Illinois' rich, coal-mining
history is increasingly revealing itself throughout
Southern Illinois' growing communities in the form
of property damage from mine subsidence and
collapse, state abandoned mines expert Bob Gibson
said.Such damage
appeared in eight homes last week in Swansea's
Woodfield Lake Estates subdivision when the land
dropped more than a foot and a half. That damage
will continue for five to 10 years, said Gibson, who
works for the Illinois Department of Mines and
Minerals.
There hasn't been an increase
in subsidence, Gibson said, but it has become more
obvious in the metro-east in recent years as
development has increased and more structures are
getting damaged.
"When something happens, the
chances of it hitting a house become higher," Gibson
said.
Most of the land changes in
the Swansea subdivision will occur in the first
year, but it is not worth it to homeowners to
completely repair the damage until the land has
stopped dropping, Gibson said. He estimated that
homeowners already have seen a loss of up to 40
percent.
Gibson said their situation is
not unique. He routinely sees up to 10 houses
damaged at a time by mine subsidence, he said.
Often, one of those homes is destroyed, he said.
Mine subsidence, which is the
sinking or shifting of ground resulting from the
collapse of a pillar supporting a mine roof or the
collapse of a shallow mine roof, can and does
eventually occur in any undermined area, he said.
About 20 percent of St. Clair and Madison counties
is undermined, Gibson said.
There is no cause of mine
subsidence other than the aging of the mine, Gibson
said. And there is no way to predict when it will
happen, although there are small ways to protect
property.
Someone building over an
abandoned coal mine should include a basement or
crawl space to allow for the installation of some
sort of bracing if the structure is damaged, Gibson
said.
Gibson also recommends keeping
buildings below three stories tall, which makes them
less susceptible to damage.
Some large commercial
developers backfill their undermined property,
drilling holes into the ground and pumping cement
material into the mine area to block it from
collapsing. But the procedure, which can cost
millions of dollars, is not feasible for home owners
because backfilling would cost them more than the
value of their homes, Gibson said.
When looking for a property to
develop, buyers should check with the Illinois State
Geological Survey at
www.isgs.uiuc.edu to find out whether the
property is undermined, Gibson said. If it is, he
recommends not building there. And those who choose
to build on top of old mines should buy mine
subsidence insurance, he said.
The Illinois Mine Subsidence
Insurance Fund was created by the Illinois General
Assembly in 1979 and requires insurance companies to
make mine subsidence insurance available to
customers, the fund's President and CEO Randolph
Beck said.
Funded by subsidence premiums
collected by insurance companies, the Mine
Subsidence Fund reimburses the companies for their
losses. It also sets rates, provides underwriting
guidance and investigates claims.
In 34 mine-rich counties,
including St. Clair and Madison, mine subsidence
insurance is required to be rolled into property
insurance automatically, unless customers opt out of
it.
Doyne McGinthy, an agent at
American Family Insurance in O'Fallon, said at least
99 percent of his customers keep the mine subsidence
insurance.
About 43,000 homes in St.
Clair County, and about 33,000 in Madison County
were covered by mine subsidence insurance as of the
third quarter of 2007, Beck said.
The current maximum coverage
is $350,000, and the average annual premium for that
is $128, Beck said. The Mine Subsidence Insurance
Fund will increase maximum coverage to $750,000 in
April for claims effective after the date of the
increase. The average premium for a home insured for
$130,000 is $61 per year.
Because it is not always
possible to know whether a property is undermined,
all homeowners living in coal mining areas should
take steps to protect their property, such as buying
insurance.
"Anywhere there's mining,
there is the potential," Gibson said.
Contact reporter Laura
Girresch at
lgirresch@bnd.com or 239-2507.
