ENFORCE26805

• Permit No: C1981013
• IBM Index Class Name: Enforcement
• Doc Date: 2/1/2001
• Doc Name: REPORT CONCERNING AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTINUED DAMAGE TO THE HOUSE & WATER SUPPLY PIPELINE AT THE
• Violation No.: CV2000009
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

Investigation into Continued Damage at the Solitario Ranch Page 7
During that time frame there have been all kinds of climate changes, ground water
fluctuations, and other natural conditions. The house did not fail until after coal
mining had started in the near vicinity.
Computer Program
SDPS (Surface Deformation Prediction Svstem) Comnuter Software
The SDPS system's was developed by Dr. Michael Karmis, Head of the
Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University, Blackburg, Virginia. It was purchased to be utilized as
part of the study on this problem because it is distributed free of charge to any
regulatory agency that requests it. The Office of Surface Mining uses it, and the
State of Colorado Department of Natural Resources has access to it. The
mathematic formulas that were used to develop the computer algorithms have
been well known and reported widely in the technical literature since the early
1950's These studies have been detailed and summarized in two Bureau of
Mines publications'a
The program is made up of several modules
A Profile Function Method, which is a compilation of eastern coal mine
subsidence parameters and data, it determines or projects subsidence profiles in
a transverse direction to the mining direction. The Tatum house is in a
longitudinal direction along the direction of mining.
An Influence Function Program that allows the investigator to customize and
change the empirical eastern mining parameters. Data based on measured
subsidence profiles and actual mine configuration records can be inserted. It
provides the ability to build a mine model based on survey data and local
geologic and rock mechanics information. It also allows the location of
subsidence prediction points on a scattered or gridded basis.
A Pillar Stability Analysis Program that is based on different standard, mine
pillar calculation formulas.
Research
The process of applying this computation method to the mines in the Purgatory
Valley and other mines in the western United States required quite a lot of
research. Many conversations were held with Dr Karmis to be sure that the
analysis method was correct. Meetings were held with several engineers and
scientists of the former U.S. Bureau of Mines who specialized in subsidence.
Discussions were held on site and by telephone with Dr. Kewal Kohli of the OSM
(Department of Interior, Office of Surface Mining). Discussions were held with
Dr John Able, retired professor of Mining Engineering at the Colorado School of
Mines, who has been involved in many subsidence problems and was a principle
investigator for the York Mine study.
Discussions with the USBM centered on their application of the SDPS software
to subsidence studies that had been conducted by the Bureau over several years.
The review of some of these studies essentially established that eastern and
u Prediction of Ground Mooements due to Underground Mining in the Eastern United States
Coalfields. SDPS ver 4.0, User's Manual, February 1994.
u IC 8571 and IC 8572, Subsidence Due to Underground Mining, Gerhard Brauner, U.S.
Department of the Interior, USBM.