Strata-Movement Concepts and
the Hydrogeological Impact of
Underground Coal Mining
by Colin J. Bootha
ABSTRACT
A review of mining-engineering concepts and studies in
mine hydrology suggests a conceptual model linking the strata
deformation, hydraulic property changes, and
ground-water impacts due to underground coal mining. The
pressure-arch deformation pattern about a small opening
creates a local zone of increased permeabilities and
dewatering in the seam and immediate roof, but should not
hydraulically affect shallower aquifers. Networks of
supported headings, rooms, and pillars intensely drain lower
aquifers but only slightly affect higher strata except in areas
of naturally high permeability. Longwall mining causes
extensive, high-reaching, well-defined zones of stress,
fracturing, and hydraulic impact, the maximum perme-
ability increases being in the tensile zones immediately
above the panel and at the sides of the subsidence trough.
In shallow aquifers, permeabilities and ground-water
velocities increase, and hydraulic gradients decline indepen-
dently of mine drainage.
A study of a deep coal mine in the Appalachian
Plateau, Pennsylvania indicated: probable hydraulic connec-
tions between the mine and shallow aquifers in a principal
valley area; no obvious response of water levels in shallow
aquifers to undermining by supported headings; and rapid,
considerable declines in such water levels in response to
nearby longwall mining. These results are consistent with
the conceptual model.
INTRODUCTION
The ground-water impacts of underground
coal mining include both inflow to the mine and
diverse effects on the ground-water flow system.
These impacts arise not only from the drainage of
water from the surrounding rocks to the mine, but
also because of changes in hydraulic properties of the
rocks due to strata deformation induced by
mining. The zones, types, and sometimes magni-
tudes of strata movements can be predicted from
mining engineering theory. Yet, there has been
aDepartment of Geology, Northern Illinois
University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115.
Received July 1985, revised October 1985, accepted
December 1985.
Discussion open until January 1, 1987.
Vol. 24, No. 4—GROUND WATER—July-August 1986
little use of such theory in understanding and pre-
dicting the ground-water impact of underground
mining.
In this paper, some concepts of mine-induced
strata deformation and studies of the hydrogeo-
logic impact of underground mining are reviewed.
A brief conceptual model of the hydraulic impact
of different types of underground mining is pre-
sented. The results of the author's study of the
hydrogeology of an underground coal mine in
Pennsylvania are compared with this model.
A REVIEW OF STRATA-
MOVEMENT CONCEPTS
Underground mining disturbs the mechanical
equilibrium of the strata, creating stresses which
cause strains (deformations). The deformational
behavior depends on mining methods and geom-
etry, on the depth, and on geological controls and
physical properties of the rocks, and can take
various forms. Essentially, the surrounding rocks tend
to deform into the opening. The sides move in, the
floor moves up, and the roof moves down— unless
restrained by their natural strength or
artificial supports.
Deformation above a single mine opening can be
explained by beam and pressure-arch theories (Adler
and Sun, 1968; Peng, 1978). The over-
burden load which was formerly supported by the
coal seam cannot be borne by the void, and
transfers to solid abutments in the ribs and pillars.
An arch of high rock pressure develops over the
opening (Figure 1). The immediate roof (the
ground within the pressure arch) is relieved of the
weight of overlying strata, but its stability depends
on the beam strength of the strata composing it.
For example, a roof of massive cemented sand-
stone is stronger than a roof composed of thin-
bedded shales, and less liable to deform. Weak
strata in the immediate roof will sag into the
opening, with fracturing and bed separation.
The wider the span of the opening, the greater
the sagging and the more likely that movement
507

111 111111
Bro suRE ..,.&\fici
l ly behind the face but rises farther back as the
arr DE-STRESSED Al
FRACTURED
Eir
ROOF ZONE
ill
/ IS
in / BEAM ROOF
RIR
RIB
v burden. Partly coherent settlement of strata in a
Fg. 1. Stress distribution above a small mine opening
(modified from Adler and Sun, 1968).
will occur. Timber props, cribs, hydraulic jacks,
steel rings and arches, and roof bolts are used to
support the immediate roof (Peng, 1978). Even
if an unsupported immediate roof collapses, the
main roof (the strata overlying the immediate
roof) can remain supported by the pressure arch.
However, at sufficiently large spans, intolerable
stresses would be placed on some component
(perhaps pillar or floor), and failure would occur
(Adler and Sun, 1968). The stability of the main roof,
therefore, depends greatly on mine geometry; it is
preserved by leaving pillars of coal to support the
overburden load.
Large safety pillars are left around main shafts
(Peng, 1978), while smaller ones protect
haulageways and entries. Main-roof movement over
such narrow, supported headings is slight. In room-
and-pillar mining, the areas of extraction (rooms)
are limited and pillars are left to prevent collapse.
Last-stage removal of pillars increases the extrac-
tion ratio but generally causes collapse and resul-
tant ground subsidence. Additionally, the deterio-
ration of pillars or their sinking into soft floors
may cause unpredictable strata movement and
ground subsidence, long after mining has ceased.
In longwall and related methods (Figure 2),
the beam strength of the immediate roof and the
stable arch width of the main roof are deliberately
exceeded. A working face, several hundred feet
wide, is advanced or retreated between parallel
headings, producing a large, rectangular, mined-out
panel. The face is temporarily protected by move-
able supports; as these advance, the unsupported
roof behind them collapses into the mined-out area
in a cantilever fashion, breaking along near-vertical
fractures into blocks onto which the overburden
settles (Adler and Sun, 1968).
508
The working face and side entries of the panel
are enveloped in local pressure arches. Front
abutment pressures are felt several hundred feet
ahead of the face but peak within a few feet of it
(Peng, 1978). The pressure in the gob (the caved
material in the mined-out panel) is low immediate-
cover load is re-established.
Complete collapse of the roof strata over the
panel should stop at a height two or three times
the extracted thickness (Adler and Sun, 1968), but
fracturing and caving continue to perhaps 50 times,
and some deformation can occur high in the over-
roughly dome-shaped zone above the panel is
accompanied by fracturing including, as Garritty
(1982) suggests, a stepped system of inter-
connected fractures in the tensile-stress zones at
the sides and rear of the panel. Conroy (1978)
found that strata failure occured to a height 400 ft
above a 600-ft-deep longwall extraction in Illinois,
the front of the failure zone being stepped back
over the panel.
Ground subsidence occurs over underground
mines if the ratio of extracted area to depth is high
enough that strata movement is transmitted to the
surface, either because the pressure arch intersects the
ground surface or the stable arch width is
exceeded. In the first case, local roof collapses over
abandoned shallow mines may work up to the
ground surface to form small, steep-sided, pit-
subsidence depressions, whereas in the second the
larger areas of main-roof sagging produced by long-
wall or high-extraction (pillar-removal) mining
create wider, gentler trough subsidence. As
observed by Schmechel et al. (1979), the onset of
subsidence movements on the ground surface over
longwall panels is rapid and marked by a "traveling
wave" of extension and compression. Thus, the
shallow overburden layers above longwall panels or
high extraction areas undergo extensional frac-
turing followed by partial recompression in the
inner subsidence trough.
EXTENSION
Surface SubsIdenGe TravelIng Wove
0
COMPRESSION
Ground SubsIdence (exagg
' TENSION -
COMPRESSION
TENSION;
HOOF BREAK Zo ,
SUPPORT
FACT- PRESSURE ARCH MINED OU1 PANEL
- Duection XI Mu,ng
Fig. 2. Strata deformation above a longwall panel.
 PREVIOUS HYDROGEOLOGICAL STUDIES
Although few studies have directly evaluated
the permeability changes due to strata movement,
several have noted the associated indirect effects
on the ground-water regime. Brown and Parizek
(1971) and Hobba (1981), for example, have
demonstrated that mine-roof collapse and subsi-
dence increase vertical leakage and ground-water
velocities, lower ground-water levels, and alter the
hydrologic characteristics of watersheds. Hill and
Price (1983) observed that ground-water levels
over a 550-ft-deep longwall panel in Pennsylvania fell
dramatically when the subsidence front passed; they
attributed this drop to leakage to the mine
and lower aquifers through zones where perme-
abilities had been increased by mine-induced
fracturing. Like Stoner (1983), they observed sub-
sequent water-level recoveries, which they
attributed to reductions in storativity and vertical
permeability during later settlement.
Whitworth (1982) commented that perme-
ability is increased in the narrow tensile zones
formed above the sides of longwall panels. Mather et
al. (1969) observed that narrow tensional areas over
a mine in Wales became corridors of rapid
ground-water flow, while the boundaries between
tensional and compressional areas were hydraulic
discontinuities.
Whittaker et al. (1979) measured the perme-
ability changes related to strata movements above
two longwall mines (about 2000 and 180 ft deep)
in England. In the deeper mine, the permeability
increased more than a hundredfold within 130 ft
behind and 130 ft above the working face, and
declined farther behind due to consolidation. The
permeability above the shallower mine increased
ahead of the face and declined behind it (to
residual levels 40 times the original values). The
greatest increases (80 times) occurred near the
surface. Coe and Stowe (1984) comment that
fracturing and permeability increases will be
greatest in the physically unconstrained surface
strata and in the caved zone immediately above
the mine, while intermediate levels are changed
least.
Several methane-related studies have shown
that coal permeability, which depends almost
entirely on microfractures, reacts strongly both to
overburden pressure (as shown by Dabbous et al.,
1974) and to the stress configuration around the
opening. It increases in the destressed, expansion-
fractured "crushed zone" (Kissell, 1972) near the
opening and may decrease in the abutment zone
farther back. Price et al. (1973) used this high-
within-low permeability configuration in modeling
methane flow. Similarly, Smelser et al. (1984)
assumed a plastically yielding, increased-
permeability outer zone in a model linking stress,
permeability, and drainage in the coal seam.
A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE HYDRAULIC
IMPACT OF UNDERGROUND MINING
The permeability of coal-measure rocks is
largely due to joints, fractures, and bedding-plane
openings, as Stoner (1983) notes. The more openly
jointed sandstones are the most transmissive rock
types, the plastic underclays least, and the shales
are variably leaky aquitards. Since fracture perme-
ability is approximately proportional to the cube
of fracture aperture (width of opening), very small
changes in fracture geometry have considerable
hydraulic impact. Major changes result not only
from actual caving but also from the minor frac-
turing, opening and closing of existing joints, and
separation and settlement of beds occurring in
response to the extensional and compressional
stresses caused by mining.
These hydraulic changes, as manifested in the
results of the hydrogeological studies discussed
above, are explicable in the context of strata-
movement concepts. Stresses and changes may be
anisotropic. For example, vertical extension and
horizontal compression cause bed separation and
increased horizontal permeabilities, whereas
horizontal extension favors both vertical and
horizontal ground-water flow by dilating vertical
joints. Hydraulic effects are also clearly zoned,
because well-defined zones of stress of different
magnitudes and orientations are produced by
particular mining patterns. Predictable deforma-
tional phenomena and, hence, predictable patterns
of hydraulic impact (subject also to the natural
geologic setting) arise from different types of
mining.
Destressing of the immediate roof above a
mine opening produces a dilated rock zone of
fracturing and strata separation, with resultant
rapid localized draining of permeable materials. In
poorly permeable material, negative pore pressures
may be produced by the dilation, preventing
obvious drainage into the opening (R. Bauer,
personal communication, 1985). Generally, frac-
turing does not reach into the main-roof strata, and
continued seepage occurs only where a sustainable
water source is hydraulically connected to the
immediate roof. Thus, Cartwright et al. (1983)
observed a rapid initial loss of water pressure as
the roof rocks including an aquifer dilated due to
release of ground pressure by the mine entry, but
noted that significant inflows occurred only where
509
 hydraulic connections were established through
natural fractures or via roof-bolt holes.
The mine void is bordered laterally by the
coal seam, which may be a source of water inflow
and of methane emission. Like the immediate roof,
the immediately adjacent seam is a zone of
increased permeability, from which intense,
localized dewatcring and degassing occur. Sur-
rounding the immediate roof and seam is a com-
pressional zone (the pressure arch and abutments)
which limits not only the deformational, but also
the hydraulic, influence of the opening. Thus,
small openings have only localized impacts.
Because the naturally low vertical permeability of
the overburden is maintained, the effects of deep,
small, single, supported headings on shallow
aquifers should be slight.
Of course, most areas of an underground coal
mine are not isolated headings but are networks of
headings, rooms, and pillars. These intersecting
drains and isolated blocks will induce a multicellular
equipotential pattern in the lower-roof strata, with
flow focused on the openings and with local
divides above pillars (Figure 3). The probable
behavior of a very simple, theoretical alternation of
pillars and voids was simulated with a two-
dimensional, finite-difference model of ground-
water flow to mine openings (Booth, 1984a). The
model indicated that the cellular pattern disrupts
and intercepts lateral cross-flow in the immediate
roof, and is intensified by the increased perme-
abilities above the headings. Upwards, the cellu-
larity diminishes and equipotentials flatten. Where
coal-pillar permeability greatly exceeds that of the
roof rocks, the pillars dewater and the planar equi-
potential configuration occupies the immediate
roof down to the seam top.
This theoretical equipotential pattern above a
network of mine openings indicates that, as
Hollyday and McKenzie (1973) suggested, an
underground mine is a planar under-drain inducing
downward leakage from overlying aquifers. Never-
theless, as long as the vertical permeability of the
overburden remains low—as long as the main roof
Equipolonfials
Opening- Pillar Capillary Fringe
Fig. 3. Idealized possible pattern of equipotentials and flow
lines in a homogeneous roof above a series of headings.
510
is not fractured—significant drainage and "cones of
depression" will be limited to the lowest aquifers
only. In the higher aquifers, separated from the
mine by intact aquitards, effects will be diffuse.
Localized, significant, hydraulic impacts of deep
headings and uncollapsed room-and-pillar mines
will be seen in shallow aquifers only in areas (such
as fracture zones) where vertical hydraulic connec-
tions are naturally high or where the mine itself is
very shallow.
Observed and predictable hydraulic impacts
can also be related to the well-defined deforma-
tional zones, described above, that develop about
longwall mining.
The working face itself is within a local
pressure arch; areas of the seam immediately for-
ward of the face drain locally to the opening. The
hydraulic behavior in the seam would resemble
that related to single headings or to room-and-pillar
mining, except that longwall practice often
includes the pre-extraction outlining and lateral
isolation of the panel by headings. Water and gas begin
to drain from this enormous isolated "pillar" even
before intensive mining starts.
Fragmentation of intact rock can double its
volume (Peng, 1978). The fragmented, collapsed rock
(gob) behind the supports is a new medium of very
high porosity and permeability. These
properties decline inwards as the gob supports the
sagging roof strata. The gob should be an excellent
medium for ground-water flow, but it may remain
dry because water is diverted more directly to the
face through discrete fractures in the tensile side
zones, and because much of the interior may be
dominated by methane emission from caved roof
strata, restricting water flow by two-phase effects.
The roof strata above the longwall panel sub-
side and may be extensively fractured and
separated to a considerable height. The most open
fracturing occurs in the rising tensile zones along the
front, sides, and rear of the principal deformed zone.
These high-permeability zones connect
directly with the fractured immediate roof over the
working face and the edges of the gob, and help to
localize inflow and impacts on overburden
aquifers.
Flow Ono
Ground water will drain from shallow aquifers to
the mine only if direct hydraulic connections
exist. The most likely locus for such pathways is a
narrow zone connecting the extensionally stressed
periphery of the subsidence trough with the frac-
tured edges of the primary zone above the panel.
As noted above, however, the near-surface zone of
increased permeability is generally separated from
the lower zones by intermediate strata which have
subsided without extensive fracturing. In most
cases, only the lowest aquifers drain directly to the
mine. The upper aquifers respond independently to
hydraulic property changes, regardless of
drainage to the mine.
This overall response to subsidence-related
fracturing and stresses is an increase in the perme-
abilities of the shallow strata. Not only is there
more interaquifer leakage through aquitards, but
also the flow in individual aquifers is increased.
The shallow ground-water flow system is "opened
up," with faster throughput and reduced head
gradients. This re-equilibration lowers heads and
water levels in recharge areas.
To the extent that storativity depends on
secondary porosity, it too responds to mine-
induced stresses. The storage capacity in the
extensional zones increases, amplifying the water-
level decline seen in wells in recharge areas and pep-
haps masking any rise that might be occurring in
discharge areas in response to the greater
throughput.
t l Longwell panel studied
wan Pillars mostly pu
lled
...• rf Longwell panel (mated)
Unmlned area
Fig. 4. Map of Lancashire No. 20 mine and selected
monitored wells.
Mine-induced changes in hydraulic properties
are dynamic, In the lower-roof strata behind the
actively fracturing zone, permeabilities and
porosities decline due to resettlement and compac-
tion, and by consolidation as pore-water pressures
fall, and effective stress rises, during drainage. In
addition, the emission of methane from the gob
and roof strata lowers the water saturation and the
effective hydraulic conductivity, further reducing
water flow.
The outermost edges of the shallow sub-
sidence trough experience only the extensional
phase of the subsidence traveling wave. Farther
inside, the strata are subsequently compressed and the
permeabilities and porosities somewhat decline.
Together with the effects of resettlement and of the
retarded ground-water flow at depth, this
reduction favors a recovery of water levels in wells in
shallow aquifers.
The final pattern of hydraulic property
changes in the shallower strata over multiple-
panelled mines is quilt-like. The residual perme-
abilities are increased everywhere over the longwall
mining, and most so near the surface. The edges of
each subsidence trough are left as wedges of
highest permeability, more rapid ground-water
flow, and increased ground-water storage. The
overlap of effects from adjacent panels, and the
super-imposition of these effects on the natural
hydrogeologic framework, mean that actual
resultant configurations are complex and site-
specific.
INVESTIGATION OF LANCASHIRE
NO. 20 MINE
The Barnes and Tucker Company's Lancashire
No. 20 Mine, Cambria County, Pennsylvania
extracts the Lower Kittanning (B) Coal by long-
wall methods at depths of 300 to 800 ft. Mine-
drainage records, borehole strata logs, and mine
maps were provided by the Company, and between
1981 and 1983 ground-water levels over and near the
mine were monitored in shallow (less than
300 ft) household wells (Figure 4). This study is
discussed further by Booth (1984a, b).
The site is in the eastern Appalachian Plateau.
Cyclothemic repetitions of sandstone, siltstones,
shales, underclays, and coals of the Allegheny and
Conemaugh Groups form the geologic sequence
above the mine. The gently dipping beds are
dissected by valleys into semioutlying escarpment
blocks. Between the outcropping sandstone aquifers
are aquitards across which head drops are large and
natural leakage very slight.
511
 •
• -

Lancashire No.20 Mine

0 Lancashire No.20 Mine
(-7 6.0
2 MD=average of daily discharge Monthly Average of Daily Drainage

•q 5.0 — Monthly MD 2 II Tk
— 5.5
0 ■ 1 \ )11-411
2 4.0 \ 1 II I —
< 5.0
\i■
3.0
cc 4.5 1j--*
Tt 2.0 Total Mined Area 0
cc
0 z 4.0
LU 1.0
z
Annual Longwell Areas Lu 3.5
'681'691'70711'721'731'741'751'761'771'781'791'801'811'82
YEAR 3.0
w> -a—Monthly Total Area of Longwell Panel
Fig. 5. Mine drainage and mined areas, Lancashire No. 20 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ( 1 1 0
mine. 2.5 MJ J AS ONDJ FMAMJ J
1981 1982

Ground-water inflow to the mine is indicated

by the mine-drainage data, which were available as
monthly means of total daily flows to the treat-
ment plant. The monthly variation (Figure 5) is
high; the long-term trend shows a general increase
as the mine grew in size, but also has variations
which cannot be related to the increasing cumula-
tive mined area. Several controls (such as areal
differences in roof-rock geology) are probably
involved, the most evident being precipitation
(data from NOAA, 1968-82) and rate of longwall
mining (from the mine maps).
The average mine drainage was less than 1
million gallons per day (MGD) until 1970, when it
increased dramatically. This major change may be
partly due to mine-location factors, but some pre-
cipitation control is indicated. In 1968 and 1969
the annual precipitation totals were 36.2 and 36.5
inches, compared to an average annual precipita-
tion of 42.3 inches and a 1970 total of 45.1 inches.
Subsequent periods of high and low drainage
broadly coincide with years of above- and below-
average longwall mining (Figure 5); however, the
short-term correspondence is more apparent
(Figure 6). The mine drainage is less when mining
activity is less, suggesting perhaps that active areas
produce more water than abandoned areas.
Wahler and Associates (1979) observed that
short-term variations in mine drainage in the
main-G section of the No. 20 mine responded to
precipitation events. The short-term correspon-
Fig. 6. Mine drainage, precipitation, and longwall mining,
1981-82.
by the indirect relationship between precipitation
and actual recharge. For example, in 1981 and
1982, as in most other years, the ground is snow-
covered, and precipitation is snowfall from late
December to late March. Much of the recharge
reaches the ground-water system during the spring
melt. Conversely, rainfall during the early summer
growing season may be largely ineffective in pro-
viding ground-water recharge. The seasonal
(trimonthly) drainage and precipitation averages
(Figure 7), however, smooth out confusing varia-
tions in the monthly data and show some
systematic correspondences. For example,
individual drainage peaks coincide with precipita-
tion peaks in the springs of 1972, 1973, and 1974,
while the extended mine-drainage recessions of
1975 and 1976 clearly follow low fall-through-
spring precipitation.
If mine drainage were merely dewatering from
storage in lower aquifers, no correspondence with
surface or shallow phenomena should be expected.
Its response to precipitation therefore implies a
possible hydraulic connection between the mine
Lancashire
05
No.20 mine drainage

dence of drainage and precipitation is not readily 2

0
apparent in the 1981-82 monthly data (Figure 6). 2
However, the monthly mine-drainage hydrographs 3
on the long-term plot (Figure 5) commonly display an
annual pattern of spring peak, summer reces-
02
c.r)
1‘ 1
Precipitation
1 I-
sion, and winter recovery typical of ground-water 0
measured at Carrolltown _ -
'721'731'741'75 1'761'771'78 091'80 l'81 1 5
hydrographs for the area. There are, of course, YEAR
anomalous years and the response of mine- Fig. 7. Seasonal total precipitation and average daily mine
drainage, like ground-water levels, is complicated drainage.

512
 -• •
▪•
• ▪

and shallow aquifers. The similarity of the mine- 5.8

Well
drainage hydrograph to hydrographs of shallow N10 20
wells (Figure 8) supports this implication. Wells 5.4
• (70' deep)
N9 and N10, noted here, are located in a major
0 40
valley that overlies the Main G heading (Figure 4).
g;
2
PT1

Inflow in this heading was a considerable problem. Lu 5.0

Since the valley is probably a well-fractured zone MD 60 '5

N9
with resultant relatively high permeabilities, it is a (u)) 4.6 (110') — co
most likely place for the existence of hydraulic
80 ac,
connections. z
4.2
Although some wells over the mine were 2
reported dewatered, many maintained high water A .,„\
100
N35
levels. For example, N18 (Figure 4) was drilled in 3.8 \s/ (205') —
1975 over a 1968 longwall panel (with 265 ft 120
separation between the mine and the well bottom), 1/39,o .00

and now has a water level 10 to 30 ft below

ground. N27, adjacent to a 1979-80 panel, had
1981
//
1982
been deepened to 300 ft because of low water Fig. 8. Correspondence of No. 20 mine drainage and ground-
levels; the current shallow water level of 30 to water levels.

50 ft below ground possibly indicates a subsequent

recovery.
10 N24
Supported headings K11 and G16 (Figure 4)
= 20
were driven intermittently south during the moni- N23a
30
toring period. Wells over and near the headings, -0 40 N36
with separations of 325 to 600 ft above the mine, 3 50 11/81 restart 1-0-K11 driven-0-1 stop 4/82
O
showed no apparent response to mining (Figure 9). ' 20
The water-level behavior over longwall panels, in 30 N27
nearest
40 approach
contrast, responded noticeably to mining. 50 N28
Longwall panel G4-G6 (Figure 4) was driven —I 60
U.1
north between September 1981 and April 1982. > 70
During a period when other local well-water levels 80 G16 driven
CC
were steady or rising, the levels in wells near the 111 90
restart 6/81 stop 4/82
panel declined (Figure 10; Table 1). The declines cr, 100

are greater for the nearer and deeper wells, the 110

maximum drop in water level being about 15 ft at

, 0 el 50 <0 it6 1A \\`)
well N25. The general horizontal limit of the w1 „p.1,
panel's influence on shallow aquifers is about 1981 1982
1400 ft. Except for a possible 5 ft recovery in N25 Fig. 9. Water levels in wells near supported headings.

Table 1. Response of Various Wells to Panel G4-G6

Water-level depths (ft below ground level)

Well Depth Horizontal distance Vertical separation Before panel After panel Change
No. N (ft) from panel (ft) seam to well (ft) 9/81 4/82 8/81-8/82

21 156 5200 470 29 23 (+6) +1

28 180 5100 525 56 56 (+0) 0
37 165 4200 555 111 110 (+1) 0
35 205 1400 460 113 103 (+10) +3
42 125 1300 525 29 29 (0) —5
25 165 1050 480 130 137 (-7) —15
26 90 460 610 30 29 (+1) —10
40 120 450 515 82 90 (-8) —14*
45 185 380 480 35 38 (-3) N/A
+ Rise
— Fall

*After deepening to 150 ft.

513
 N422 wells. This may reflect the dewatering of its source
r - 1300
area.
T., 40
445—••=7: N26
r 380 r 460
G4 G6 PANEL —
sta,led
919/61
(diddled
4/21/82
CONCLUSIONS
e61.erse lerre
Much of the ground-water impact of deep
---..„.....
underground coal mining is dependent on and
'---..7.------.
'-----. N40 explicable by the hydraulic property changes

1
r - 500
resulting from mine-induced stresses. The impact
of a single supported heading is local but intense. It

_
— * .7..,,,. , N 210550 comprises a large pressure drop and rapid
.0
dewatering in the increased-permeability zone in
/s X1 /f\ 6
1981
9‘
°/5 X' I> the seam and immediate roof within the pressure
1982 arch, but a minor effect on main-roof strata above
Fig. 1 0 . Wat er lev el s in wel l s n ea r l o n g wall p an el G4 -G 6 .
this. An uncollapsed network of such headings
forms an underdrain which may locally affect
by 1983, no post-mining recovery in ground-water lower aquifers considerably but whose effects on
level was observed. the shallow system are slight and diffuse.
Panel K7-K9 (Figure 4) was driven south In contrast, the strata deformation and
between May 1982 and July 1983. Wells N23A and hydraulic impact of longwall mining are wide-
B (63 and 105 ft deep), in the outcropping spread and considerable. Lower aquifers connected to
Morgantown Sandstone aquifer about 600 ft above the working areas through fracturing are
the mine, arc directly above the panel. By spring intensely affected and provide much of the inflow to
1983, their water levels had declined about 30 ft the mine. Any hydraulic connections between the
(Figure 11) from previously steady levels. In late mine and shallow aquifers probably lie in
May 1983, the water levels fell rapidly. Well N23A tensile zones above the working areas and at the
was abandoned and well N23B was deepened to leading edge of the subsidence profile, but such
213 ft. The drop of about 100 ft in its water level connection is not a prerequisite to mine-related
reflects both the lower head in deeper aquifers and impacts. Whereas the hydrologic impact of
the effect of mining, while its subsequent drying supported headings is due to the drainage to the
represents both mine effects and natural recession. mine, that of longwall mines is also due to
Replacement well N23C, drilled 200 ft east of the independent aquifer response. Subsidence-induced
panel to a depth of 210 ft—about the same as permeability increases in shallow aquifers cause
N23B—retained a high water level, suggesting that increased throughput and (accentuated by
the effect of the panel is highly localized. storativity increases) lowered water levels in
Shallow wells N24 and N36, both in the recharge zones regardless of mine drainage. Later
Morgantown Sandstone, had not been affected as compression and settlement cause partial reduc-
late as spring 1983 (Figure 11). N36, about 1950 ft tions in permeability and storativity and partial
from the panel, remained unaffected throughout recoveries in water levels.
the summer. The water level in N24, which is The investigation of the Lancashire No. 20
closer at 870 ft, fell to an unusually low value in Mine indicates that: (1) despite the naturally low
June, concurrent with the declines in the N23 vertical permeabilities of the geologic sequence,
some hydraulic connections exist between shallow
0 aquifers and the mine, most probably in valley
■
20
N24

N23_,
870 N36 fractured zones; (2) there is no apparent response
r- 1950
of ground-water levels in shallow aquifers to under-
40 —WI N36
V 'Mow Itr.rrt
60 — N 23 a
0 r=0
N23c
mining by supported headings, although there may
ao - N23b
r• 0 1 dried and
r 200

g 100 — collapsed be a diffuse, systematic lowering of heads; (3) long-

115

3
ao 120 — r distail,51 Itorn came K 7 KS

E:140 — N23b wall mining rapidly lowers shallow-aquifer water

deepened
leo 7 levels, the maximum impact being localized over
6
180 —
5" mr5srderru . / / and near the panels. These results broadly support
the conceptual model of the hydraulic impact of
repOrted al sok, 923
200 —
z Pd

N23b
f K 7 — K9 P AN EL--• § dry mine-induced strata movement, suggested above.
5 /71,/5 0C) ‘,0'11
;s5 :N° However, it is noted that no unambiguous evidence of
1983
water-level recovery was observed, and that
F ig . 11. W at e r l e ve l s in we ll s ne a r l on g w a ll p an e l K7 - K9 . water-level monitoring was necessarily restricted to

514
shallow domestic wells that were neither custom-
drilled nor ideally sited. Much more data are
needed to fully describe the head configurations
and behavior above this mine.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Dr. Richard R. Parizek,
Pennsylvania State University, for supervising the
original thesis research, and the Barnes and Tucker
Company, Barnesboro, Pennsylvania, for their
cooperation. The thesis research was funded by the
Mineral Conservation Section, Penn State
University, and by a fellowship from the Shell
Companies Foundation. Dr. Eugene C. Perry, Jr.,
Northern Illinois University, and Robert A. Bauer,
Illinois State Geological Survey, helpfully criticized
drafts of this paper.
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Cohn J, Booth received his B.Sc. from the University of
East Anglia, England, in 1974, then worked on
numerous hydrogeological investigations for the Anglian Water
Authority, England. lie received his Ph.D. in Geology in 1984
from the Pennsylvania State University, where he was Shell
Doctoral Fellow, He is now an Assistant
Professor, Department of Geology, Northern Illinois
University. His research interests include geological and
hydrological controls of ground-water flow, environmental
hydrogeology, and mine hydrology.
515