Acid Mine Drainage Impacts

Research Summary

Don Cherry, of Virginia Tech's Department of Biology, has been working to characterize the impacts of acid mine drainage (AMD) on aquatic ecosystems since 1994. The goal of that first project was to characterize the aquatic ecosystem impacts of AMD from abandoned mines in the Clinch and Powell River watersheds. This first project was co-sponsored by Powell River Project, and the Nature Conservancy's Virginia Chapter. The results of this work were utilized by Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy in 1996 to identify two high-priority sites for reclamation under the U.S. Office of Surface Mining "Clean Streams Initiative" program. One of the two high-priority sites is being reclaimed with Clean Streams Initiative funds; the other site is being reclaimed through a combination of remining by an active operation and Clean Streams Initiative expenditures.

Since 1996, Dr. Cherry has continued his research on the impacts of acid mine drainage from abandoned mines, with sponsorship funds provided by the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy and the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. Dr. Cherry is currently working with the Army Corps' Powell River Ecosystem Study, which is expected to result in allocation of substantial federal funds to reclaim abandoned mines in the Powell River watershed. The current focus of this research is the prioritization of sites within Powell River sub-watersheds for reclamation by use of an Ecotoxicological Rating (ETR) system. The ETR incorporates chemical, toxicological, and ecological data to provide a single number that describes the relative environmental status of a given site within a sub-watershed. Ratings range from 0 to 100, and stations are categorized based on percentiles similar to that used in an academic grading system. A score of greater than 90 percent suggests excellent aquatic habitat relative to other stations in the area, 80 to 89 is above average, 70 to 79 is average and so on. Stations with ratings equivalent to a below average (D) or failing (F) grade receive the greatest emphasis for reclamation

Other current research activities include investigation of ecosystem effects of AMD beyond the zone of pH depression. While a number of investigators have documented that the combination of acidic pH and metals negatively affect aquatic communities, Dr. Cherry's recent work has shown that aquatic communities may be significantly impacted by AMD in neutral waters below acidic tributaries. Metals released by the AMD are hydrolyzed when the pH increases due to dilution by receiving streams, resulting in precipitation of metals on the stream substrate. While precipitated metals are carried downstream adsorbed to sediment particles, potentially contributing to bioaccumulation of metals by aquatic organisms, the dissolved, hydrolyzed metals in the process of forming precipitates may actually cause acute toxicity up to a mile downstream of the confluence of the acidic tributary. Efforts also have been made to quantify the effects of AMD impacted sub-watersheds on the Powell River watershed by investigating metal bioaccumulation from water to sediment and periphyton to Asian clams as a surrogate test species for native freshwater mussels. This work may contribute to the understanding of the cause of the native mussel decline in the watershed.

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Publications

Simon M., D. Cherry, R. Currie, C. Zipper. 2006. The ecotoxicological recovery of Ely Creek and tributaries (Lee County, VA) after remediation of acid mine drainage. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 123:109-124.

Schmidt, T. S., D. J. Soucek and D. S. Cherry.  2002.  Integrative bioassessment of  small acid mine drainage impacted watersheds in the Powell River watershed.  Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry  (in press 2/03).

Soucek, D., D. Cherry and C. Zipper. 2002. Impacts of mine drainage and other nonpoint source pollutants on aquatic biota in the upper Powell River system, Virginia. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment (in press 2/03).

Soucek, D. J., B. C. Denson, T. S. Schmidt, D. S. Cherry and C. E. Zipper. 2002.  Impaired Acronouria sp. (Plocoptera, Perlidae) populations associated with aluminum contaminated in neutral pH surface waters.  Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology  42:416-422.

Soucek, D. J., T. S. Schmidt, D. S. Cherry and C. E. Zipper.  2002.  Asian Clam growth responses to dilute mine drainage and urban inputs in the Powell River, Virginia, USA:  The Ecological Relevance of Transplant Tests.  Journal of Aquatic Ecosystems Stress & Recovery  (in press 2/03).

Cherry, D. S., R. J. Currie, D. J. Soucek, H. A. Latimer and G. C. Trent. 2001.  An Integrative Assessment of Watershed Impacted by Abandoned Mined Land Discharges.  Environmental Pollution  111:377-388.

Schmidt, T. S., D. J. Soucek and D. S. Cherry.  2002.  Modification of an ecotoxicological rating to bioassay small acid mine drainage impacted watersheds exclusive of benthic macroinvertebrate analysis.  Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry  21:1091-1097.

Schmidt, T. 2001. Development of an Ecotoxicological Rating System to Prioritize Sites within an Acid Mine Drainage Impacted Watershed. M.S. thesis, Department of Biology.

Soucek, D.J. 2001. Integrative Bioassessment of Acid Mine Drainage Impacts Upon the Powell River Watershed. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Biology.

Soucek, D. J., T. S. Schmidt, and D. S. Cherry.  2001.  In situ studies with Asian clams (Corbicula flumenia) to detect acid mine drainage and nutrient inputs in low order streams.  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 58:602-608.

Soucek, D. J., D. S. Cherry and C. E. Zipper.  2001.  Aluminum and iron dominated toxicity in neutral waters below an acid mine drainage discharge.  Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 58:2396-2404.

Schmidt,  T., D. Soucek, D. Cherry, R. Currie, H. Latimer, and C. Trent. 2000. Integrative bioassessement techniques to predict ecotoxicological impairment by acid mine drainage. P. 162-169, in: Proceedings, National Meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation.

Soucek, D.J., D. Cherry, R. Currie, H. Latimer, and G. Trent. 2000. Laboratory to field validation in an impacted integrative assessment of an acid mine drainage-impacted watershed. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 19:1036-1043.

Soucek, D., D. Cherry, R.J. Currie, H.A. Latimer, and C. Zipper. 2000, Ecotoxicological impacts of acid mine drainage in streams of increasing order in the Powell River watershed, Virginia. p. 83-90, in: Proceedings, National Meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation.

Soucek, D.J., D.S. Cherry, and G.C. Trent. 2000. Relative acute toxicity of acid mine drainage water column and sediments to Daphnia magna in Puckett's Creek watershed, Virginia, USA. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 38:305-310.

Zipper, C. 2000.  Coal mine reclamation, acid mine drainage, and the Clean Water Act. Chapter 7, In:  R. Barnhisle, W.L. Daniels, and R. Darmody (eds).  Reclamation of Drastically Lands. American Society of Agronomy. Madison, WI.

Soucek, D., R. Currie, D. Cherry, H. Latimer, and C. Trent. 1998. Benthic macroimnvertegrate assemblages and sediment toxidity testing in the Ely Creek Watershed Restoration Project. p. 744, in: Proceedings, 15th Annual National Meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation.

Yeager, J.L. J. Bidwell, D. Cherry, and C. Zipper. 1996. Abandoned mined land impacts on water and sediment quality , and invertebrate assemblages in two Virginia watersheds. p. 874, in: Proceedings, 13th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation.