You know Texas for its vast oil fields, tough attitudes in ten gallon hats, extreme heat, and its conservative politics. What you might not think of when you think of Texas is its environmental conservation, which began in the 1970s. What might surprise you even more is that NRG Energy went above and beyond state reclamation requirements after they closed their Jewett lignite mine. Three years after they closed the mine, they reached out to Texan by Nature (a nonprofit conservation organization) to find out what more they could do to serve the communities they’d been part of for four decades. The result of this consultation is the Dewey Prairie Garden built on the former Jewett mining site.
How the Transformation Happened
Texan by Nature suggested that NRG set aside 10 acres of the former coal mine to build a community produce garden. This was based on the fact that the three counties closest to the mine (Leon, Freestone, and Limestone) have some of the highest rates of food insecurity and obesity in Texas. According to Feeding America, Leon County has a food insecurity rate of 19.6 percent. Freestone has a rate of 19 percent, and Limestone has a rate of 20.1 percent.
Together, that’s a devastating 69.9 percent higher than the national average of food insecurity rates. Most people in these counties are at least ten miles from a grocery store, putting them in a food desert. There is a clear need for better access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
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It might not seem that turning an acre of land into a vegetable producing plot is a particularly difficult project. It’s not like creating the next garden of Versailles. However, turning a former coal strip mine back into fertile environmentally safe land suitable for supporting both wildlife and food for humans, it turns out, is almost exactly like moving mountains full of toxic waste.
Many people might not be aware that land reclamation of abandoned and closed surface mines in Texas began with legislation passed in 1975/1976. It required all companies surface-mining coal to have permits and post a bond for each site they operate. This was before the Federal government issued similar legislation in 1977. As you can see, Texas was ahead of the national environmental conservation curve. NRG set aside $112 million dollars in bonds and began the reclamation process one year after they started mining in 1985. They anticipated that the entire reclamation process might take longer than the mine would remain operational.
The Process of Transforming a Coal Mine into a Farm
The strip mining process starts by removing top soil and storing it in piles. This is followed by the subsoil and rocks (called the “overburden”) being piled separately. Once the lignite (brown coal) is extracted, the pits are refilled with the overburden and top soil. Moving enough soil to fill each pit can take up to a year. The process of extracting lignite leaves the ground full of toxic waste. This primarily comes from fly ash and heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury.
After the old pits are filled, they are graded and planted with whatever vegetation was growing in the area before the mining began. This is followed by eight to 12 years of monitoring the areas for toxic chemical levels. So far, NRG has fully reclaimed 5,590 acres of the whole 35,000. They planted 700 acres in wetlands and 3,500 acres with native grasses. This all has to happen long before an area is deemed safe to grow food for humans.
A project this ambitious took a lot of cooperation. In this case, between NRG, Texan by Nature, as well as other partners such as Rooted In (a landscape firm). They all played key roles in making sure that the farm garden included as many sustainable features built into the hardscaping as possible. Water conservation is becoming a serious concern worldwide, but it’s especially vital in areas like Jewett that are hot and depend on groundwater for all their water needs. RI used a solar well pump repurposed from the NRG mine and installed a rain harvesting system to reduce dependence on ground water. Drip irrigation is another important feature as it can reduce water runoff and evaporation almost completely.
What Does This Garden Grow?
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The garden includes vegetable rows, raised beds, a pollinator garden, and an orchard. RI owners Patrick Dickinson and Daniel Cunningham, worked with Texan by Nature and the food pantries they’re partnering with to design the garden. They tailored the produce plant choices to the needs and tastes of the communities they’re serving. To increase the garden’s resiliency, careful attention was given to choosing specific plant cultivars. They chose those that are proven reliable in the sometimes unpredictable harsh Texas climate. Furthermore, they prioritized crop rotation into their plan. This same care was given to the plants for the pollinator garden connected to the vegetable plots and orchard.
This one-acre plot is producing two tons of produce a year, feeding 3,000 people. Nourishing the community may be NRG Dewey Prairie Garden’s most vital function, but that’s not its only priority. It also serves as an educational opportunity. Local school children and adults use the garden to learn about growing food, nutrition, and conservation. The success of this project serves as a clear reminder that environmental conservation and human needs aren’t mutually exclusive. It offers a blueprint for other energy giants across the country (maybe even the world) to use in their own environmental reclamation work.
While Texas remains the biggest energy producing state in the US, we might all need to start seeing it as a leader in cooperative conservation as well.
After all, it has shown us that turning coal into food is more valuable than diamonds.
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