Mechanisms and Measurement of Fluvial-Coal Transport Coal Mining and the Aquatic Environment Abingdon, VA, Sept. 6-7, 2007 John R. Gray USGS Office of Surface Water Reston, Virginia

COAL MINING & THE AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT ?Fluvial Coal Transport/Fate? “Coal…is observed in the riverbed for months…but seems to disappear for a long time” “How and where coal moves in river systems?” “How to know where coal moves?” (Braven Beaty, 5/2007 )

Overview of mechanisms, fluvial-sediment transport Coal movement and storage in streams as a special case of fluvial-sediment transport Suspended-sediment and bedload measurement – equipment and techniques USGS-BLM Coal-Hydrology Program, COAL MINING & THE AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT Ergo, My Overview:

NICKEL PRIMER ON FLUVIAL SEDIMENTOLOGY

Density (mass per unit volume). –wood <1 –water 1.0 (pure, 4° C) –coal (~1.3, eastern U.S. coal – W. Orem) –quartz & feldspar ~2.65 (prevalent minerals in nature) –iron 7.9 –lead11.4 –mercury13.5 –gold19.3 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SEDIMENT

Categories of Sediment Transport

0.062 mm2 mm0.002 mm SandsSilts Clays

C mean = ~930 mg/l BC=1.03 BC=~1 Box Coefficient (BC) = C mean /C point BC=~1.1 Culbertson et al., 1964

C mean = ~1,360 mg/l BC=~1.7 Box Coefficient (BC) = C mean /C point BC=~5 BC=~4 BC=~1.5 Mean Values Culbertson et al., 1964

Measuring Coal Transport Using FISP Sediment Samplers ► Suspended Sediment: - Isokinetic samplers deployed by flow-weighting techniques of the Federal Interagency Sedimentation Project - Pumping samplers - Turbidity and other surrogate techniques might work*. ► Bedload: US BLH-84 or US BL-84 bedload samplers deployed by Equal-Width or Unequal-Width Techniques ► Bottom Material: US BM or US BMH bottom-material samplers, or if material larger than medium gravel, Cooper Scooper, pipe dredge, or another ‘bulk-sampling’ technique

Sampled & Unsampled Zones with an Isokinetic Sampler

FISPFISP TM US D-74

FISPFISPTM US D-96

US BL-84FISPFISPTM

U.S. BMH-80

U.S. BM-54

(Singer, Cepello, Henderson, 2006, 8FISC, p 328) The Cooper Scooper 36 x 23 x 28 cm 16 kg dry weight Contact Michael Singer,

(Singer, Cepello, Henderson, 2006, 8FISC, p 328) The Cooper Scooper

Analyzing Coal Samples ►USGS Kentucky Science Center Sediment Laboratory Libby Shreve Chief Standard sediment-lab services, plus - % coal in bed material, loss-on-ignition ►See next plot from Bill Orem, USGS, on % organics in bed material of eastern coal region rivers.

Coal Mussel Study TN/VA/WV Rivers From Bill Orem, USGS, on % organics in bed material of eastern coal region rivers. Mean value excluding 14.8% outlier

Predicting Coal Transport ► For bedload, empirical equations such as Meyer-Peter Mueller, Smith-Wiberg, Yalin, Parker, etc. work. Requires sediment density -- OK ►For suspended load, coal-settling velocity must be known. That can be derived for eastern coal -- OK ►Both cases, the size distribution of coal bed material must be known. USGS Louisville, Kentucky, Laboratory performs such analyses -- OK “If gravel-size material, should be pretty easy to predict mobility using USGS_MD SWMS Interface – J. Nelson, USGS, Golden, CO”

USGS-BLM Coal-Hydrology Program, ►Collect information and study hydrologic processes related to development and mining of coal. ►More than 500 reports produced. ►West Virginia: “A mined basin sediment yield was 240X > unmined (Parker, PP 1464, p. 157). Statistics also for VA, TN, KY that show as mined area increases, sediment yields increase.

USGS-BLM Coal-Hydrology Program,

Parker, USGS Professional Paper 1464, p. 159

COAL MINING & THE AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT Good News!: Measuring and estimating coal transport Wealth of historical information from the USGS-BLM Coal-Hydrology Program that might be ‘mined’ before considering more data collection. Wealth of capabilities for monitoring sediment transport; specific coal-monitoring protocols needed. Modeling capabilities appear to be up-to-the-task. Thanks for loaning me your ears and eyes…

The END?