The BLM’s Hazard Management and Resource Restoration Program addresses a variety of hazards on public surface to reduce risks to visitors and employees. Hazards may include hazardous materials; mine shafts and adits; abandoned equipments and structures; explosives and munitions; and spills from pipelines, tankers, and storage tanks. Activities directed toward health and safety concerns in the Planning Area primarily encompass AMLs, natural geologic hazards, and hazardous wastes and materials.
Extreme physical hazards are common at abandoned mine sites, and for visitors, these hazards are not always apparent. Abandoned mine sites have proven to be a luring and sometimes life-threatening attraction for both children and adults. Serious injury or death can occur at these sites. The presence of such sites can compromise other land uses and land quality. The following paragraphs identify some of the common physical hazards posed by AML sites (Wyoming DEQ, Abandoned Mine Land Division 2009a).
Horizontal openings: The mine opening (known as a portal or adit) might seem stable, but rotting timbers and unstable rock formations make cave-ins a real danger. The darkness and debris in old mines make identification of the hazards difficult.
Vertical shafts: These can be hundreds of feet deep. At the surface, openings can be hidden by vegetation or covered by rotting boards or timbers. Inside old mines, shafts can be camouflaged by debris or hidden by darkness in the mine.
Explosives and toxic chemicals: Blasting caps, dynamite, and chemicals were often left behind when the mine workings were abandoned. Explosives become unstable with age, and can be detonated by the vibration of footsteps. Abandoned chemicals such as cyanide, arsenic, mercury, and other deadly toxins could be present in leaking and deteriorating containers.
Dangerous gases: Lethal concentrations of CH4, CO, CO2, and H2S (to name a few) can accumulate in underground passages. Oxygen-deficient air can cause suffocation. People have died within a few feet of the mine openings.
Water: Impounded water can be highly alkaline or acidic (resulting in skin burns), and deep and cold (contributing to hypothermia).
Spoil (rock and dirt) piles: These loose piles can collapse or slide, burying an unsuspecting victim.
Equipment and buildings: Abandoned surface structures and old mine equipment can collapse on bystanders.
Highwalls: These are the excavated vertical cliffs in surface pits and quarries. They can be unstable and prone to collapse. Highwalls might not be visible from the top, presenting a danger to off-road drivers.
Radon: Radon is a natural radioactive decay product and is known to be a factor in some lung cancers. Radon can accumulate in high concentrations in poorly ventilated mines.
Wildlife: Rattlesnakes, bears, cougars, and other wildlife frequent old mine sites.
Disorientation: There is no natural light inside mine workings. Many mine workings meandered as miners followed an ore vein. It is easy to get lost and become disoriented in a maze of mine workings, especially if lighting equipment fails.
Mine fire areas: Mine fires create surface hazards in abandoned coal mine areas. As fires burn within the seam, fissures can open to the surface and deliver deadly gases into the atmosphere. The area around the fissure might not be capable of supporting the weight of a human or vehicle, and could collapse into the burning coal or the mine void.
Abandoned mines are a common feature on BLM-administered lands. Approximately 380 potential AML sites have been identified in the Planning Area based on site data from a Wyoming DEQ, AML Division, database; more than 30 of those sites were visited and found to have no trace of past mining activity (Wyoming DEQ, Abandoned Mine Land Division 2008). Map 75 identifies potential AML sites in the Planning Area. Potential sites are identified using published information, maps, aerial photography, and reporting by the public and surface management agencies. The Wyoming DEQ, AML Division, is performing a quality assurance review to update information on AML sites that have undergone reclamation; therefore, the location and number of reclaimed sites in the Planning Area cannot be accurately assessed at this time.
The BLM Wyoming State Office has a prioritized list of AML sites that pose the greatest risk to people and the environment. AML sites affecting water quality are addressed using the watershed approach. Using this approach accomplishes the following objectives:
Allows for mitigation to be risk-based by identifying priority sites first.
Fosters collaborative efforts across federal, state, and private administrative boundaries.
Considers all issues important to water resource protection.
Reduces the cost of mitigation.
Provides the most efficient method of remediating AML sites by utilizing a wide range of available resources.
Recently, several AML sites in the Planning Area were identified, inventoried, and reclaimed. Abandoned sulfur mine workings, and a dangerous embankment related to pre-law gypsum mining, were reclaimed in 2006 and 2007. A current AML project involves identifying and inventorying old coal mine workings in the Bighorn Basin. In 1999, the BLM and the Wyoming DEQ, AML Division, signed a cooperative agreement that further facilitated the reclamation of AML sites on BLM-administered lands. The state program, as required by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, focuses on public safety hazards. In addition, the BLM has received some funding for its soil, water, and air program to address site-specific environmental hazards and watershed concerns associated with abandoned mines. By combining available funding, the BLM can continue to comprehensively address safety hazards and environmental impacts to water quality and watershed function at priority AML sites. In this collaborative partnership approach, the BLM and the Wyoming DEQ, AML Division, are undertaking several AML reclamation projects on public lands in the Planning Area.
The Wyoming DEQ, AML Division, works closely with federal land management agencies, private land owners, and the general public to ensure that the views of all interested parties are considered in the reclamation process. According to an August 2007 fact sheet, the Wyoming DEQ, AML Division, operated with an approximately $109 million budget in 2008, and a projected $69 to $149 million annual budget for calendar years 2009 through 2015 (Wyoming DEQ, Abandoned Mine Land Division no date). The Wyoming DEQ, AML Division, will use these funds to identify and reclaim AMLs and to construct public works projects in communities adversely affected by mining activities. According to the Wyoming DEQ, AML Division, Coordinator, the state AML program will focus on abandoned coal mines in the foreseeable future (Wyoming DEQ, Abandoned Mine Land Division 2009b). The BLM will continue to identify and remediate the hazards of abandoned mines, in concert with the Wyoming DEQ, AML Division and on its own.
Natural geologic hazards (geo‐hazards) include active fault or seismic zones; areas prone to landslides; subsidence due to coal fires; over‐pressured subsurface oil, gas, or groundwater zones; and potentially toxic minerals and assemblages such as selenium; and shrinking and swelling clay soils. There are several naturally occurring geologic hazards in the Planning Area. These include primarily down‐slope movements such as slumps, landslides and rock‐fall, and flood‐related hazards, shrinking and swelling clays, and potentially seismic zones.
Earthquakes and landslides are generally identified and forecast through USGS earthquake and landslide hazards programs. The Wyoming Geological Survey Surficial Processes/Geological Hazards Section is dedicated to the study and publication of information about geologic hazards in the state of Wyoming. There is a large amount of information about the likelihood of numerous natural geological hazards on the Wyoming Geological Survey and USGS websites.
Gravity influences soils and loose rock or colluvium on slopes in the Planning Area. When these materials are saturated with water, they can creep slowly down slopes or move suddenly with devastating results. Rapidly moving landslides can be triggered by a rainstorm or a seismic event such as an earthquake. Earthquakes of varying magnitude have affected the Bighorn Basin over time. Other types of natural geologic hazards affecting the Planning Area include active faults, shrinking and swelling soils, and flooding.
The occurrence of landslides depends directly on slope stability and precipitation quantities (normal versus drought conditions). Therefore, the recent drought has led to a decrease in landslides in the Planning Area.
The BLM investigates spills, illegal dumping, and hazardous materials releases to determine the need for immediate cleanup or other long-term remediation actions. This often involves working with the EPA, the Wyoming DEQ, and potentially responsible parties to fund and expedite the cleanup of hazardous sites and disposal activities that result from recreational use and industrial activities such as oil and gas development. The field offices in the Planning Area have an effective hazard management and resource restoration program.
There have been 31 response actions on public lands in the Planning Area since 1993 8 incidents involving the illegal disposal of unknown substances, more than 12 incidents of wire burns, 5 incidents involving abandoned facilities with the potential for the release of hazardous substances, 1 polychlorinated biphenyl spill, 2 incidents involving the discovery of explosives, and 3 incidents involving potential unexploded seismic charges.
There have been 31 response actions on public lands in the Planning Area since 1993 8 incidents involving the illegal disposal of unknown substances, more than 12 incidents of wire burns, 5 incidents involving abandoned facilities with the potential for the release of hazardous substances, 1 polychlorinated biphenyl spill, 2 incidents involving the discovery of explosives, and 3 incidents involving potential unexploded seismic charges.
Due to the pollution hazards associated with shooting ranges, ranges permitted on public lands in the Planning Area are also being transferred out of federal ownership. The Worland shooting range was transferred into private ownership in 2000. The Powell Shooting Complex will be transferred to the Powell Recreation District in the near future, and efforts are ongoing to transfer the Cody Shooting Complex to Park County.
Increased awareness has led employees and the public to report more hazmat incidents. This awareness and reporting has lead to the cleanup of old dump sites and abandoned facilities.