ABANDONED MINE STABILIZATION AND RECLAMATION – JOHNSON COUNTY, KY

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

In 2010, a coal mining operation on the Johnson-Floyd county line in Kentucky was suddenly abandoned after the owner went bankrupt. The bonds the coal operator had put in place were insufficient to cover the costs of repairing the environmental damage it left behind, let alone to pay for reclamation. The site itself was poorly constructed, making it prone to landslides–causing several residents to move due to the impending threat and some to lose their homes altogether. Because we specialize in emergency response and slope stabilization, Jigsaw was initially hired by the bonding company to repair the damage. After successfully stabilizing a few of the landslides, the insufficient bonds were depleted and there was no longer any money left to reclaim the land. The site had become Kentucky’s most high-profile environmental liability.

However, while completing their stabilization work, the Jigsaw team had an idea: If Jigsaw could leverage the coal mining expertise of their workforce, then their team could reconfigure and stabilize the site, recover the remaining coal, and sell the coal as Green Tons to pay for the entire cost of reclamation. The regulators agreed, and Jigsaw was chosen by the Kentucky Division of Abandoned Mine Lands to complete the mine reclamation–all with no cost to the state or local government. In fact, while this site could have been one of the most expensive reclamation projects in the state, Jigsaw’s innovative solution is paying for itself. What’s more, the coal sold from the project is generating coal severance funds, and the salaries of workers employed on this job are paying income taxes – taxes that are going right back into the local community to pay for things like schools and roads. In all, the ingenuity of Jigsaw’s team helped solve an environmental hazard, save homes, and reclaim an abandoned mine land, all while saving the government–and taxpayers–millions of dollars.