# Mining Coal From Rivers



## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

In the latest issue of The Keystone, a PRR Historical & Technical Society publication, is a lengthy article on mining coal from rivers and streams in Pennsylvania. At one time Collieries emptied everything into the nearby rivers and streams. This included the waste water from washing the mined coal. Apparently enough coal particles, mostly anthracite was deposited into the rivers and streams to make it profitable to recover. Something to the tune o 900,000,000 tons of coal "waste" lay in rivers and streams, killing fish and plant life. 

Around the turn of the twentieth century, these coal dredging operations started up. The PRR played a major role in transporting the retrieved coal. By the 1970s, these operations started shutting down because of new rules and environmental laws passed in Pennsylvania.

There is much more to this story and I will try to post excerpts as I read the article.


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## Don F (Dec 5, 2015)

Thanks for sharing; this is interesting. Being from PA, I had never heard about this.


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

Getting back to the subject. The following is an excerpt from The Keystone.

* From 1825-1900 a large portion of coal mined was lost in the waste of separating anthracite from the rock it was entwined with. This matter is known as "culm", which was the waste product of separating the coal from rock. 

The "dry" process involved breaking up run-of-mine coal with toothed roller crushers and then having breaker boys or men manually pick out and discard slate and rock as conveyer belts moved these chunks past their work stations. Much of what was discarded contained at least some coal, but as the belts were continuously moving, there was little time to examine each fragment carefully. This led to questionable pieces being dumped in the banks along with the rock, slate, and unmarketable coal. 

The "wet" process made use of the fact that anthracite coal had a lower specific gravity than rock or slate. Broken up in the standard fashion, the rock, slate, and coal were conveyed to a fluid-filled rotating chamber ( cone, hydrator etc. ) where the characteristics of the suspending liquid were adjusted such that coal would float and would be spun out of the top of the chamber while rock and slate sank and were discarded. 

1890. These old culm banks, some containing as much as 50% coal, began to be removed and reprocessed in purpose built structures called "washers". Many of these old banks were enormous and washers stayed open for decades, affording a continuing source of business for the railroads. One such watery at Trout Run near Shamokin produced as much as 500,000 tons of coal per year.

Deep-mined anthracite was also processed by the much superior wet method, first introduced in the 1870s and in general use by the turn of the century. Although the amount of coal lost in the banks decreased dramatically, that in the waste water became a major problem. Water that was discarded from the breakers was called "breaker water". This effluent was black and contained a large amount of fine sized coal, which for the most part of the four decades or so bracketing the turn of the century was allowed to discharge into nearby streams. Fine sized coal accumulated in stream beds in enormous amounts, even causing back-flooding in some places and spilling over river banks, spending immense sheets of silt coal over adjoining meadowlands. *


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## Don F (Dec 5, 2015)

Madman, thanks for the update. This is fascinating information.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Yeah, that is interesting. I know mankind made a mess of streams and rivers throughout the world. It's good to know that some efforts were made even back then to clean things up a bit and make use of the messes.


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

Fire21 said:


> Yeah, that is interesting. I know mankind made a mess of streams and rivers throughout the world. It's good to know that some efforts were made even back then to clean things up a bit and make use of the messes.


I wonder, was the cleaning of the streams and rivers the reason the silt coal was dredged or was it simply that people saw money. 

In my next installment I will list the companies who did the dredging.


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## Don F (Dec 5, 2015)

Madman said:


> I wonder, was the cleaning of the streams and rivers the reason the silt coal was dredged or was it simply that people saw money.
> 
> In my next installment I will list the companies who did the dredging.


I'm going with the $ motivation.


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## Homeless by Choice (Apr 15, 2016)

*I'm going with the $ motivation. * X2
LeRoy


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## kilowatt62 (Aug 18, 2019)

To me, this is a very interesting thread, me being a South Western PA native. Although my family roots here go back to 1875-ish, quite a few of which worked in the coal industry, I sheepishly admit that ive only recently (20yrs ago) learned the differences between bituminous and anthracite coal. Go figure huh? 😳 
I also never knew about the waste coal in the waterways. So, this thread has my ongoing attention indeed. 

Coal is still King in my opinion btw. One only needs to look along the banks of our three major rivers in Pittsburgh region to see thousands of coal filled hoppers both in waiting And, moving through the area.


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

I must apologize that the promised list of coal salvaging operations list has not been posted as promised. Today may be a good day to get that list posted. We shall see how my day pans out. 

Here in Philadelphia, I watched coal train after coal train ply the "High Line" past 30th Street Station, in the '80s. All of those trains were headed to the ports in South Philly. I assumed to be sent overseas, possibly China. But that's just a guess. The bottom line is that I was awestruck at the amount of coal I saw passing every day, in trains containing hundred ton hoppers. And to think that this has been going on since the start of the industrial revolution. That's alot of ancient dead trees and plants.....


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

The same thing has been going on in Southern Illinois since the mid-1800s. 

100 car drags go through my town on UP tracks every day. When I lived 40 miles north of here it was the Illinois Central pulling 100 car drags through town. I guess that is now N&S since IC was gobbled up.


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