Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Design, Construction, And Monitoring Of The Ground-Water Resources Of A Large Mine-Spoil Area: Star Fire Tract, Eastern Kentucky, David R. Wunsch, James S. Dinger, Page B. Taylor

Report of Investigations--KGS

By the year 2010, the Star Fire mining operation in Knott, Breathitt, and Perry Counties in eastern Kentucky, which uses mountaintop-removal and hollow-fill mining techniques, will have created approximately 5,000 acres of gently rolling terrain that could support alternative land uses. The present research is centered on approximately 1,000 acres of spoil created since mining began in 1981. An aquifer fed by both ground and surface water will be created within the spoil. Spoil-handling techniques such as cast blasting, dragline placement, end dumping by trucks, and surface grading have created porous coarse-rock zones within the spoil through which ground water …