Underground coal fire out after decades of smoldering

• Size of reclaimed area is 7.5 acres.
• Coal seam was where settlers used to collect coal for domestic use.
• Settler Stripping fire was located midway between Hysham and Hardin.
• Since 1997, DEQ has put out 36 coal fires.

The state Department of Environmental Quality has extinguished an underground fire burning for decades in a coal seam in southeastern Montana, where it threatened to spark fires on the surface and a large nearby power line.

The Settler's Stripping Coal Fire was located in a coal seam about midway between Hardin and Hysham in Treasure County east of Sarpy Creek Road, said Bill Snoddy, project manager with the DEQ's Abandoned Mine Lands Section.

"On cold mornings you could see smoke coming out of the ground," Snoddy said.

"It's all out, and we're down to the reclamation part of the project," he added.

It was called the Settler's Stripping Coal Fire because a U.S. Geological Survey Report refers to homesteaders using the coal.

The area had pits in an exposed coal seam where settlers hauled away coal in wagons and burned it for domestic use, Snoddy said. There is not an underground coal mine located at the site.

Area residents reported that the fire had been burning for as long as 70 years, he said.

"It's not uncommon at all," Snoddy said of smoldering underground coal fires.

There are 3,200 abandoned coal mines in Montana.

Since 1997, the DEQ's Abandoned Mine Lands Sections has put out 36 fires in areas where coal was mined on state and private land, said Autumn Coleman, section supervisor of the DEQ's Abandoned Mine Lands-Remediation Division. That does not include coal fires on federal lands, she said.

DEQ first responded to the Settler's Stripping Coal Fire at the request of a landowner, Snoddy said. The land is used for cattle grazing.

The Settler's Stripping Coal Fire burned in the northern bank of a deeply incised, unnamed drainage.

The rising steam from the burning below the surface looked kind of like some locations where steam rises in Yellowstone National Park, Snoddy said.

The concern was that the underground smoldering would spark a wildland fire on the surface. The area features ponderosa pine scrub land. The mine is located in area where the Ash Creek fire burned in 2011.

The fire also was located within 150 yards of a 540-kilovolt Colstrip power line, Snoddy said.

"Certainly close enough to be of concern," Snoddy said.

Coal fires also can pose a risk to agricultural lands, he said.

The top of the coal seam was 35 feet deep.

In most cases, underground fires at coal mines or coal seams are dug up and put out and the land is reclaimed, Coleman said.

Oxygen within the mines or openings have oxygen and that helps the fires burn, Snoddy said. Sometimes the fires smolder for years, with the coal serving as fuel. The Settlers Fire was started by a lightning strike in the area of the exposed, 15-foot-thick coal seam, according to the DEQ.

While reclaiming the Settler Stripping fire was a relatively large project for Montana, it was small compared to large coal fires nationally, Coleman said.

Reclamation at the Settler Stripping coal fire work began in December 2014. Work is now in the final stages, which includes planting of grass.

A construction company hired by the DEQ excavated the burning coal and placed it in a quench pit filled with water. A water truck sprayed down the hot coal as it was dug up and placed in the pit.

More than 50,0900 yards of coal, rock and other material was removed. The pit was then capped and insulated from the coal seam.

The project was bid for $367,000, but Snoddy said the cost might be higher because the fire was burning over a larger area than anticipated. The size of the reclamation area was 7.3 acres.

It was cleaned up using federal coal tax funds.

Montana's Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program is funded by a per ton tax assessed at the national level on coal production. The coal mining assessment, set by law, is 28 cents for each ton of surface coal mined and 12 cents a ton for underground tonnage. The abandoned mine reclamation fund was established by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. The money is made available through Congressional appropriation. States must apply for grants to the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining each year.

DEQ uses Montana's yearly grants to reclaim areas disturbed by pre-1977 mining where there is no private party with continuing reclamation responsibility under federal and state laws.

"It's a great program," Snoddy said.

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Karl Puckett at 406-791-1471, 1-800-438-6600 or kpuckett@greatfallstribune.com. Twitter: @GFTrib_KPuckett.