For one historic New Mexico mining town, the aesthetics of centuries-old coal waste is essential to its economy – bringing crucial tourism and film dollars to an area of almost 300 people.
But, these piles of toxic coal tailings are starting to erode from torrential rainwaters spurred by climate change, triggering massive damage in their wake.
In Madrid, New Mexico, the legacy left behind from the coal industry can be seen from a satellite, with piles of stark black and red mining waste lining its eastern hillsides.
That waste is known as coal “gob” and it is hard to miss.
It essentially looks like coal, but it is chock-full of iron, manganese and aluminum residues and contains about four times as much toxic mercury and sulfur than typical coal.
It is waste like this that falls under the responsibility of the Abandoned Mine Lands Program (AML), which addresses public safety issues and hazardous materials left behind from legacy mines in New Mexico.
Project Manager Leeland Murray pointed out some coal gob near the Mine Shaft Tavern & Cantina – a popular tourism spot that doubled as the Red Pony saloon in Netflix’s critically acclaimed “Longmire” television series.
“There’s extensive mine workings underneath all of these hillsides,” Murray said, pointing behind the tavern.
Usually, gob is reclaimed by burying it underground and planting vegetation over it. But, in Madrid, residents do not want to see it disappear.
“It would probably be more beneficial to the community from an environmental standpoint to take the gob and bury it in some depository,” said Mike Tompson, AML program manager. “But, it would definitely take away from what this community is about. And the tourists would stop coming because it would lose its character.”
There is also a flipside.
When it rains, water trickles down the nearby slopes and becomes more concentrated as it carves the town’s most prominent coal gob piles. This has led to significant flooding in old mining homes, roads and ditches, leaving behind substantial damage.
“It’s unstable the more it’s rained on and the wetter it gets,” said Murray.
Back in 2013, contractors installed beams in the ground and concrete barriers to serve as makeshift diversion channels for the floodwaters. In addition, eroded driveways and land the water crosses were resurfaced to carry stormwater downhill.
So-called “Zuni” drop bowls that combine rock formations, water and time to move stormwater safely downhill were also hand-built on Madrid’s slopes. These look like stone steps with several plunge pools to control flooding and filter out sediment.
Now, with the help of money funneling in from the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Murray has been spearheading a project to take a more permanent approach to Madrid’s stormwater and erosion woes.
Working with over 70 landowners, the Abandoned Mine Land Project is close to breaking ground on a drainage system that would funnel rain off the gob-laden slopes and into an arroyo that snakes through the town’s center.
The endeavor is the state’s most expensive yet, according to the program, totalling $8 million from start to finish. It’s also taken an astronomical amount of time to get off the ground thanks to the town’s historical designation.
The flooding itself is just one of the residents’ worries.
There are 10 private wells that supply potable water to the area. But long-time residents like Jethro Bowden said the coal-gob slurry washed down from the hilltops has contaminated the water supply.
“No one actually drinks it,” Bowden said. “They shower in it. They wash their dishes in it. They garden with it. They just get bottled water, drinking water.”
Testing shows the area’s stormwater has high levels of pollution from dissolved aluminum and manganese sediment. Though, according to a 2019 report, past efforts have been making a positive impact on the water quality.
Nationally, there are over 61,000 problem areas where legacy coal mining waste is polluting the environment and posing safety risks to the public.
In fact, Congress has decided that the problem needs a large cash infusion to properly clean up centuries of waste that coal mining companies left carelessly behind.
Over the next 15 years, nearly $11.3 billion will go to address all known coal mine waste, shafts and equipment in 22 states and the Navajo Nation. The federal agency in charge of coal regulation, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) said this is enough to clean up every last bit of it.
“We've got to make sure that we're as efficient as possible in terms of the process of getting these projects up and running,” said Sharon Buccino, the principal deputy director of OSMRE under the Biden administration.
While the federal funding has started to flow, the question of a timeline is blurry because of a complicated legal process involving environmental assessments. But Buccino said she is confident it can get done quickly as far as these things go.
“I would expect, certainly, within the next 25 years,” Buccino said. “I fully expect OSMRE to deliver on that.”
AML Program Manager Mike Tompson said he believes that is possible in New Mexico, but “not so much” in other states.
“They have long-term water treatment issues,” he said. “Because there are underground workings, we never know where a subsidence hole is going to give way and open up on the surface. That could happen after the money is long gone.”
The Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department estimates there are 34 other legacy coal mine problem areas in New Mexico.
