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Reclaiming Value from Former AEP Mine Lands: Balancing Economic and Environmental Benefits

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Sustainable Electricity II

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Abstract

When conflicts arise, sometimes compromises must be made to balance resource extraction from reclaimed mine lands for economic benefit while reestablishing ecological communities and functional ecosystems. The resulting narrative encompasses mine land reclamation, forestry practices, natural gas extraction, and ecosystem services, such as species conservation, carbon sequestration, and water management. The choices that are made are tradeoffs – giving up one thing to get more of another. In the effort to protect the environment and natural resources, the challenge comes in finding approaches to environmental management that give people the quality of life they seek while protecting environmental systems that are also foundational to society’s well-being.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    McManus, John. Personal communication. 15 December 2017.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support and assistance of Sandra Nessing and Melissa Tominack, who provided important guidance and help with the development of this chapter. Their insight, particularly as related to sustainability issues, proved invaluable.

Author Profiles

Timothy W. Lohner 

Dr. Lohner is a consulting environmental specialist at American Electric Power (AEP). Prior to joining AEP, Dr. Lohner was employed by Virginia Power, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company. At AEP, he addresses issues involving the implementation of water quality standards, the permitting of carbon capture and storage projects, the development of state and federal regulations governing water resources, environmental disclosure reporting, vegetation management for biodiversity, and the implementation of ecosystem resource projects in the Ohio River basin. Dr. Lohner holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Cincinnati and masters and doctorate degrees in environmental toxicology from the Ohio State University. He currently serves as an advisor to the Electric Power Research Institute, the Utility Water Act Group, the Edison Electric Institute, and the Columbus State Environmental, Health and Safety Program. He has received multiple research awards and has published numerous articles on aquatic toxicology, risk assessment, and environmental policy and is co-author of the book Sound Science, Junk Policy.

C. Michael Williams 

Williams earned bachelor’s degrees in education and photography from Ohio University in 1991. He began working with AEP in 2000 as a geographic information systems (GIS) coordinator in the Forestry Department, assisting the group with their effort to sustainably manage more than 160,000 acres of standing timber.

Williams is currently in a real estate supervisor role with AEP. Alongside a staff of 30 people, he assists in the management of over 350,000 acres of ground in 11 states. His responsibilities include acquiring property for generation and transmission use, sale of excess ground, and oversight of the Forestry Recreation and GIS sections of the department. He works with state and federal agencies to manage over 85,000 acres for public recreation – including hiking, fishing, birdwatching, and hunting – within AEP ownership.

Williams and his wife Renee live in southeast Ohio’s Hocking Hills region, just south of ReCreation Land.

Jeffrey W. Wilson 

Wilson earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Glenville State College and an associate’s degree in forestry from Hocking College. Wilson began his career in 1996 as a forester working on the climate change initiative by overseeing the planting of three million trees per year and completing selective forest management sales to sequester greenhouse gases.

Wilson is currently a forester Sr. with AEP in the Forestry Recreation and GIS sections of the Real Estate Asset Management Group. He is involved with many aspects of the management of AEP real estate, including the management of approximately 160,000 forest acres, sales of excess real estate, leasing of company assets, GIS mapping, and recreational program oversight. He has been trained by the forest service in silviculture, is an instructor at Ohio Forestry and Wildlife camp, and is a certified tree farm inspector.

Along with his family, he manages an 800-acre farm in southeast Ohio adjacent to ReCreation Land. He and his wife Carla have three children and reside on the farm.

Company Profile

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, American Electric Power (AEP) is one of the largest electric utilities in the USA, serving nearly 5.4 million customers in 11 states. Its service territory covers 200,000 square miles in Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. AEP owns nearly 26,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the USA. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a more than 40,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high-voltage transmission lines than all other US transmission systems combined. AEP’s generation and marketing competitive business segment includes subsidiaries that have nonutility generating assets, a wholesale energy trading and marketing business, and a retail supply and energy management unit.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. American Electric Power, Columbus, OH, USA

    Timothy W. Lohner, C. Michael Williams & Jeffrey W. Wilson

Authors
  1. Timothy W. Lohner
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  2. C. Michael Williams
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  3. Jeffrey W. Wilson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Timothy W. Lohner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Jessica Fox

  2. Electric Power Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA

    Morgan Scott

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Lohner, T.W., Williams, C.M., Wilson, J.W. (2019). Reclaiming Value from Former AEP Mine Lands: Balancing Economic and Environmental Benefits. In: Fox, J., Scott, M. (eds) Sustainable Electricity II. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95696-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95696-1_3

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