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But critics and homeowners point to real estate market realities and question conclusions

Saturday, December 14, 2002

By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

So, have you heard the one about how longwall mining under Washington and Greene counties hasn't affected property values?

That's how some coalfield residents, public officials and environmental activists are treating a report released yesterday by the state Department of Environmental Protection -- as the setup for an unfunny joke.

"The report's findings are so amazing that it doesn't pass the laugh test," said Wyona Coleman, the Sierra Club's mining chair and vice chairman of the Tri-State Mining Network. "It's a parting gift by the Schweiker administration to the mining industry and it's laughable."

The state report addresses the effects of deep mining on surface property owners. Although longwall mining causes widespread and immediate land subsidence that has cracked foundations, split walls, broken windows and destroyed some homes and water supplies, according to the report, no significant difference was found in the value of houses undermined by longwall operations between 1993 and 2002 when compared to similar homes that were not undermined.

The $112,000 report, compiled for the DEP by Resources Technology Corp. of State College, is one of a series that seeks to determine the environmental and economic impacts of longwall mining. It evaluated in a general way residential property sales, changes to assessment records and tax revenues in the two counties over the last 10 years.

The report also found:

Properties located on or near longwall mining are more likely to receive assessment reductions, and that while the total reductions to date represent only a small portion of the tax base, the average per acre value is lower in the undermined areas.

Coal companies typically pay more to the landowner for damage caused by longwall operations than the amount of reduction in land assessment.

County tax revenue generated by mining continues to be significant, accounting for about 5 percent of the tax base in Washington County and about 30 percent in Greene County.

Proximity to longwall mining is not as important as a number of factors, such as location of public utilities, schools, parks, recreation facilities and businesses, that affect property value.

"The results of this study are important to not only homeowners, but also local governments concerned about the loss of property value as a result of longwall mining," said DEP Secretary David Hess.

The report said that the property taxes generated from longwall coal mining have more than offset tax revenues lost due to surface property assessment reductions. But it also warned that unless surface value is restored, the tax gains would be temporary because once the coal is mined its taxable value is depleted.

"As the chairman of the county reassessment appeal board in a county that has recently undergone a reassessment, I would disagree with the report's findings," said Farley Toothman, a Greene County commissioner. "Nothing here impacts the value of a property more than where it is in relation to a longwall mine."

Longwall mining uses massive machines to shear coal from the face of an underground seam in panels that can measure 700 to 1,200 feet wide and more than two miles long. The technique results in subsidence of up to three feet in the undermined area and a lesser amount in adjacent areas. It uses fewer employees, mines more coal faster and is, therefore, more profitable than traditional room and pillar mining, which leaves part of the coal seam to support surface land and structures.

The mining technique almost always causes immediate subsidence, which can damage homes and other structures, diminish and pollute water wells, dry up streams, cause roads to heave and buckle, hillsides to slip and farm fields to crack open or hump.

But mining companies are doing their best to mitigate the problems they cause surface property owners, said John Frazier, Greene County's chief assessor.

"When mining companies come in to a home they've damaged and replace the wiring and plumbing and septic to meet current standards, they're often improving the value of the property," Frazier said.

"And I've seen properties in the path of a longwall or already undermined that sell for as much as those in an unmined area. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference."

The DEP study supported Frazier's impression. It found that of the 15,529 property sales it considered, properties in active longwall mining areas sold below value 14.8 percent of the time; properties in already undermined longwall areas sold below value 16.6 percent of the time, and those in areas without mining involvement were sold below value 15.8 percent of the time.

The study omitted properties purchased by the mining companies because they usually pay above market value to expedite land acquisition for mine portals, air shafts, haul roads and coal refuse dumps commonly called "valley fills."

Aimee Chamberlain, president of the 10 Mile Protection Network, said Consol, which has planned expanded longwall mining affecting more than 400 residents of Amwell in south-central Washington County, has been paying above market price for property there, but she doesn't expect that to continue.

"No one will be doing that after the mining comes through," said Chamberlain, whose home and one-acre property would be undermined in 2006.

"I called a real estate agency to come out and put a value on my place and they wouldn't even come out," she said. "That's because my land won't be worth anything after they come underneath it and it will be impossible to sell."