In the 1980s and early 1990s, part of the Shiloh area of southern Pope County area was transformed through the Shiloh Reclamation Project. Abandoned and flooded surface coal mines became valuable park and water recreational resources.
According to Wayne Van Buren, “We reclaimed the strip pits under our Abandoned Mined Lands Program. We won a national award for eliminating a dangerous highwall and backfilling extremely dangerous deep waters.”
In surface mining, the highwall is the vertical surface where the mining work was being done. At the highwall, coal and overburden—rock and soil over the mineral being mined—are exposed.
The strip mines in the Shiloh area were flooded when Lake Dardanelle was initially filled in the 1960s.
Wayne said, “We saved the City of Russellville a lot of money, too. Leveling the spoil piles allowed for the rapid construction of the ball fields.”
The work was recognized with a 1993 National Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation award:
The Shiloh Reclamation Project, in Russellville, Arkansas, was a joint effort by the Corps of Engineers, the City of Russellville, the Russellville Rotary Club, and the AML Fund. The project eliminated abandoned mine hazards at site that was partially flooded by the Arkansas River and frequently used as a recreation site by local residents. Major regrading and landscaping of the area with more than 2,600 trees and shrubs resulted in a high quality, hazard-free recreation center for local residents.
The AML Fund comes from the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program which uses fees paid by present-day coal mining companies to reclaim coal mines abandoned before 1977. “Abandoned mines pose risks to people and the environment. They can contaminate groundwater, emit toxic waste, and cause injury when unsteady infrastructures collapse.”
Two Russellville city parks, Shiloh Park and Pleasant View Park, provide recreational and other opportunities in the Shiloh area on and next to lands reclaimed from the abandoned surface coal mines.
Notes:
- I don’t know if the image I used is from Shiloh. The source image is from Conservation Practices for the Reclamation of Surface Mines in Arkansas, a 1993 paper from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), Surface Mining and Reclamation Division
- Wayne Van Buren, was Geologist Supervisor at the ADEQ Russellville Field Office.