department.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

The extractive industries sure leave a toxic legacy.

That fire was started by the locals burning garbage in an old stripping pit they were using a for a landfill.

FYI it's not really the coal burning but the gases.

[Idunn]

'And the ones [coal mine fires] that are not an imminent danger are nonetheless concerning for environmental regulators who say the piles and mines have the potential to leach toxins into soil and groundwater, and contribute unnecessary carbon dioxide to the world’s already overburdened atmosphere when they catch fire.' [1]


One doesn't' have to live in Centralia, Pennsylvania to be concerned about this. There is a coal mine fire near the Pittsburgh International Airport that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will be spending some $1,400,000 to put out. If others still burning, this one underground fire of several years is thought to possibly threaten an underground gas pipeline, as well the smoke thereof interfere with airport operations.

According to John Poister of the PDEP of these coal mine fires, "eventually we're going to have to put them all out."

Centralia, PA residents once thought it a fine idea to dump their trash down an abandoned coal mine shaft. However a fire started somehow, with all the trash helping to ignite a coal seam of several hundred acres. With then poisonous coal gases seeping into the basements of several homes, the eventual outcome was the US government agreeing to offer buyouts to the town's residents in the 1980s. Only a few residents remain in Centralia. There is surely a moral in that.

Or that rather than promoting their human-induced coal mine fire, the residents of New Castle, CO might put it out. Apparently such things are possible—and warranted.

1) 'Pennsylvania puts $1.4m towards extinguishing years-old mine fire,' The Guardian
Pennsylvania puts $1.4m towards extinguishing years-old mine fire | Environment | theguardian.com

[jazzlover]

Coal seam fires can be very difficult to sometimes nearly impossible to extinguish. Contrary to popular belief, many coal seam fires start naturally. With just the right oxygen mix, coal can very easily spontaneously combust. That can occur when a coal seam gets naturally partially exposed to the atmosphere.

Another misconception is that coalbed methane drilling always increases methane releases to the atmosphere. That isn't always true, either. Often, shallow coal seams naturally emit copious amounts of methane to the atmosphere. In fact, some coalbed methane production technologies are designed to "divert" dispersed methane leakage to the atmosphere to wells, where the methane can be captured, then used. That can put the methane to productive use--methane that would otherwise escape uselessly into the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, people on both sides of the methane/CO2/global warming issue tend to paint things in black and white, when the truth is anything but that.