BREATHITT COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Stephanie Stratton explains that she lost her Pike County home in 2010 because of the nearby coal mine.
She says, "At that point, there was one of two things, either the dam had broke loose or the mine had blown out, and after further research, we realized that this came from an abandoned mine portal."
Now, as the president of Energy Capital, Stratton is working with legislators and around 30 leading renewable companies to clean up abandoned coal mines across the state. It's estimated that each coal mine has around 500 billion gallons of water. Most are still being held together by aging timber. New technology is now allowing companies to find these abandoned mines and test ground and water for any contaminants left behind.
One partner, president of ThermOxiCo, C.J. Smith, explains the new aerial technology, "I mean, just on the flooding aspect, or the road aspect, you're gonna be able to fly with this aerial plane to detect every old road, every tree, it'll show you where the first slip is going to happen, and where the water is draining to specifically."
New tech will also allow ground and water chemicals to be tested and removed. The last century has left thousands of mines abandoned around the Bluegrass. After last summer’s floods in eastern Kentucky, Stratton says she doesn't want to see natural disasters contribute to additional harm these mines can cause. She shares that she's seen the structural and bodily damages communities face having had family members pass from cancer and black lung — she wanted to take action.
She says, "For about 15 years now, I’ve privately been making calls out to renewable energy experts, technology developers. The fact that we're now linked with enough federal-level people I feel that it's time to start bringing this forward because we have prepared a comprehensive plan."
In the long-term, Stratton hopes this cleanup project will bring more jobs to coal mining communities across the state, and will eventually promote growth in these local economies and prevent future incidents that she says generally happen around summertime.
She shares, "thirty counties that we track, that is the core of the coal fields. We're dealing with in the tri-state and it's time, before this happens again this year, that everyone knows that there is a solution."
This company is working to renew not only the land, but the communities where they sit.
