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National Parks Earth Save Little Wolf PreserveHere is an acid mine drainage video montage to a song by the Dave Matthews Band: “Funny the Way It Is.” The video is interesting/depressing/sad, as are most acid mine drainage videos. However, there is nothing funny about AMD.
Teachers from the Keystone Science School and about 100 students from Summit Middle School set up research stations around the abandoned Pennsylvania Mine on Peru Creek. They measured dissolved oxygen and zinc levels and searched for aquatic insects and other signs of life to learn about water issues in the Snake River Basin. The students will analyze the data in the classroom and put together a report of their findings, said science teacher Brian Richardson.
Along with a hands-on lesson in scientific research methods, the students found out that there is little life in the Snake River around Keystone, Pennsylvania. The students who were searching for bugs found none. Students also discovered that heavy concentrations of zinc and other metals from the abandoned mine upstream exceed state and federal limits, in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Last year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggested that the area should be labeled a Superfund site to spur its cleanup. But shortsighted local officials killed the idea, apparently worried about the stigma of a Superfund listing. Superfund status or not, the Keystone area is a toxic mess that needs to be cleaned up.
Acid mine drainage is especially nasty because it can occur indefinitely without treatment, long after the mining source of the pollution has ended.
Many hardrock mines across the Western United States may require water treatment in perpetuity. For example, government officials have determined that acid drainage at the Golden Sunlight mine will continue for thousands of years.
Water treatment can be a significant economic burden on the local economy if the mining company files for bankruptcy or refuses to cover water treatment costs. For example, acid runoff from the Summitville Mine in Colorado killed all biological life in a 17-mile stretch of the Alamosa River. The site was designated a federal Superfund site, and the EPA is spending $30,000 a day to capture and treat acid runoff.
Officials in Garrett County Maryland will spend $40,000 on a consultant to study the economic impact of keeping waterways free from acid mine drainage. The funds include a $20,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
“Our commissioners are in full support of this effort,” said Meg Ellis of the county’s Economic Development Department. “We know the value of tourism and we all remember what these streams looked like before the acid from the mines was being treated. Nobody likes dirty rivers, but money talks and this study will take a look at the importance of clean water to our county’s economy.”
Water treatment company VWS Envig has created a new AMDRO technology to help fight acid mine drainage (AMD). The AMDRO technology consists of multiple processes, including clarification, media filtration, reverse osmosis and ion exchange polishing, which generate high-quality effluent with minimum pretreatment.
VWS Envig’s Martin Kotze says that water quality is a vital concern of the mining industry. “Mining operations need to maintain the quality and quantity of water resources, while ensuring that the environmental impact of their activities meets the ever-increasing environmental regulatory requirements, which are being [imposed on] the industry.”
The company provides solutions for the treatment of contaminated dam and underground mine water, and for the removal of heavy metals and other contaminants from process water to enable safe discharge. These solutions are available as portable pre-packaged or custom-engineered plants and offer a significantly reduced footprint compared with traditional technologies.
President Obama has elected a coal proponent to head the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM). Simply put, this is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
After months of internal debate, Obama passed over prominent mining reform candidates to select Joseph G. Pizarchik, a Pennsylvania mining regulator. Pizarchik has taken a pro-industry line on acid mine drainage and has become a leading advocate for disposal of toxic industrial coal ash in coal mine sites. He claims this is a “beneficial use” of the same coal combustion waste involved in the disastrous TVA spill in December that devastated 300 acres.
During his August 6th confirmation hearing, Pizarchik astonishingly claimed ignorance about mountain-top removal or what changes the Obama administration might propose, since that mining technique is not widely used in his state. That would be like the cybersecurity czar claiming ignorance of the Internet.
Obama’s choice signifies yet another broken campaign promise: to end environmentally destructive coal mining practices such as mountain-top removal. According to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), placating the coal industry has become the central plank of the administration’s environmental agenda.
“It is appointments like this that are causing many to become disillusioned with the Obama presidency,” said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. He noted the Obama administration has approved tens of permits for mountain-top mining. “Putting forward a nominee who claims ignorance on a central issue so that his true position cannot be discerned is the sort of cynical politics I thought President Obama vowed to change.”
Save the Wild U.P. is a grassroots nonprofit organization based in Marquette, Michigan with deep concerns about the economic, social, and environmental impacts of nonferrous mining. Membership is open to all who desire to help Save the Wild U.P. protect the quality of our environment and the permanent economic base of our economy by opposing experimental, historically risky, metallic sulfide or uranium mining.
There has never been a metallic sulfide mine that has failed to pollute its watershed. Once such a reaction starts, it is difficult to keep this acid drainage out of the water. When water becomes acidic, it leaches out and disperses heavy metals into lakes and streams. Heavy metals are dangerous to health, wildlife, and the environment.
According to a new article published in The Citizen:
“As mines come to the end of their lives, mining companies stop pumping water from abandoned shafts. Water can then flood in, mix with chemical sludge and eventually spill to the surface like an overflowing bath.
“The toxic brew seeps into streams and water catchments and is often used for irrigation. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has linked long-term exposure to Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) to cancer, skin lesions and mental retardation.
“The Environmental Protection Agency has previously rated the ecological risk associated with mining waste as second ‘only to global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion.’ In its March 2008 Emerging Issues Paper, the Department for Environmental Affairs and Tourism warned that long-term effects of AMD could persist for ‘several hundred years.’ ”
There are two main approaches to controlling Acid Mine Drainage (AMD): eliminate the source and treat the AMD.
Acid mine drainage is just one of the negative environmental effects that old underground mines have on the state of Pennsylvania.
