Restoration of Streams and Hydrology on Mined
Landscapes
Coal mining in Appalachia is
controversial for a number of reasons, including the surface hydrology effects.
Flooding occurs commonly in Appalachian landscapes, and mining activities have
been blamed in some cases for increasing the severity of flood events. Other
mining-related hydrologic questions concern the disturbance of streams by
surface coal-mining operations, which is inevitable given the scale of such
operations and the intricacy of hydrologic patterns in Appalachian landscapes.
There is much public concern with the cumulative effects of surface coal mining
in surface hydrology in heavily mined Appalachian landscapes.
Coal mine reclamation
practices have advanced, in many respects, over the past decade. For example,
The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) is a reclamation method that has been
developed through scientific research for the purpose of reestablishing native
hardwood forests on coal surface mines, and FRA reclamation is now common in
several Appalachian states. It is well known that vegetation and land cover
influence hydrologic characteristics of natural landscapes. However, mine
reclamation methods are typically not evaluated for surface hydrology effects,
and the effect of surface vegetation / land cover on the hydrology of mined
landscapes has not been studied.
Another major mine
reclamation advance concerns stream restoration. In previous years, streams
disturbed by mining were commonly constructed to serve primarily as water
coveyances, using a reconstruction method known as “rock lined
channels.” Today, most streams are reconstructed using a technique known
as “Natural Stream Channel Design,” which seeks to reconstruct the
pools, riffles, and other habitat features of undisturbed streams, with the
goal of restoring the ecological functions that were lost due to the original
stream disturbance. However, the science of stream reconstruction on coal mines
is still in its early stages, and research to evaluate if, how, and how rapidly
these natural landscape / undisturbed stream processes and functions are
restored has not been investigated.
Of couse, these two concerns
– effects of mine reclamation practices on landscape hydrologic function,
and effectiveness of restoration practices used to reconstruct streams in mined
landscapees – are closely connected. Research to address these issues is
being initiated by an interdisciplinary team led by Dr. Stephen Schoenholtz,
Virginia Water Resources Research Center and Department of Forestry, which will
also involve Jack Webster (Biological Sciences), Kevin McGuire (Water Center,
and Department of Forestry). The research goal is to gain better understanding
of reconstructed hydrologic and stream processes on coal surface mines, so as
to enable improved restoration procedures by the coal mining industry.
A stream in Russell County,
Virginia, that has been restored on a mined area using natural stream channel
design.