Raven Rocks faces challenge

Longwall coal mining concerns owners of underground homes

By KATHRYN CLAYTON
Times Leader Staff Writer

RAVEN ROCKS—a community born 30 years ago out of the desire to protect 847 acres of pristine land from strip mining—now faces potential problems from longwall mining.

Bennoc Inc., a coal company from Morristown, has applied for a permit that if approved will allow longwall mining underneath the Raven Rocks property. Larry Conway of Barnesville, listed on the permit as the agent for Bennoc Inc., was not available for comment.

In the years since its founding, Raven Rocks has evolved significantly. Today it is a shining example of cutting edge practices in alternative energy and energy conservation.

Longwall mining has been linked to surface subsidence—similar to a cave-in—and significant drops in water tables.

According to Warren Stetzel, one of the founding members of the Raven Rocks community, the group looked into the potential for underground mining in 1970. They met with the chief of the Ohio Division of Mines and Reclamation and officials from Y&0 Coal who then had the mineral rights. While standing beneath the rock outcropping from which the community takes its name, the officials expressed their conviction that the ravines would not be undermined, said Stetzel.

Stetzel said that was in the days of the much more flexible room and pillar mining which made it easier and less costly to dodge a specific area.

"Moreover, and importantly," he said, "those were times when the competition about price and market was not so exaggerated, not so desperate."

Stetzel founded the community along with 18 other people who were all either teachers or students at 01ney Friends Boarding School in Barnesville to save the striking rock formations they had all enjoyed through school related visits. The property—located on Crum Road near Beallsville—now comprises 1,051 acres thanks to the addition of important watershed areas.

It became more than a nature preserve almost immediately as the community viewed its situation in a larger context. Stetzel said that very early on the community realized it did not feel comfortable or right in the noble enterprise of saving Raven Rocks, if, having refused access to the: coal underneath it, they persisted in the careless consumption of energy that would necessitate the mining of other land.

As a result, the community members set about on a thorough examination of their energy habits, he said. Where they could, they instituted revisions. These revisions became a long list of experiments in energy and resource utilization that in some instances have become technological breakthroughs. According to Stetzel, looking back, some can hardly be seen as experiments because they clearly work so well.

Stetzel listed examples that included refrigerators that use one fifth the energy of a modern efficient refrigerator and a washing machine that uses half the water, less than half the energy, and is a lot less rough on one's clothes than a normal washer. The Clivus Multrum composting toilet, in use at Raven Rocks, reduces a household's water usage by 40. percent. With the complete system in place the typical sewer or septic tank hook-up is unnecessary .

They have implemented a gardening method that increases production per square foot of garden area by up to 10 times the U .S. Department of .Agriculture average. According to Stetzel, this is done without the use of any power equipment and with a fraction of the demand for water. Also, no chemical fertilizer or pest controls are used.

Major undertakings include two underground homes designed by Malcolm Wells. According to Chris Joyner of Raven Rocks, Wells worked for RCA as their international architect where he designed their New York World's Fair. building. He left his practice there to pursue his dreams of designing underground structures which he refers to as gentle architecture.

The Sidwell house, which is the smaller of the two, is a two story solar heated home with an attached two-story greenhouse. Locust Hill, the larger structure is still under construction. When complete it will also be powered by the sun. Locust Hill will also be the subject of a pending experiment that could have profound results.

This technology involves using fuel cells to convert hydrogen to electricity. According to Stetzel, scientists at United Technologies with the use of government resources have raised the efficiency of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis to better than 99 percent. Stetzel said it is these advances that allowed for the Gemini program and gave submarines a dependable source of oxygen.

Six of these scientists left United Technologies to launch a private effort to make these advances available and affordable for commercial use.

According to Stetzel one of them will be coming to Raven Rocks soon to layout plans for their utilization of the Raven Rocks facilities to test development models.

According to Joyner, the only bi-product involved in this type of electricity production is hot water.

Raven Rocks already has a windmill in place to generate electricity that can also be stored.

With so many complex structures a number of unique questions crop up concerning the effect of potential subsidence from longwall mining.

In an informal conference with Kathy Rossmann of the Ohio Division of Reclamation, Raven Rocks was given the opportunity to ask questions that will be answered upon issuance of the permit if it is approved.

The most obvious concern is the rocks themselves whose preservation launched the Raven Rocks community.

According to an archaeological study from Kent State University, the rocks are "one of the more unusual archaeological puzzles in Ohio prehistory."

The unusual distribution of remains at the site indicates a special and repeated use that scientists have as of yet been unable to pin-point. Given this significance as as well, the community asked if the
rocks could be subsided without damage.

They asked about the safety of visitors to the ravines. They also asked if the rocks don't fall immediately, could wear from subsidence cause them to fall much sooner than they would naturally.

Concrete underground homes raise almost limitless questions. Joyner noted that Locust Hill in particular is such a long building it is at special risk.

"Our knowledge of their unusual construction makes us very aware of the likely nature and extent of damage and consequent difficulty of repair, " he said.

Raven Rocks is still waiting on a response to these questions and others.

Stetzel said that they have come to understand that the real threat to the ravines and everything else was not then, and is not now, the mining of coal. It is the consumption of fossil fuels.

Stetzel did not criticize or lay blame for the use of fossil fuels but rather showed respect for a step in the process of human evolution and advancement.

"We must remember that the fossil fuels have fueled a great deal of progress in a very wide range of fields of inquiry and development," he said.

Stetzel said he wishes the Ohio Valley would open up to new technology that could create more jobs while it still has some resources left.

However, he noted, it is a very human characteristic to not seize the opportunities available in a timely manner and instead hold on to what little we've got.

He cited philosopher and historian Gerald Heard as saying it is a 60/40 world. Heard said humans struggle to get things just right, but at best get 60 percent right.

That other 40 percent, said Stetzel, keeps us challenged, to keep moving, to keep growing.

He called the utilization of fossil fuels a great and necessary success, but noted that nothing fails like a success clung to too long.

"Every success demands a successor," he said.