Powell River Project has been conducting research on acid mine drainage treatment since the early 1990s.

Dr. Albert Hendricks, Virginia Tech Biology Department, installed the first subsurface-flow "wetland" (commonly known as "SAPS," or successive alkalinity producing systems) to treat acid mine drainage at an abandoned sulfided mine near Galax, Virginia in 1987. In 1991 working with Powell River Project and Westmoreland Coal Company, he installed a similar system to treat acidic leachate from a coal-refuse disposal site in Wise County. That system was described in a research paper written by Dr. Hendricks' graduate student, Khrys Duddleston, in 1992. That system remains in operation today.

In 1998 and 1999, graduate student Christopher Jage, working with Carl Zipper and Dr. Albert Hendricks, developed design guidelines for SAPS systems. These guidelines provide a means for predicting the degree of water-quality renovation likely to result from construction of a SAPS system of a given size, given influent water quality and flow assumptions. The scientific basis for these guidelines is currently in the process of academic review.

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Publications

Zipper, C., and C. Jage. 2001. Passive Treatment of Acid-Mine Drainage with Vertical-Flow Systems. Virginia Cooperative Extension Publication 460-133.

Jage, C., C.E. Zipper, and R. Noble. 2001. Factors affecting alkalinity generation by successive alkalinity-producing systems: Regression analysis. Journal of Environmental Quality 30:1015-1022.

Jage, C. 2000. Water-quality based design guidelines for successive alkalinity producing systems used in treating acid mine drainage. M.S. Thesis. Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences. 109 pages.

Jage, C., C. Zipper, and A.Hendricks. 2000. Factors affecting performance of successive alkalinity producing systems. p. 451-458, In: Proc., 2000 National Meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation (ASSMR). Tampa, FL.

Jage, C., and C.E. Zipper. 1999. Design Factors and Performance Efficiencies of Successive Alkaline Producing Systems. P. 735, in: Proceedings, 1999 National Meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation. Scottsdale, AZ. (Poster Abstract).

Duddleston, K. N. 1993. The Effect of Carbon Addition, pH and Fe Concentration on Microbial Sulfate Reduction and the Subsequent Precipitation of Fe and Mn from Acid Mine Drainage in Wetland Mesocosms . M.S. Thesis, Biology.

Duddleston, K. N., A. C. Hendricks, and J. L. Neal. 1993. The Effect of Carbon and pH on the Reduction of Sulfate by Sulfate Reducing Bacteria and the Subsequent Precipitation of Fe and Mn in Simulated Wetland Mesocosms. Proceedings, 1993 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation, p. 181.

Duddleston, K.N. E. Fritz, A.C. Hendricks, and K. Roddenberry. 1992. Anoxic cattail wetland for treatment of water associated with coal mining activities. p. 249-254, In: Proceedings, 1992 National Meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation.