Mine Drainage Control at the
Chinook Mine
ALFRED E. LAWSON, Engineer
Ayrshire Collieries Corporation
Indianapolis, Indiana
The Chinook Mine is one of the Ayrshire Collieries Corporation's surface
mines and is located in the Staunton, Indiana area. To clarify the work mine, in
this paper, it means all of the pit areas being mined, to be mined or that has
been mined. It also includes the preparation plant and the refuse pit. This mine
was started in 1927 and has mined 20, 026, 956 tons of coal in this 41 year period.
The mining operation has been carried out under a prescribed plan and this includes the controlled drainages of the pit areas and the preparation plant. The
drainage is controlled in such a manner as to comply with the laws of the State of
Indiana. To be assured that no acid mine drainage from our properties reach the
receiving streams, 15 water sample stations were set up at strategic locations
where monthly samples are collected and an analysis made to determine the pH,
total iron, ana sulfate present.
Since the beginning of the Chinook Mine washing plant in 1940, the necessary
water has been collected by the cast overburden that has trapped and retained the
rain and snow in such quantities that the water needed in the preparation plant has
been furnished in abundance from the water impoundments created by this type of
mining. This is quite an achievement since the mine is located on the highest
ground in Clay County. This mine has a life expectancy of approximately 30
years with an extraction rate of 1, 200, 000 tons per year.
There are two types of drainage waters to be controlled. One is the water
from the preparation plant that drains into the Little Birch Creek system. The
other drainage is from the pit areas which drain into the Sulfur Creek system to
the northwest and into the Honey Creek system to the southwest. There are two
other drainage systems available to the area and they are the Prairie and Crooked
Creek systems flowing in a southeastetly direction.
The percentage of recovery of clean useable coal varies from 65 to 70 per
cent which leaves about 30 to 35 per cent of refuse from the preparation plant to
be disposed of in some manner. This refuse is hauled to the pit area and dumped.
Refuse is that non-carbonaceous material that gets mixed with the coal in the
processes of mining.   It can be in and adjacent to the coal seam.
Science so far has not found a practical solution to the complex problem of
abating pollution from coal mine drainage. But intensive research continues, and
progress is being made. The Second Symposium on Coal Mine Drainage Research
is designed to detail progress in researcnon the many facets of mine drainage pollution abatement. This Symposium is being hela in Pittsburgh May 14 and 15,
1968.
No one has all the answers, but the carbonaceous material known as coal
which is found in such abundance in our United States is, in my opinion, very im-
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