West Virginia Mine Drainage Task Force Symposium CREATING

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

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

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 greater in damage than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, this event dumped an estimated 306 million gallons of toxic sludge down 100 miles of waterways. The 10/17/’ 01 MHSA report points to inaccurate mapping as the principal cause.

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets? Mining accidents & disasters MHSA's Quecreek accident report, July 24 th. , cited faulty maps as a cause for the Recent • Martin County slurry Quecreek Mine disaster in June impoundment failure 2002, where nine miners were trapped for 4 days. According to • Quecreek 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 Local Trimble geodetic survey expert called in to survey spot to • Martin County slurry drill. Hours later drilling begins. impoundment failure The delay … establishing survey • Quecreek control required creating a link to • Sago a rover setting on a known point outside the permit boundary Recent

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets? Mining accidents & disasters “Timmy Paul Morgan, who died Apr 9, ‘ 06 of a heart attack, gave Recent a statement to an attorney • Martin County slurry representing the widow of Mr. impoundment failure. Hatfield. In that statement, Mr. • Quecreek Morgan said rescue team members complained that the • Sago map of Aracoma they were given • Aracoma to search for the missing men was inaccurate, showing doors and stoppings in places that did not exist. ”

Why create unified national coal mining geospatial datasets? Mining accidents & disasters On Feb. 1, ‘ 06, a dozer operator at Black Castle strip mine in Drawdy, WV was fatally injured due to Recent ignition of natural gas. As the • Martin County slurry operator with 15 years experience impoundment failurewas developing a drill bench, the blade ruptured a 16” low-pressure, • Quecreek high-volume gas line. The MHSA's • Sago report stated that “Vira told Moss • Aracoma to stay 100 feet away from the gas • Black Castle line. Neither Vira nor Moss knew fatality 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 Miner’s Act signing radar!!! ceremony

That conclusion is based on … 0

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 Arc. GIS software accommodates data with different projections and/or datums in the same desktop session that allows each state to keep data in the projection/datum already decided on. 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 Arc. GIS 9. 2 & Enterprise IT features • Database synchronization NCMG Data State Data

Technology improvements making this vision possible (3) Future Arc. GIS 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 Arc. GIS 9. 2 enterprise features • Database synchronization • Versioned data replication • Nonversioned editing At Arc. GIS 9. 2, multiuser editing is possible for the first time without versioning.

Technology improvements making this vision possible (5) Future Arc. GIS 9. 2 enterprise features • Database synchronization • Versioned data replication • Nonversioned editing • Web-based services In version 9. 2 Arc. GIS Server can provide “services” integrating geodata, globe (3 -D), map (2 D), geoprocessing and locator functions.

NCMGC Startup History roots are OSM’s TIPS Program 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 State *OSM Region States Mining Affiliation Expertise Title IV &/or V Bill Card TN N/A V Larry Evans Rick Koehler Len Meier WV NM IL IMCC WIEB N/A IV(support)/V IV Doug Mullins Alan Wilhelm VA CO NAAMLP N/A IV/V Vacant DC 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 Arc. SDE 29 do not share spatial data by Internet 33 do not have a written GIS implementation plan

Highlights of Questionnaire Results (2) Rank Category 1 2 3 Infrastructure (12) Personnel (6) Training (5) Accomplishments Using Data (14) Getting Data (12) None (6) Goals Using Data (12) Getting Data (10) None (8) No Response (13) Tech. Assist. (11) Funding (9) Contribute/share None (17) Tech. Assist. (10) Data (8) Comments None (27) Using Data (9) Tech. Assist. (5) Needs Help from NCMGC

Geospatial Data Stewards Category Geospatial Data Steward Alternate Geospatial Data Steward No Geospatial Data Steward Federal 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 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 permit number 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.

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 Sec 2. b. (1) and Appendix E Applies to all agencies using spatial data Sec 5. Applies to all spatial activities funded with federal funds Sec 6. 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 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 LIVES! Improved regulation of active coal mines Reduced random oversight inspections Accurate bond release determinations Better reclamation of abandoned mines Improved subsidence investigations Slower growth of AML Inventory Fewer cases of CO 2 gas buildup in homes Reduced offsite impacts Verifiable annual reports for both states and OSM