New law eyed for home damages

this was posted in the Billings Gazette.

JEFF GEARINO Casper Star-Tribune Posted: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:05 pm


ROCK SPRINGS — For three years, more than a dozen downtown Tree Street residents whose homes were damaged by a controversial mine subsidence project in 2007 have been waiting for the state to pay for repairs to their houses.
During that time, they’ve enlisted the help of anyone who would listen, including area lawmakers who tried unsuccessfully last year to pass legislation that would have upped the amount the state was offering for much-needed repairs.
Lawmakers said Wednesday they’ll take a different approach when the Legislature convenes next month.
Under Wyoming’s strict laws, subsidence mitigation funds administered by the state’s Abandoned Mine Lands Division can only be used on reclamation and publi facility projects, which precludes the agency from buying homes or lots damaged by subsidence projects.
Federal AML guidelines, however, are looser and much more subject to interpretation, said state Rep. Bernadine Craft, D-Rock Springs.
“We’re going to try and amend the state guidelines to better match the federal guidelines ... then (the state) can’t say all their money is tied up on other projects,” Craft said during a tour of some of the damaged homes with other southwest Wyoming lawmakers on Wednesday.
She noted that the top priority for the AML Division is to protect the health and safety of Wyoming residents.
“If this situation is not health and human safety, then I’m not sure what is. ... It’s amazing to me that somebody hasn’t been hurt yet,” Craft said.
Not bloodthirsty
Craft was the first state lawmaker to see firsthand the damage to Tree Street homes when she visited in December 2008. Stunned by the extent of the damage and the state’s “lackluster” response, she joined other southwest Wyoming lawmakers and sponsored a $2.8 million bill amendment during the 2009 legislative session that aimed to provide more money for repairs to houses damaged from the dynamic compaction.
The measure allocated an initial $65,000 for new engineering inspections of damaged homes, but the funding never made it into the final bill.
Craft said she’s been disappointed in how the state has handled the situation. She noted that the state is able to use AML funds to fund new public facilities such as the University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources, but hasn’t been able to help the Tree Street homeowners.
“The state portrays these poor homeowners as bloodthirsty people only out for money,” she said. “And in reality, they’re not that at all. They just want their homes fixed. And I feel this may be the only way we’re going to get these dollars.”
Unintended damage
At the request of Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo, the city began discussions with AML officials and Gov. Dave Freudenthal in 2006 about possibly using AML money to mitigate some lands within the city that had not been scrutinized for development before because of old mine voids.
State rules forbid the AML from conducting subsidence work on undeveloped lands, but the city received special permission to try a new subsidence technique on a tract near the Tree Street neighborhood.
City officials settled on an 840-acre site containing 14 tracts of undeveloped land in the downtown area that seemed ideal for affordable housing.
On paper, the $2.4 million pilot project seemed like a good idea.
The city and state agreed to take a proven reclamation technique used widely back East known as dynamic compaction — which involved dropping 25- and 35-ton weights over undermined areas to collapse the underground mine voids — and use it on the undeveloped land in Rock Springs.
Engineering studies indicated that homes in the few neighborhoods surrounding the project site wou.d not be damaged by the seismic vibrations resulting from dropping the multiton weights.
For three weeks beginning July 17, 2007, AML contractors using cranes dropped the weights about 2,270 times.
The state initially reported success in early results, but a week into the project officials began hearing complaints from homeowners in the Tree Street area. Residents told AML officials that the seismic vibrations caused damage, or may have accelerated ongoing subsidence so that damage occurred much sooner than it would otherwise have.
At a contentious meeting in mid-August 2007 shortly after the project was halted, Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality eirector John Corra promised residents that the agency would pay for all repairs to homes damaged by the dynamic compaction.
But homeowners believed the state’s first settlement offers in December 2008 — which were based on a state-contracted engineer’s assessment of the damage and repair/cost estimates — weren’t nearly enough to adequately compensate for the needed repair work. Only two homeowners accepted the state’s initial offer.
Craft said she intends to draft a House bill that would amend the state AML guidelines to mirror federal rules. She hopes the bill might come out of the House Rules Committee or perhaps the Minerals Committee.
“We’ll have to convince two-thirds of the House, or 40 members, to hear it in a nonbudget year,” she said.
Contact Jeff Gearino at gearino@tribcsp.com or 307-875-5359.