Clarion Area Coal Companies
C&K Coal
Company, of Clarion, was the largest bituminous coal-producing company in
the state of Pennsylvania in 1976. The company's coal production in 1975 was
5,000,000 tons.
During 2001 there
are two active coal surface mines and one active Industrial Minerals surface
mine. These sites are:
TDK Coal Sales,
Inc. With
95.9 coal acres and 126.0 total acres proposed to be affected. This Subchapter F
permit will reclaim 2500 feet of abandoned highwall and 23.0 acres of old spoil.
Sky Haven Coal
Inc. Clarion Township, Clarion County - active on the Lower Kittanning seam with
56.4 coal acres and115 total acres proposed to be affected. This Subchapter F
permit will reclaim 7350 feet of abandoned highwall and 28.0 acres of old spoil.
Beginning in the mid-1700's coal mining in Pennsylvania fueled the Industrial Revolution in the United States. It began to support the Colonial iron industry, then Andrew Carnegie's steel mills in the 1800's and finally electric power plants of more modern times.
Pennsylvania is now the fourth largest coal producer in the United States, following Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky. Over 69.5 million tons of coal were mined in the state in 1995 (about 6.7 percent of U.S. production) in 878 mining operations directly employing 10,165 people.
Since 1870, Pennsylvania's Annual Report on Mining Activities has recorded 51,483 deaths from mining accidents 31,113 deaths in anthracite mines and 20,370 deaths in bituminous mines.
Modern mining methods, safety training and inspections in the mining industry have dramatically improved the safety record on the industry to the point where it is about equal to agriculture and the construction industry.
The environmental legacy of hundreds of years of coal mining in Pennsylvania is over 2,400 miles of Pennsylvania's 54,000 miles of streams polluted by acid mine drainage from old mining operations. Acid mine drainage is the single largest source of water pollution by far in the state.