Saturday, July 23, 2011

Coal trip Day 6 - 7/22/11

Today we got to go underground in a working coal mine in Wayne County. This may have been the highlight of the trip for me. To see how these men worked the high coal was amazing. The safety measures that arr in place are very different from when I was a child and went to work with my dad. While the mine is still a dangerous place to work these risks can be minimized by following correct safety proceedures. This was seen by their safety incentive program in which they had been working over 3 months without a reportable injury. We saw firsr hand how easy it could be to injure youself when a piece of the roof nearly fell on us. We then learned to look up as you walked.
This entire week was very eye opening to me. When my wife asked me about the trip I talked for over an hour about what we saw. I guess is was excited.
Next week Rick Sharpe, Bonnie Connor and myself are taking some students to Greenbank to be trained to look for pulsars. I am going to take my lab quest and take water samples. I am planning on making a data table with the raw data and the have my students use the charts to determine the water quality as an introduction to the lab. I am going to use this in the first week of school to begin having them using excel making spreadsheets.
This entire experience was the best staff development/traimg I have every had. There are many pieces of it that i will be using in the classroom to help my students.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Coal trip day 5 - 7/21/11

Today at the Coal Mac surface mine. At this mine i was amazed at the quality of the reclaimation and the short amount of time it took for the habitat to regrow. While the mountains looked a little different then the original contour, it did not really look bad. I also learned what valley fill really means and whole ot changes the original contour of the land it doesn't seem to make things worse. Additionally, it seems that the extra drainage supplied will help the run off.

We also visited the cleaning plant at Mt. Laurel. This facility was interesting because of how well they recovered the coal and how small a coal particle they recovered. Also this was interesting because my Dad work at a tipple and this plant looked a whole lot different. This facility was very modern and relatively clean.

At dinner we set with Kent and Cathy. Kent was the general manager for a coal operation. He told us the Mt. Laurel plant was two years old. It looked like it. He did express some frustation with the permit process. He has worked in mines in several states.

Overall this was a very good day. I was able to learn more about surface mining. While the land will look worse at the beginning of the mining process, it looks better or as good as orginally. I would like to see some additional industries brought in to build economic diversity. Like wine groves or apple orchard on the mine sites.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Coal trip day 4 - Matewan

The discussion of the history of the battle of Matewan was interesting. Looking at the levels of information to figure out what actually happened. Attached is a picture of the courthouse at Welch where Sid Hatfield was shot.


Coal trip day 4 7/20/11 exhibition coal mine

The most interesting thing i learned from the mine tour was that roof bolts had to be ancored in 1 foot of solid rock. I was amazed when Marvin said how far he had drilled in the bolts.
The scool house was interesting with the rules.
Below is a picture of a miners helmet. I picked this one because it is similar to the one my dad wore when he was a miner.


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Coal Trip day 3 - 7/19/11

First of all this day is an important day fortc   me, my so Joe turned 20 today. So mentally i was remembering what I was doing twenty years ago.  But today we visited Joe Knob, Nuttalbirg and the New River Gorge visitors center.
At Joe Knob, what I noticed most of all was the lack of diversity. In the reclaimed area it looked like a lion should come out at any time. But rather it was an area where we so no signs of animal life. It was interesting to see the gob being remined. Hopefully, when they are finished and start reclaiming this area they will put in some good top soil and let nature do the reclaiming and not man. In the sights we have seen areas that man have gotten involved are a mess and areas left for nature are thriving and diverse.
At Nuttalburg we were able to test a small mountain stream coming out of the mointain. It had rained for most of the morning, so the stream was cloudy and had a TDS of  200. Overall we found the stream to be at the high end of average quality at 65. We we able to see a few of the ruins of the coal camp but not all of it because of construction.
At the visitor center I walked to the lower overlook area. Some 200 feet lower than the rim. I was joined by several other teachers and we took several pictures including some panaramic ones including the one below. Looking forward to the long day tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Joe!


Monday, July 18, 2011

Coal trip day 2 - Douglas Falls

We took data below the falls and found the quality to be on the low end of moderate. We found the pH to be 4.1 and the oxygen sation to be 50%.  This area was also a dead stream. The largest problem is the pyrite reacting to make the stream acidic.

Below is a picture of the falls


Coal trip day 2 - coketon coke ovens

We were able to stop and visit the coke ovens at Coketon and take pictures. We learned that there were hundreds of coke ovens at this sight one each side of an abandoned railroad. The coke operation was running 24-7, to change the coal into coke. The coke is basically pure carbon. The coke was shipped to Pittsburgh to be used to make steel.