West Virginia Mine Drainage Task Force Symposium

CREATING NATIONAL COAL MINING

GEOSPATIAL

DATA STANDARDS

By

The National Coal Mine Geospatial Committee April 10, 2007

Topics to be covered

Geospatial What does it mean?

Why does it matter?

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets?

Mining accidents/disasters • Recent • Future Public’s right to know Recent technology improvements making this vision possible Recent Future

Topics to be covered (2)

Voluntary Participation Introduction to the National Coal Mining Geospatial Committee (NCMGC) Background information about NCMGC FY 2006 Significant Activities Highlights of Geospatial Questionnaire Results Sharing Coal Mining Data

What is Geospatial?

Geospatial “pertain[s] to the geographic location and characteristics of natural or constructed features and boundaries on, above, or below the earth’s surface” … term refers especially to data that are geographic and spatial in nature.

Coal mining geospatial data describes the geographic location and characteristics of the features and boundaries of coal mining operations on or below the earth’s surface.

Geospatial Supports SMCRA Business Processes

REGULATORY ACTIVITY BUSINESS PROCESSES DATA REQUIREMENTS WORK PRODUCT

Permit Review Geologic/ hydrologic evaluation Engineering calculation Records of geology, surface water, ground water samples; location of mining operations Engineering drawings, location of mining operations CHIA Bond Calculation Biological review Locations of environmental resources, cultural resources, mining operations FONSI, Decision Documents

Geospatial Supports SMCRA Business Processes (2)

REGULATORY ACTIVITY

Mine Site Inspection

BUSINESS PROCESSES

Inspection

DATA REQUIREMENTS

Location of mining operations

WORK PRODUCT

Inspection Report Enforcement Action Citizen Complaint Investigation Bond Release Request Investigation Locations of citizen and mining operations Report Bond release evaluation Location of mining operations, records of water quality Bond Release Report

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets?

Mining accidents & disasters Recent • Inez, KY. slurry impoundment failure

Oct. 11, 2000 the nation's largest coal slurry spill occurred at the Martin County Coal Co., Inez, Ky. Far Exxon Valdez spill The 10/17/’01 greater in damage than the 1989 , this event dumped an estimated 306 million gallons of toxic sludge down 100 miles of waterways. MHSA report points to inaccurate mapping as the principal cause.

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets?

Mining accidents & disasters Recent • Martin County slurry impoundment failure • Quecreek

MHSA's Quecreek accident report

,

July 24 th.

, cited faulty maps as a cause for the Quecreek Mine disaster in June 2002, where nine miners were trapped for 4 days. According to the report,

"The

primary cause of the water inundation was the use of an undated and uncertified mine map of the Harrison No.2 mine.“

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets?

Mining accidents & disasters Recent • Martin County slurry impoundment failure • Quecreek • Sago

Local Trimble geodetic survey expert called in to survey spot to drill. Hours later drilling begins. The delay … establishing survey control required creating a link to a rover setting on a known point outside the permit boundary

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets?

Mining accidents & disasters Recent • Martin County slurry impoundment failure • Quecreek • Sago • Aracoma

“Timmy Paul Morgan, who died Apr 9, ‘06 of a heart attack, gave a statement to an attorney representing the widow of Mr. Hatfield. In that statement, Mr. Morgan said rescue team members complained that the map of Aracoma to search for the missing men was inaccurate not exist.” they were given , showing doors and stoppings in places that did

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets?

Mining accidents & disasters Recent • Martin County slurry impoundment failure • Quecreek • Sago • Aracoma • Black Castle fatality

On Feb. 1, ‘06, a dozer operator at Black Castle strip mine in Drawdy, WV was fatally injured due to ignition of natural gas. As the operator with 15 years experience was developing a drill bench, the blade ruptured a 16” low pressure, high-volume gas line. The MHSA's report stated that “Vira told Moss to stay 100 feet away from the gas line. Neither Vira nor Moss knew the exact location of the gas line .”

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets?

Mining accidents & disasters Recent • Martin County • Quecreek • Sago • Aracoma • Black Castle • A Google search for

"mining accident" + map

yields 54,100 hits

Unfortunately the importance of accurate maps wasn’t even on the radar!!!

ceremony

That conclusion is based on …

Figure 12: General Spatially Related Terms 0 35 30 25 Word Count 20 15 10 5 0 SMCRA MINER Act Plans Survey Maps Map Map or plan

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets?

Mining disasters Recent Possible future mining emergencies may extending across state boundaries • A common national data structure and map accuracy standard will ………….

– save time trying to combine dissimilar dataset from adjoining states and – eliminate future poor spatial accuracy problems.

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets (2)?

Could allow MANY additional users of this new national information asset • Federal  DOE, BLM, MSHA, etc.

• State  Emergency response entities • Local  County, municipal.

• Others interested in sharing geospatial data assets.

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets (3)?

Could substantially enhance OSM’s e Permitting initiative.

Public’s right to know • Speed up the permit review process • Allow check for mining below properties changing hands (VA House Bill 1562)  Subsidence • Proximity of impoundments and valley fills • Proximity to abandoned portals • Mining discharges

Technology improvements making this vision possible

Recent ArcGIS software accommodates data with different projections and/or datums in the same desktop session decided on.

 that allows each state to keep data in the projection/datum already ALL mining data can share a core set of tabular attributes of national interest and still have unique tables containing all existing State/Tribe attributes.

Technology improvements making this vision possible (2)

Future ArcGIS 9.2 & Enterprise IT features

NCMG Data

• Database synchronization

State Data

Technology improvements making this vision possible (3)

Future ArcGIS 9.2 & enterprise IT features • Database synchronization • Versioned data replication

In 9.2 for the 1 st time a single logical database can be spread over several network nodes … allows a version of a geodatabase to be replicated to another geodatabase.

Technology improvements making this vision possible (4)

Future ArcGIS 9.2 enterprise features • Database synchronization • Versioned data replication • Nonversioned editing

At ArcGIS 9.2, multiuser editing is possible for the first time without versioning.

Technology improvements making this vision possible (5)

Future ArcGIS 9.2 enterprise features • Database synchronization • Versioned data replication • Nonversioned editing • Web-based services

In version 9.2 ArcGIS Server can provide “services” integrating geodata, globe (3-D), map (2-D), geoprocessing and locator functions.

NCMGC Startup History



OSM’s TIPS Program roots are

Previous OSM Director, Jeff Jarrett, and the Technical Innovation & Professional Services (TIPS) Steering Committee formed the NCMGC May 3-5, 2005 at the St. Louis committee meeting.

Setting members selected late FY 2005.

Supported by TIPS and operates as a partnership between OSM and the states.

Members represent the geospatial technology interests of the states, tribes, and OSM offices.

Representation includes the Interstate Mining Compact Commission (IMCC), National Association of Abandoned Mine Lands Programs (NAAMLP), and the Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB).

Purpose of NCMGC

Promote development of geospatial technology to support SMCRA National forum to identify geospatial needs of SMCRA organizations Discover best practices Help implement change Help migration to enterprise GIS Improve business processes

NCMGC Members

Member

Bill Card Larry Evans Rick Koehler Len Meier Doug Mullins Alan Wilhelm

State

TN WV NM IL VA CO

* OSM Region States Mining Affiliation

N/A IMCC WIEB N/A NAAMLP N/A

Expertise Title IV &/or V

V IV (support) /V IV/V IV IV/V Vacant DC N/A N/A * Appalachian Region = Red, MCR = Green, WR = blue, HQ= brown

NCMGC’s Charter

Deliberative, advisory body Subject matter experts Represent SMCRA community Identify geospatial technology issues Facilitate sharing of geospatial technology Technical support personnel  used to create technical support groups (TSGs) Supported by TIPS Report to Chief, TMD WR

NCMGC’s Technical Support Groups (TSGs)

Subject matter experts Extension of committee Advise committee on technical matters Short term tasking Cooperation among TSG members promotes sharing of technology

NCMGC Accomplishments FY 06

Held first meeting to plan work activities Determined geospatial technology development status of all SMCRA organizations via questionnaire Identified the Geospatial Data Steward (GDS) within each SMCRA organization Held the first National Meeting of SMCRA Geospatial Data Stewards Identified geospatial technology development needs of SMCRA organizations for FY 2007

NCMGC Accomplishments FY 06 (2)

Established a Standards Task Group from the Geospatial Data Stewards (GDSs) that volunteered to help develop national standards Obtained SDE and/or Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) training for a few qualified GDSs to facilitate their moving data to an enterprise environment.

Successfully completed a "proof of concept" project demonstrating exchange of selected coal mining spatial datasets between two networked servers inside OSM's Wide Area Network (WAN)

Highlights of Questionnaire Results

42 responses from SMCRA organizations 38 GSDs identified 38 SMCRA organizations use GIS 13 do not use MS SQL Server or Oracle 28 do not use ArcSDE 29 do not share spatial data by Internet 33 do not have a written GIS implementation plan

Highlights of Questionnaire Results (2)

Category Needs Accomplishments Goals Help from NCMGC Contribute/share Comments 1 Rank 2 3

Infrastructure (12) Using Data (14) Using Data (12) No Response (13) None (17) None (27) Personnel (6) Getting Data (12) Getting Data (10) Tech. Assist. (11) Tech. Assist. (10) Using Data (9) Training (5) None (6) None (8) Funding (9) Data (8) Tech. Assist. (5)

Geospatial Data Stewards

Category

Federal

Geospatial Data Steward Alternate Geospatial Data Steward No Geospatial Data Steward

8 1 1 State 27 3 3 Tribal 3 1 0

Coal Mining Spatial Data Standards ASTM Task Group

Held the first meeting at ASTM International headquarters September 20-21, 2006 Will hold 3 meetings in FY 07 to develop voluntary spatial data standards for the first 2 coal mining spatial data sets of national interest: surface coal mining boundaries and underground coal mining boundaries Standards for additional data sets to be determined later Press release on group and tasks in late 2006

Initial (’07) Coal Mining Datasets

Datasets common to SMCRA workers Surface mining boundaries Underground mining boundaries Quick index to location of other coal mining data Geographic locator of potential impacts

Surface Mining Boundaries

Surface mining boundaries are polygons representing the boundary of the permitted area of a surface coal mining operation as described on the most recent mining operations map contained in a coal mining permit approved by the regulatory authority . Each approved permit has a single record in a spatial database of surface mining boundaries. Each record in the spatial database identifies the of the surface coal mining operation and contains one or more polygons identifying the areas for conducting surface coal mining operations approved by the regulatory authority .

permit number

Surface Mining Boundary

Underground Mining Boundary

Underground mining boundaries are polygons representing the boundary of the underground mine workings of an underground coal mining operation as described on the best available mine workings maps .

Each mine has a single record in a spatial database of underground mining extents. Each record in the spatial database identifies the underground coal mining operation and contains one or more polygons identifying the areas of underground mine workings.

Underground Mining Boundary

Coal Mining Data is a National Information Asset

Executive Order 12906

Public access to geospatial data

Sec. 3(c) OMB Circular No. A-16

Themes of national significance

Appendix E

Applies to all agencies using spatial data Applies to all spatial activities funded with federal funds

Sec 6.

Sec 2.b.(1) and Sec 5.

Agency responsibilities and reporting requirements

Sec 8.a.

Spatial data are subject to Exhibit 300

Sec 8.b.

Applicable Requirements

Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) Executive Order 12906, Coordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and Access: The National Spatial Data Infrastructure OMB Circular No. A-16, Coordination of Geographic Information and Related Spatial Data Activities OMB Circular No. A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996, formerly the Information Technology Management Reform Act E-Government Act of 2002, Section 216, Common Protocols for Geographic Information Systems Paperwork Reduction Act (P.L. 104-13) Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) President’s Management Agenda Expanded e-Government Government reuse of data Sharing information among government agencies Automate internal processes to reduce cost

NCMGC Plans FY 07

Hold a meeting to review and implement recommendations from the first National Meeting of SMCRA Geospatial Data Stewards Provide briefings to OSM management and SMCRA organizations on the accomplishments and progress of the NCMGC in its activities Send additional qualified personnel to attend vendor software training in managing coal mining geospatial data in an enterprise environment Establish a planning sub-committee to begin preparations for an FY 08 National Meeting of SMCRA Geospatial Data Stewards with a theme of “Integrating GIS into SMCRA Business Processes” Continue development work on a geospatial infrastructure to exchange selected coal mining spatial datasets among networked servers outside OSM's WAN Recruit state regulatory programs to participate in this geospatial infrastructure Conduct an outreach program by giving presentations about NCMGC activities at national meetings of SMCRA organizations; Explore participation with MSHA

Outcomes of the Geospatial Initiative

SAVE

Accurate bond release determinations

LIVES!

Fewer cases of CO Reduced offsite impacts Verifiable annual reports for both states and OSM 2 gas buildup in homes