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

2. 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 email)

3. 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, 1974-1984 COAL MINING & THE AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT Ergo, My Overview:

4. NICKEL PRIMER ON FLUVIAL SEDIMENTOLOGY

5. Density (mass per unit volume). –wood <1 –water 1.0 (pure, 4° C) –coal 0.9-1.4 (~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

6. Categories of Sediment Transport

7. 0.062 mm2 mm0.002 mm SandsSilts Clays

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Sampled & Unsampled Zones with an Isokinetic Sampler

12. FISPFISP TM US D-74

13. FISPFISPTM US D-96

14. US BL-84FISPFISPTM

15. U.S. BMH-80

16. U.S. BM-54

17. (Singer, Cepello, Henderson, 2006, 8FISC, p 328) The Cooper Scooper 36 x 23 x 28 cm 16 kg dry weight Contact Michael Singer, bliss@bren.ucsb.edu

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

19. Analyzing Coal Samples ►USGS Kentucky Science Center Sediment Laboratory Libby Shreve (eashreve@usgs.gov), 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.

20. 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

21. 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” http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3078/

22. USGS-BLM Coal-Hydrology Program, 1974-1984 ►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.

23. USGS-BLM Coal-Hydrology Program, 1974-1984

24. Parker, USGS Professional Paper 1464, p. 159

25. 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…

26. The END?