The AMD&Art Program

Vintondale

The Appalachian coal region has long been the stuff of legends.

Stretching from northeastern Pennsylvania to Alabama and mined for almost two centuries, the character of this region is the accumulation of hard work, exploitation, immigration, repression, resilience, bravery, provincialism, religion, deprivation, and hope. Today coal is no longer king, but the remnants of that empire, thousands of miles of abandoned mine tunnels, still prevail, dominating and despoiling, creating the most severe and dispiriting environmental problem throughout the region: Abandoned Mine Drainage.

Seeping or surging from abandoned coal mines, Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD) is the acidic, metals-laden water that coats stream beds with orange sediment, desolating entire watersheds. AMD results when groundwater dissolves minerals exposed during mining, creating an unstable aqueous solution loaded with metals such as iron, aluminum, and sulfates. When these discharges reach local streams, AMD often smothers aquatic plant and animal life beneath a bright orange layer of mineral precipitate, resulting not only in habitat destruction, but the loss of waterways as recreational, industrial, and community resources.

During the 1980's, scientists found that wetlands improved the quality of AMD polluted water. Subsequently, many natural remediation techniques have been developed and paired with wetlands. These passive treatment systems are cost efficient, low-maintenance alternatives to active treatment in which AMD is chemically treated. AMD&ART sites employ innovative systems that meet the exacting demands of passive treatment science and provide models for remediating large discharges within restricted acreage.

After extensive evaluation and public input, AMD&ART selected three sequential project sites in Southwestern Pennsylvania, not far east of Pittsburgh. Each site fulfills a specific role, progressing from a small pilot project, to a large discharge, and on to an entire watershed. Vintondale, the first AMD&ART site, offers a manageable discharge central to the community, with high visibility due to the heavily traveled Rail-Trail that it borders. Second is the Hughes Bore Hole, a site that provides a challenge on both scientific and interpretive fronts. Here, AMD&ART seeks to demonstrate new remediation techniques that can handle the sheer size of this discharge, while developing the site as an educational center which maintains its current visual integrity. Finally, our efforts expand in the Dark Shade Creek Watershed, where AMD&ART and a host of partners are engaging an entire watershed to prove that this approach can work on the scale necessary to effectively deal with abandoned mine drainage as a watershed problem and a regional solution.