Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2018

Document Type

Thesis

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Geology and Geography

Committee Chair

Joseph J. Donovan

Committee Member

Eric F. Perry

Committee Member

Keith A. Heasley

Abstract

Arkwright #1 is a closed underground mine in the Pittsburgh coal seam near Morgantown, West Virginia USA. Arkwright shares perimeter boundaries/barriers with three other closed Pittsburgh seam mines (Osage #3, Jordan #93, Federal #1) and is partially overlain by flooded Sewickley seam mines, 25 m above it. This mine is significant primarily because it manages and treats water diverted from nearly 20 other closed mines over a 600 square kilometer area. This study examines water levels, pump records, and mine maps to describe the hydrogeology of Arkwright Mine. After closure in 1995, Arkwright and the adjacent northern Osage mines began to flood, each forming separate mine pools. Federal #1 and Jordan mines closed years prior and were already flooded. Pumping from the up-dip portion of Arkwright began in 2002. In 2007, water transfer by pumps from Osage to Arkwright began in the down-dip portion of Arkwright, causing a hydraulic head differential of up to 60 m between the down-dip and up-dip sub-pools of the mine. It is interpreted that a subsidence blockage had developed in Arkwright's main entries, restricting flow through the mine. This blockage effectively divides Arkwright into deep and shallow sub-pools. Using water level measurements and pump records, Arkwright’s water budget was quantified over 11 non-consecutive months from 2008-2011, allowing estimation of average vertical hydraulic conductivity of interburden between Sewickley and Pittsburgh seams (2.0 x 10-8 m/s). Using results from Arkwright’s water budget, storativities of the deep (1.06 x 10-3) and shallow (1.89 x 10-3) sub-pools were also estimated. While its geometry and location are only generally known, the conductance of the blockage separating the sub-pools was estimated at 314 m2/d based on a steady-state water budget and hydraulic head differences between sub-pools. Based on all these data, MODFLOW 2000 was used to create a potentiometric surface consistent with observed water levels based on Arkwright’s water budget.

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