Economic Impact Study of Coal Production Decline in NEPA
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Appalachian Regional Commission Study: Economic Impacts and Effects of Coal Mining in Northeastern Pennsylvania Executive Summary A partnership among Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Johnson College, Keystone College, King’s College, Marywood University, Misericordia University, Penn State Scranton, Penn State Wilkes-Barre, The Wright Center, University of Scranton and Wilkes University Page 1 Page 2 Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Region and Overview ............................................................................................................................... 4 History of Coal Mining in the Study Area ................................................................................................ 7 Anthracite Mining Statistics ..................................................................................................................... 8 Economic Impact Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 12 Reliance on Coal-Industry Ecosystem .................................................................................................... 18 Community Impacts of Blight ................................................................................................................ 19 Railroad Industry Impact ........................................................................................................................ 23 Health Impacts and Loss of Human Capital ........................................................................................... 25 Environmental Impacts .......................................................................................................................... 26 Research Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 33 Economic Modeling Methodology .......................................................................................................... 33 Historical, Environmental, and Ancillary Data ........................................................................................ 35 This study was supported by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission in order to evaluate the impact of the loss of coal production in northeastern Pennsylvania. Research Team The Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development Teri Ooms, Executive Director Andrew Chew, Senior Research & Policy Analyst Christopher Ritter, Research Analyst Kara McGrane, Research Assistant Jill Avery-Stoss, Data, Research & Intern Coordinator William Gorman, Research Intern Shauna Leahy, Research Intern Jon Lanzaro-Fisher, Research Intern Page 3 Executive Summary Northeastern Pennsylvania is commonly referred to as the “Coal Region;” it has the world’s largest reserves of anthracite coal. The landscape is covered with mines, culm banks, and abandoned or dilapidated patch towns. The regional identity is forever intertwined with coal and its subsequent demise. Coal helped shape transportation routes and networks throughout northeastern Pennsylvania, connecting it to New York, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. It helped shape labor movements locally and nationally, which resulted in the United Mine Workers of America enacting legislation that ended child labor in the mines. Region and Overview Pennsylvania’s coal industry produces two types of coal – bituminous coal in west and northeast, used produce electric power, and anthracite coal in the northeast, used by the iron and steel industry. Anthracite coal is exposed to a larger audience – the international export market. Referred to commonly as the “Coal Region,” Northeastern Pennsylvania is home to mines in which one can find anthracite coal taking up 484 square miles. Though this number represents only 6.1 percent of the study region’s total square miles, it has created a huge and lasting impact since the first discovery of coal in Luzerne County in 1775. In fact, the area still produces 3,072,129 tons of coal1 annually and 14,596,698 tons of minerals (2017). The Commonwealth’s anthracite industry was vital to the region and to larger metropolitan areas. Following the War of 1812, for instance, the British restricted coal exports to the U.S. so New York relied on NEPA for deliveries via rail and canal. The 13-county region consists of only anthracite fields save some low-volatile bituminous coal from the North Central fields in Bradford County, shown below. Sullivan and Wyoming Counties are home to semi-anthracite coal from the Western Northern Anthracite field, and parts of Susquehanna, Wayne, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Schuylkill, and Carbon counties are home to anthracite coal in the Northern, Eastern Middle, and Southern Anthracite Fields. It is estimated that Pennsylvania had 22.8 billion tons of anthracite in its original reserves. 1 66,453 tons from anthracite underground mines and 3,005,676 tons from surface mining Page 4 Distribution of Pennsylvania Coals - Map from PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Detail on 13 county region from the map above. Page 5 There are two types of coal mining prevalent in the 13-county region – underground and surface mining. The use of the two methods depend on the depth of a given coal seam. Surface mining is more predominant in the anthracite regions, especially with deep mining having ended in the mid-20th century. In 2013, only Columbia and Schuylkill Counties used underground mining operations, and only Schuylkill County did so by 2017. Underground mining involves opening shafts into the earth in order to reach coal seams that are too deep to reach using surface mining methods. There are two standard underground mining methods – room-and-pillar and longwall mining. Surface mining is an option when coal seams are closer to the surface of the earth. There are two methods of this type of mining – strip mining and highwall mining. In the former, rock and soil is first removed to access coal. The area is filled once the coal has been mined. Highwall mining involves the removal of coal via excavators or by an auger while leaving the surrounding rock intact. Pennsylvania’s coal mining industry began in the mid -1700s and grew across the nation. It was used to power the steel and industrial age. As Pennsylvania’s coal industry thrived, homes, businesses and towns developed around the mines. These towns are commonly referred to as coal towns, or more specifically, patch towns (if the name was associated with a particular mine). Many were owned by the coal companies and were built out of necessity near mines to house miners and their families. In the early 1900s, around one-third of anthracite miners lived in company-owned towns. Coal miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia went on strike in 1897. The strike brought about the abolition of company stores.2 Concrete City (Nanticoke, Luzerne County), an example of industrial housing, was built by the D L & W Railroad’s Coal division. It was opened in 1913 to house workers; after 1921 it was controlled by the Glen Alden Company and then abandoned in 1924.3 Deep mining in the Wyoming Valley ended following the Knox Mine Disaster in 1959. Many towns, such as Lausanne in Carbon County, Barclay in Bradford County, and Eckley in Luzerne County, have been abandoned as a result of loss of the coal industry. Towns such as Centralia in Columbia County were abandoned due to environmental concerns caused by mining. Some met both fates – Byrnesville, in Columbia County, saw a decrease in population following the fall of coal in the 1930s and then became victim to the nearby Centralia fire. Though not abandoned, some patch towns experienced increasing vacancy rates. The following are former coal towns with populations greater than 2,000 people, along with their high vacancy rates: Shenandoah, 28.9 percent; Mahanoy city, 26.3 percent; Ashland, 22.4 percent; Lansford, 20.8 percent; Plymouth, 18 percent; McAdoo, 17.2 percent; Coaldale, 16.7 percent; and Frackville, 16.2 percent.4 There are 840 abandoned mine lands (AML) listed by the Commonwealth’s Department of Environmental Protection. The state has led the nation with mining laws and regulations to ensure that reclamation occurs after mining is finished. The Department’s AML Economic Revitalization Pilot Project benefitted various locations in the 13-county region (Carbon, Schuylkill, Luzerne, and Lackawanna 5 Counties), with four of the six projects taking place in or in part of Schuylkill County. 2 Lumpkins, Charles. “Timeline of Labor History in Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania Labor History Society. Available at: <https://palaborhistorysociety.org/timeline-of-labor-history-in-pennsylvania/>. 3 Ibid. 4 Bohman, Dave. 2012. Coal Region Ghost Towns. 10 August. WNEP. Available at: <https://wnep.com/2011/08/10/coal-region-ghost-towns/>. 5OSMRE. 2017. Report on Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Economic Development Pilot Program (AML Pilot Program) for FY 2016-FY 2017. OSMRE. Available at: Page 6 The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection releases a yearly report on bituminous underground mining activities in Pennsylvania, which are regulated by the DEP under the Bituminous Mine Subsidence and Land Conservation Act of 1966. The law and its subsequent report covers only areas with bituminous coal. Unfortunately, there is no such report for anthracite