- [Narrator] As Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet came up the Illinois River in 1673, they wrote in their journal of black seams in the bluffs around what would become Peoria.

It was the first recorded mention of coal in Illinois.

What they saw may have looked like this, black coal and yellow sulfur interspersed between layers of sedimentary rock.

Many seams can be seen today, with chunks of coal falling from the bluffs into the ravines below.

The origins of coal in Illinois date back more than 300 million years, to the appropriately named Carboniferous period.

What is central Illinois today was a hot area back then, because it was about five degrees below the equator.

Tall fern like trees, similar to these fossils of leaves, were growing in what was then a delta swamp.

They had very shallow root systems.

- And when these trees would grow, they'd fall over and die, and there were so many of 'em, they didn't decompose right away.

And also there was no fungus at that time that would break 'em down like a tree today.

And so you were able to lay down layer upon layer upon layer of plant material, which then became coal.

- [Narrator] Humans began mining exposed coal in Illinois in the early 1800s, mostly in small amounts for blacksmithing purposes.

The first underground mine was in the Belleville area in 1848, according to the Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund.

The Illinois State Geological Survey reports mine production in the state grew to a high point in the 1940s.

This map shows the extent of mining in southern Illinois, for instance, with red for underground mines, orange for surface mines, and the black dots for mine entrances.

While coal production has decreased since then, Illinois remains the third largest coal producer in the country behind Wyoming and West Virginia.

Before regulations were established in 1977, if coal supplies were exhausted at a mine, companies simply moved on, leaving behind waste material, open mine entrances, deep pits and pollution.

A question subsequently arose, how do we heal the scarred landscape?

(birds chirping) A map shows many mine sites dot the state, but there are not comprehensive records from the early mining years.

For instance, the 1884 coal report for Knox County listed 46 mine sites but that did not include unlocated coal mines.

Many of these mines were small because there were no rail lines for trains to reach them.

The Illinois State Geological Survey at the University of Illinois, has the daunting task of tracking both known and the so-called lost mines.

- There are somewhere around 5,000 known mines, varying different sizes.

There're somewhere around, and this number changes all the time because as we do research and we can locate things or we realize, oh wait, that's a bogus mine, it doesn't exist, so numbers go up or down, somewhere around 6,000 or so either unlocated or unidentified mines.

- Last count there was over 100 coal mines, small shaft mines between Peoria and Edwards, right around Wildlife Prairie Park, right along the creek itself because of all these numerous coal seams that popped out.

- [Narrator] While some were shaft mines, most early mines were so-called dog holes, which were dug horizontally to retrieve thin coal seams.

One of those was the Crescent City Mine in today's Rocky Glen Park in Peoria County, where coal was mined from 1908 through 1922.

The mine at one time went two miles into the hillside.

- This coal mine mined about one and a half million tons in its operation.

So over about 15 years, one and a half million tons were brought out by hand, literally, by coal miners.

They used to haul the coal outta here, take it down this valley here.

In fact, there was a road, there's remnants of a road here, and then you'd bring it all the way to the train tracks on the other side of of Kickapoo Creek, and then they'd haul it into Peoria and that's where they'd burn it.

A lot of the mines along Kickapoo Creek Road were mined by Welsh settlers.

So they came over from Wales, and they were brought here specifically to mine the coal.

Around Potstown, there's a cemetery where most of them are buried and Potstown was probably the main location of the settlements around here for the coal miners that worked here and all the coal mines along the the creek here.

- [Narrator] Prior to 1977, companies could abandon mines without restoring the landscape.

Regulations changed that year with the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

Reclamation of old mines that shut down before 1977 is handled by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation Division.

IDNR's Land Reclamation Division monitors mines in operation after that date.

That includes the Nighthawk Coal Company's Viper Mine near Elkhart in Logan County.

It extracts more coal in a year than Crescent City mine did in its 15 years of operation.

A conveyor carries raw coal from the active portion of the Viper Mine to the processing plant.

The first step separates the lighter coal from denser rock using screens and centrifugal force.

The coal then is washed with water.

The clean coal is loaded into trucks with nearly all of it going to City Water, Light and Power in Springfield.

The cleaning process results in two different waste products, a coarse refuse consisting of dry dense rock and a fine refuse, which is a water-based slurry.

Reclamation starts with proper disposal of the refuse.

The Viper Mine has two sites for refuse, one completed and a new one.

- The main part of the process here is building large refuse impoundments out of that material to confine and dispose of that material in as limited areas as they can.

And in this case, we are covering about 250 acres at both locations with these refuge impoundments.

The first process is to create the base of the impoundment.

And in the case of the one we visited today in the north, it has a approved 60 mill liner at the base like a landfill.

It has a collection system, a leeching collection system to relieve the head or the water pressure on that impoundment long term.

And once it starts construction, the refuge is built on the outside in systematic lifts.

They construct the outer embankment out of the coarse refuse and that raises in height.

And in this case here, we are looking at a little over 100 feet in height, and the wet or slurry material waste product goes into the middle of it.

The slurry material that is pumped into the center of the refuge area, we call it decanting, it drops out to the bottom of the pool and they then can recover the water at another location of the impoundment, where it is clarified to recirculate the water continuously back to the preparation plant for reuse of full cleaning.

We have inspectors that visit the site regularly, they assure that all the water that falls on this site, it has to go through a sediment pond and it has to leave through an approved location called an NPDS permit that's issued by the Illinois EPA.

There's monitoring that goes on, on the impoundment to make sure it's stable.

And at the end of the line, we have to see that the top of it or the slurry area is capped with coarse refuse.

And at the very end of the line, the soil is placed, that has been stored for the decades of its use, and placed back on the surface in a four foot layer.

And we have preserved and stockpiled the subsoil and top soil to be placed back on top.

And then once that is achieved, it's vegetated with the appropriate species.

And then a post mining land use is determined and approved for a given mine site.

And in this case, primarily at this underground facility, there's really two primary land uses and that is crop land and herbaceous wildlife.

And that is divvied up based on, we do not do crop land on refuse areas.

So those areas will go back to a herbaceous wildlife land use.

We spend a lot of time out here during the life of the operation, basically from cradle to grave.

We approve the permits in the beginning and the construction.

They're constantly modified through time.

- [Narrator] The cost of monitoring coal mine reclamation by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources is half funded by the federal government and half by the state.

The cost of the actual reclamation is totally funded by the coal company in addition to the posting of a bond.

- [Dan] They have to post a bond to our agency in the amount, and in this case, there's approximately a little under $24 million of bond posted by Nighthawk Coal for this particular site we're touring today.

And at the end of the line, we make sure the reclamation is achieved, and at some point, when we feel that they've met all the obligations, we'll return the bond that we've held for those years waiting for the final product.

- [Narrator] The IDNR currently regulates 13 active mines in 10 counties.

Nine are underground mines and four are surface mines, all the mines are in southern Illinois, with the exception of the Viper Mine.

One of the best known abandoned surface mines in central Illinois is what is now Wildlife Prairie Park in Peoria County.

The park has made use of the mine terrain, animals which are native to Illinois, populate the park on the east side of Taylor Road.

There are large changes in elevation on the west side of the road offering an opportunity for a challenging Disc Golf course.

Tournaments on this course attract players from as far away as Australia.

- We've added stairways to get up and down these hills.

Once you drop down, you've got 120 foot elevation change from top to bottom.

So we have one hole, hole six, 80 foot straight down a hill, which is a unique challenge.

- We also have our mountain bike trails.

And so the mountain bike trails, this mined land is perfect for that, because it's all hilly and bumpy and the mountain bikers love it.

- [Narrator] The strip mine operation created eight lakes, one of which surrounds an old family farm.

- [Roberta] The mines wanted all this area, and they got most of it except for this spot right here but they mined all around it.

And so the family really were holdouts to the mine companies, really holding out until they sold to Wildlife Prairie Park or gave it to the park.

- [Narrator] Reclamation of Wildlife Prairie Park has primarily been a private effort, but public dollars are needed to care for many old abandoned mines.

Those dollars weren't available until the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

It established a tax on coal production to be distributed to states to clean up mines abandoned prior to 1977.

The fee is 22 cents per ton of coal taken from active surface mines, and about 9 cents at current underground mines.

- Unfortunately, the collection of the fee to fund abandoned mine land reclamation did expire in September, 2021.

But the good news is that later that fall, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and that law did two things, it reauthorized the collection of the fee at 80% of previous levels, would've been better to be 100%, but better to be reauthorized than not at all.

But the second thing is great, Congress authorized the additional influx of $11.3 billion into the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund over the next 15 years.

By the late 1970s, over 200,000 acres of Illinois land had been impacted by coal mining.

And again, this is before any regulations that required cleanup.

- [Narrator] The Prairie Rivers Network estimates Illinois has reclaimed about 35,000 acres so far.

Abandoned mine land is placed in three categories.

Categories one and two are mines with risk to public health and safety.

While category three has environmental concerns.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources focuses its reclamation efforts on the first two categories.

The Little John Mine near Victoria, in Knox County, at one time had significant health and safety concerns.

- What you see behind me is the final high wall of the mining operation.

So they mined all the way up to the road and then ended mining.

So what has happened is over time this large pit has become filled with water.

The problem with this is this mine, when it came up to the road, was a hazard, was a safety hazard for motorists driving up and down the road.

So what we did was we decreased the slope, added some drainage material, added vegetation, so it will have a nice, so it won't erode anymore.

And that way, if somebody does go off the edge, they won't go directly into the water, there will be a way for them to get back out - [Narrator] For these older surface mines, reclamation is not designed to return the land to its original contour or use.

The approach is different for old abandoned underground mines.

Entrances are sealed unless there are concerns with the natural habitat.

- If there's bats located in there or if we think bats are using that cave, we'll just put up a bat gate, and so we'll just seal it off for the public so the public can't get in, but the bats can still continue to use that for a hibernation or roosting area.

With our endangered and threatened species, we look at the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, and we also coordinate with US Fish and Wildlife, and our own Internal Department of Natural Resources group, to identify any endangered or threatened species that could be in the area.

- [Narrator] Many old underground mines leave large, exposed mounds of waste material, often referred to as gob piles.

Rainfall can cause acid rain drainage, a problem that needs continual attention.

- This acidic water comes from the oxidation of sulfide and pyrite materials.

So when we dig up coal, we're not just digging up coal, we're digging up a bunch of other materials along with it.

And when those materials were left behind, companies walked away, they're exposed to oxygen, so they're oxidized, and when it rains that acidic material now flows downstream onto the site and even off of the site - It looks orange, it's got a low pH.

So there's several ways to remediate that, but it's an ongoing problem.

We will always have to come back and reclaim that or do maintenance on the system.

So it's an ongoing issue.

- [Narrator] The residents of Toluca in Marshall County have undertaken a different approach to reclamation, by embracing their mining history.

It was an agricultural community of several hundred people prior to the first of three mines opening in 1892.

The population grew to nearly 3000, with about 1000 mining jobs at the high point.

Jobs disappeared when the mines closed in 1924, and the population slipped to about 1400 in the 1930 census, the same population as today.

Regardless of the terminology, the mounds can be called gob piles, jumbos or slag heaps, the townspeople have shown these mounds can be reclaimed with pride - And originally, it had a lot of trees on it and it started to erode.

So they got the Historic Society involved.

They came and took off the trees so it would stay so we could keep it as history.

And then we added a pond and we've added trails.

So a lot of people come out here on a daily basis.

They've brought school children out here, and they've brought special people out to speak on the jumbo itself, and explain the different things we still have here that were from the mining era.

- [Narrator] There's one other reclamation issue involving mines and that is what you might call the reclamation of a structure or property on the surface after damage that was caused by a mine, it's called subsidence.

- This mine here goes almost two miles to the west.

And if you were to have a house or something on that property and that coal mine were to collapse or to sink, your house goes with it, and so this subsidence is a big issue.

And so the state is trying to figure out where these old coal mines are at to warn and to help people deal with this issue.

- [Narrator] The state passed the law making mine subsidence coverage available in all counties.

The law mandates coverage to be automatically rolled into policies in 34 counties, unless waived in writing by the insured.

In the remaining counties, it must be made available upon request.

Property owners can check the coal mine locator on the Illinois State Geological Survey website to see if they are known to be at risk.

While the insurance industry administers the program, it is overseen by the Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund, or IMSIF, which is an independent private reinsurer created by state law in 1979.

- We set the premium dollars for the entire state of Illinois.

So it's a common amount for everyone and the insurance company collects the premium from their policy holders, they retain a small commission for the administrative piece of it, and then they remit quarterly, their premium dollars that they collect to us.

We are a reinsurer, we are an investigator of mine subsidence claims professionally with engineers and geologists.

We are a supporter of research, so we fund different research projects or we support different projects over the years.

And finally, we're an educator, so we educate both the consumer and the insurance industry.

- Other states have a mind subsidence program, but many times it's part of their IDNR, their department of natural resources or their fair plan.

So to date, I think we are the only state operating independently.

- [Narrator] Evidence of subsidence may include windows that don't seal properly, cracks, heaving in the sidewalk and tilting.

However, those signs don't necessarily indicate mine subsidence, because other issues may be the core of the problem.

- The clay soils that are down in downstate Illinois are clearly different than what you're going to see up around Chicago.

Or rather, it's relatively more sand based.

The clays in this area can expand and contract at great speeds depending on the moisture.

Trees in some cases, may have a great impact as to how it impacts your structure.

Trees take a lot of moisture out of the ground, and inevitably, that is also most likely gonna start creating damage to the structure as a result of that.

- [Narrator] The property owner can file a claim for suspected mine subsidence, by contacting their insurance provider.

The insurance company then will send the information to IMSIF, which will initiate an investigation.

- A designated adjuster is assigned by us to make contact with the insured, to make an appointment, to come out and inspect the damage.

Once the designated adjuster inspects the damage, he rules out the possibility that it is not mine subsidence which means they can proceed with the investigation.

- [Narrator] The property owner may not have to wait for a final determination by IMSIF to make certain repairs, as investigations can take months to complete.

- You would have to work directly with your insurer to see if there are any allowances made for stabilization, any fixing or repairing of property to avoid future damage or liability.

That would have to be discussed between the homeowner and its insurer.

- [Narrator] IMSIF conducts from 300 to 400 investigations a year to determine if a mine was responsible for damage to a structure or property.

Their engineers and geologists conduct the investigations but they also receive support from the Illinois State Geological Survey.

- So for the Mine Subsides Insurance Fund, they wanna know where are those mines located and what was the information that was associated with them, the geology, geologic problems they may have had, production histories, things of that nature.

Where the ISGS plays its best role is in being a unbiased third party source of information, meaning we will make measurements, we will tell you what we think is there.

We don't have a dog in the fight, so to speak, and that oftentimes can be a contentious issue as companies and regulatory agencies go back and forth.

That's probably our most important role.

- [Narrator] Mine Subsidence Insurance is optional for property owners, but Wildlife Prairie Park felt there was little choice.

- Because we know that this is reclaimed mine land, we do carry mine subsidence insurance.

It's something to make sure we're protected, the animals, the people.

- [Narrator] While protecting property today is important, future uses of what coal mines left behind may be on the horizon.

Scientists are studying the viability of extracting rare earth metals from the waste left behind during the past century and a half.

- [Ed] What are the resources that are possible to extract from these gob piles, from these waste piles?

What's there, can it be extracted economically?

Is there infrastructure available and ready to go for doing something then with the products of these extraction processes?

I wouldn't be surprised that if we don't see again, in the next 10 years, the harvesting and mining of those former gob piles and the volcanoes of Illinois.

'cause that's what they look like, may very well become a resource that is utilized a second time.

(birds chirping)