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	Workers pump grout into one of the holes found on the property of St. Peter's, Pittsburg, the result of an underground abandoned coal mine. Photo by the Rev. Bill Wolff

Old coal mine damages Pittsburg church building

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

When the Rev. Bill Wolff saw hairline cracks last summer in the walls of the education building at St. Peter’s, Pittsburg, he didn’t think much about it. Southeast Kansas was in the middle of a drought, and many buildings in town saw some shifting as dry soil pulled away from foundations.

But when those small cracks turned into larger ones, and then became holes big enough to stick your hand into, he knew something was really wrong.

The building was sinking, a victim of Pittsburg’s history of 19th century abandoned coal mines that have riddled the downtown area with underground voids that can wreck havoc on 21st century structures.

Standing on a mine
Investigations into the cracks’ origin brought the involvement of the Surface Mining Section of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Officials inspected St. Peter’s building, and Wolff said they left convinced the damage was caused by mine subsidence — the settling of the ground’s surface over an area where a mine had been. Old maps showed this location had been the site of Mine #1 of the Rogers Coal Mining Company in the early 1880s.

In the meantime the Church Insurance Company brought in a structural engineer with mine experience. He discovered a three-inch slope in the floor of the nursery that hadn’t existed before, and that, combined with oddly placed flooding in the outdoor labyrinth, left him convinced, too, that the building was standing on top of an abandoned mine.

He did offer one bright spot — the building was safe to occupy, so the parish could continue to use the nursery, classrooms, offices and restrooms.

Drilling shows many voids
Drilling to determine the extent of the problem began on Dec. 18 and took nearly three weeks. Workers drilled four-inch holes around the education building and the church proper until “they hit something, or hit nothing,” Wolff said.

Out of 16 holes, 14 hit voids. The largest, 40 feet underground, measured seven feet high, with no way of knowing how far it extended. The other dozen were smaller. One drill hole brought up debris consistent with a collapsed mine shaft, and another, dug nearest the church itself, hit coal. Wolff said that was good news, since it meant the church building was standing on solid ground.

For three days in January workers used high pressure pumps to fill the holes with a mixture of fly ash, sand and concrete. Three concrete trucks worked in rotation to keep the operation supplied with grout — one in use, one waiting and one being filled. It took one day each to fill the two largest holes, Wolff said, and another day to top off the smaller ones.

Workers pumped a total of 260 cubic yards of grout under St. Peter’s, enough to cover a football field 1 3/4 inches deep.

The workers and equipment are gone, but the activities made a mess of the parish’s memorial garden and labyrinth. Wolff said restoring those will have to wait a while, though, since getting the holes filled didn’t end St. Peter’s woes.

Repairs to cost $30,000
Luckily, the cost of finding and filling the holes was paid for by the Office of Surface Mining in the U.S. Department of the Interior, at a cost of just under $39,000.

But St. Peter’s isn’t so lucky with work that still lies ahead. When the north end of the education building fell, it broke the building’s main water and sewer lines. Fixing those cost several thousand dollars.

Unfortunately, a clause in the policy with Church Insurance Company specifically excludes mine subsidence.

Paul Stephens, vice president of client services for Church Insurance, said this type of claim normally isn’t covered in insurance policies because it is “an uninsurable exposure” similar to floods. He did say, however, that the company is reviewing the claim.

If insurance doesn’t pay anything, it means the costs of replacing the water and sewer pipes have to be absorbed by the parish budget, and then there is the estimated $30,000 to raise the building and fix the cracks in the interior walls and exterior brick façade –— another expense not covered by insurance.

Wolff said those costs will be a stretch for parishioners at St. Peter’s, a congregation with an average Sunday attendance of about 50. But he’s certain they will find a way. The good news is that a few special donations for the project already have come in, and pledging is up for 2007. The people, he said, “love this place.”