Powell River Project



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 reference streams with watersheds that are  relatively undisturbed. However, 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 are do occur within the reference streams. 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. The structure of macroinvertebrate communities below the hollow fills, although different from the communities that found in the reference streams, reflect these differences.

Scientific publications describing these results are currently under development.

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.