Nearly three decades ago, Leroy Brenteson found himself driving a tractor across his fields in eastern Montana when, out of nowhere, the ground beneath him unexpectedly collapsed.
“There’s not a lot to say. I was driving through the fields and ended up falling in,” explained Brenteson.
Brenteson, aged 83, resides on ancestral land that has been owned by his family for several generations. In the past, he resided in the town of Coalridge, which derived its name from the coal deposit that early settlers started mining in the early 1900s. Having worked in the mine beneath his property for fifteen years as a member of his family’s enterprise, Acme Coal Mining, Brenteson was well aware of its existence. However, he never anticipated that he would accidentally stumble into it.
Brenteson clarified, “I didn’t drive into a hole, it was undermined.”
After the incident, Brenteson collaborated with Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality Abandoned Mine Lands program to address the holes scattered throughout his property, which were remnants of a bygone era.
Since it began in the early 1980s, the Abandoned Mine Lands program has closed more than 1,600 hazardous mine openings around the state. But with almost 7,000 abandoned mines in Montana, demand for the program’s services isn’t likely to abate soon. Following a funding reauthorization stemming from the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act of 2021, the program has secured funds for the next 15 years of work. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality manages the AML program, which seeks to protect public health, safety and property from the adverse effects of mining.
The primary source of AML’s annual funding, amounting to $2.8 million, is derived from a fee imposed on coal mining by the federal government. Consequently, the program’s main objective revolves around the closure of abandoned coal mines. However, AML also collaborates with mineral and metal mines.
The type and concentration of abandoned mines varies across the state. The town of Coalridge is located in Sheridan County, which, according to the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology’s abandoned and inactive mines database, has an estimated 40 abandoned mines. Most are coal or gravel mines. Just to the south, Roosevelt County has 101 abandoned mines.
Connie Iversen, a longtime resident of eastern Montana, explained that during the homesteader era, there were small-scale farmers who dug holes in hills to extract low-quality coal. This coal was primarily used for heating their houses or barns.
Two of the old mines on Iversen and her husband Dick’s cattle ranch along the Missouri River, located on the border of Roosevelt and Richland counties, about 24 miles west of the North Dakota border, caught fire, surprising the Iversens who were previously unaware of their existence.
Two years after a prairie fire caused by a spark from a neighbor’s metal cutter scorched approximately 8,000 acres of land belonging to the Iversens and their neighbors in 2017, the Iversens finally became aware of smoke on a blustery autumn day. It was at this point that they realized two deserted coal mines were ablaze on their own property.
Dick Iversen remarked, “Standing on the ground, one could sense the heat even from a distance of 20 feet.”
The initial action taken by them was to contact the nearby fire department. While one of the firefighters was diligently battling the flames, an unfortunate incident occurred where he accidentally fell waist-deep into a blazing coal seam. Thankfully, Dick Iverson mentioned that his fellow firefighters successfully rescued him from the perilous situation. However, the firefighter sustained severe burns on his legs and had to be promptly hospitalized for treatment.
The Iversens made their next call to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, where they were referred to the AML program and introduced to Scott Graham, who happened to be one of the program’s only two field employees.
Before going to the site, Graham relies on software such as Google Earth to locate potential abandoned mines. Sometimes, he receives calls from landowners like the Iversens who are facing difficulties related to a specific mine.
In the case of abandoned coal mines, Graham said once a coal seam catches fire it essentially burns until the coal runs out. Graham visited the Iversens’ property in June 2020 to survey the extent of the undermined area and determine if it was eligible for AML funding. Graham then hired a contractor to facilitate the rehabilitation of the coal mine, which he estimates dates back to the early 1900s.
In three locations, workers excavated the burning coal seam. They combined the smoldering coal with soil and water to extinguish the flames, before returning the mixture to the ground. Afterward, they leveled the surface to align with the natural landscape and planted native grass seeds to restore the area.
Graham stated that even though this type of work can be expensive, the agency excels at utilizing funds effectively and collaborating with organizations such as the DNRC to assist communities and property owners in not only restoring sites but also making them advantageous.
“We show up with a wheelbarrow full of money,” Graham said.
Qualifying for AML funding was crucial for the Iversens. The cost of excavating and extinguishing the fires without county and state assistance would have been significant.
Connie Iversen emphasized the importance of doing it, as not doing so could potentially result in a devastating fire engulfing the entire countryside during the night.
Despite the fires on the Iversen property, which weren’t extinguished until the spring of 2022 due to the dangers of digging them up during an ongoing drought, Connie Iversen said they’re not too concerned about discovering another mine on their land.
“I’m not really worried,” she stated. “It wouldn’t be surprising if we experienced another one, but it’s not something that causes us sleepless nights.”
