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U.S. Department of the Interior
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) remote sensing program provides OSMRE offices, states, and Tribes with the necessary tools to use remote sensing technologies to support Titles IV (Abandoned Mine Lands) and V (Regulation of Current Mining) of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). As part of this support, the OSM remote sensing program provides high-resolution satellite imagery, aerial photography, and light imaging and detection (lidar) data to conduct analysis of terrain, vegetation, and hydrologic function on active mine sites to ensure reclamation is consistent with the approved mining permit. These data are also used to support inventory, monitoring, and assessment of abandoned mine land features to ensure there is no threat to the environment or to health and human safety.
Underground coal fires can burn for years, and are a serious health and environmental hazard. There are four underground coal fires in northern New Mexico: two in close proximity to Gallup, one north of Farmington, and one south of Raton. The New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land Program (NMAMLP) has contracted several coal fire assessments to assist with the development of mitigation/extinguishment plans for these fires.
State of New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land Program
The State of New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land Program (NMAMLP) is exploring remote sensing techniques to monitor change in land cover and stream morphology at reclamation projects. The Program, as well as its reclamation projects, is funded through grants from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) based on the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) promise high resolution imagery, flexible deployment, and relatively low cost at focused areas.
The OSMRE Alton Field Division (AFD) inspectors have been working with Kamiliah Lograsso, a physical scientist in the OSMRE Mid-Continent Regional (MCR) office Program Technology Support Branch (PTSB), to incorporate geospatial technologies into field inspections. High-resolution imagery is used to evaluate sites before a field inspection. Some examples include confirming that there is no disturbance outside of a permit boundary or locating areas of potential acid mine drainage, among many others.
Mining Coal Basin Mine deposits in Pitkin County, Colorado, began in 1895 and continued until 1908 when production ceased for many years. Mid-continent Resources began producing coking coal at the Coal Basin Mine in 1956 and continued until the mine shut down in 1991. The State of Colorado wanted to test the utility of an unmanned aircraft system to map abandoned mine land features as well as vegetation cover on the site. In 2012, Office of Surface Mining (OSM) inspectors and the U.S.
The State of New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land Program is exploring remote sensing techniques to monitor land cover change over time.
The State of New Mexico Abandoned Mine Lands Program used terrestrial light detection and ranging (lidar) data to support an engineering project in Silver City. The project involved evaluating and safeguarding the Legal Tender Mine upon which the surrounding community established a system of trails. Multiple open stopes (excavations) are scattered across the abandoned mine that is visited by local townspeople and often used by wildlife. Considering the community’s desire to continue to utilize the aboveground area as a hiking and biking area, an engineering contract was es
A digital surface model (DSM) derived from WorldView-1 satellite imagery was used as supporting information in a court case dealing with an approximate original contour (AOC) dispute between OSM and a coal company.
OSM’s Technical Innovation and Professional Services (TIPS) Program provides off-the-shelf scientific and engineering software, customized software training, and technical assistance to its user community, which includes States, Tribes, and other OSM offices. Part of the technical assistance includes providing geospatial data and support to TIPS customers. OSM is one of the smallest Bureaus in the Department of Interior with equally small resources, so TIPS has limited remote sensing personnel and limited resources and a backlog of projects and requests to be completed.&nb
OSM partnered with the USGS to investigate the use of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAV) to assist States with a more efficient and effective means of conducting oversight investigations of both active and abandoned mines.
