Even after the coal is removed from the earth, completed mining operations
often remain an ecological threat. Toxic mine drainage from abandoned deep
and surface mines plagues groundwater and streams throughout Appalachia.
A poisonous brew is created when pyrite-containing rock is dug or bulldozed
out of its eons-old rest deep within the earth and exposed to the air and
rain. A chemical reaction with water forms a rust-like substance that washes
into streams and groundwater. The water has a low pH (meaning it’s
sour like vinegar or lemon juice) and contains metals such as iron, manganese
and aluminum.
In deep mining, toxic mine drainage is formed when the coal itself is full
of pyrite. As mined out voids fill with toxic water laced with metals, pressure
builds and eventually pushes the toxic brew out of hillsides in seeps, and
through fissures in the earth, into our groundwater and waterways.
In strip mining, toxic mine drainage results from pyritic rock around and
above coal seams being exposed to water. When that rock is blasted apart
and bulldozed back into place as “backfill,” drainage through
the disturbed material releases toxic chemicals and metals.
Acidic and metal-laden water can also pool up into toxic underground lakes
in interconnected deep mine workings. While the mines are active, the mining
company is required to pump and treat the discharge. In theory, the oxygen
supply is cut off in abandoned mines, stopping the production of acid.
In practice however, mines continue to produce acid drainage long after
they are abandoned. The “Pittsburgh Pool” alone encompasses over one
million acres of metal-laden groundwater that stretches from the Monongahela
River to the Ohio River in Northern West Virginia. Toxic water from this
underground lake seeps out into streams and wells. The absence of any legally “responsible
parties” have the academics, government and industry personnel madly
searching for the money and technical know-how to deal with the problem.
Acid mine drainage is a gift that keeps on giving, killing fish and
other aquatic life, poisoning the soil and creating expensive
treatment problems downstream. Thousands of miles of streams
are rendered unusable. Untold numbers of individual well users,
public water supplies and wildlife are harmed. Long-term treatment
costs are necessary but astronomical.
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