Impacts of Hollow Fills on Aquatic
Communities
Research:
This research was conducted under the leadership of Don Cherry, of Virginia
Tech's Department of Biology.
The research investigated the impacts of coal-mining hollow fills on aquatic
communities in streams receiving fill drainages. Monitoring points were located
in receiving streams at various distances below the fills, to determine how any
observed effects may be mitigated by distance. The researchers worked with fills
of various ages, to determine how any observed effects are mitigated by time.
The research was conducted between 2001 and 2004 at study sites located in
Virginia and West Virginia.
The researchers found that aquatic communities below fills differed from one
another, and from a reference stream in an unmined watershed. A major factor causing these differences appeared to
be the sediment ponds below the fills. These
ponds tend to capture organic materials originating from the land vegetation,
such as leaves, that serve as primary food sources for aquatic communities,
including those which occur within the reference stream. The ponds themselves
are generally open to the sun, which creates habitat for photosynthetic algae,
while the reference streams which flow through forested areas are shaded; algae
produced in the hollow fill ponds is carried into streams draining the ponds.
The structure of macroinvertebrate communities below the hollow fills, although
different from the communities that found in the reference streams, reflect
these differences. Waters draining from the hollow fills were elevated in
conductivity, relative to the reference stream.
Publications:
Merricks, T.C., D.S. Cherry, C.E.
Zipper, R. Currie, T. Valenti. 2007. Coal-mine hollow fill and settling pond
influences on headwater streams in southern West Virginia, USA. Environmental
Monitoring and Assessment 129: 359-378.
Merricks, C., D. S. Cherry, C. E.
Zipper, R. J. Currie, and T. W. Valenti. 2005, Coal-Mine Hollow Fill and Settling
Pond Influences on Headwater Streams in Southern West Virginia. In: 2005 Powell River Project
Research and Education Program Reports.
Merricks, C. 2003. Ecotoxicological evaluation of coal-mine hollow-fill
drainages in low-order streams in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia and
West Virginia. M.S. Thesis, Department of Biology. 159 p.
Merricks, C., D. Cherry, C. Zipper. 2003. Evaluation
of Hollow Fill Drainages and Associated Settling Ponds on Water Quality and
Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities of VA and WV. In: 2003 Powell
River Project Research and Education Reports.