March 4, 2005

100-ton boulder nearly flattens house while family inside

MALDEN, W.Va. (AP) -- A family has begun moving out of their Malden-area home after a 100-ton boulder from entries to abandoned coal mines crashed into their driveway and split into two large chunks right outside their living room.

Terry and Lisa Lucas were watching television at their home on Georges Creek when the boulder, mostly slate, crashed about 9:15 p.m. on Wednesday, shaking the house, waking the Lucas' 9-year-old daughter Briann and 6-year-old son T.J. and scaring the family cat, Spot.

"His hair was standing on end,'' Lisa Lucas said.

The couple immediately took their children to spend the night with Terry Lucas' parents. They began moving out of their house early Thursday while a contractor stabilizes the nearby hillside. The family could be out for at least six weeks.

"When we bought the house in late 1997, we didn't realize there were abandoned mines there,'' Lisa Lucas said. "There were vines and kudzu growing all over the hillside.''

The Lucas' noticed water was often running down their driveway. The state Department of Environmental Protection determined it was mine water, Terry Lucas said.

A company called Nichols Coal worked in the area near the Lucas home until the 1950s, said Mike Richardson who leads emergency reclamation for the DEP, using federal Abandoned Mine Land funds.

"Coal companies were punching holes every place for years,'' Richardson said. "That valley was not mapped very well at all.''

The DEP has hired four different contractors to work on the hillside since late 1998.

The agency had already done three phases of work, including to take care of some overhanging rock, but problems have continued, Richardson said. The DEP received approval from the federal Office of Surface Mining to treat the situation as an emergency and build a new retaining wall behind the Lucas home.

"I know they are very upset. I am upset,'' Richardson said. "They feel like we have dragged our feet. But we have responded by the rules we have to go by.''

"Whatever damages were caused by the rocks will be repaired by the contractors,'' Richardson added. "We will work continually and hope to be done in about 60 days.''

The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act requires coal companies to pay a fee for every ton of coal mined to clean up mines closed before the act was passed. The act created the Abandoned Mine Lands program.