Acid Mine Drainage Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

WVU Researchers Aim To Convert Mine Water Pollutants Into Industrial Materials

West Virginia University researchers are extracting minerals from toxic mine water runoff and converting it into industry materials, with the help of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Coal mining can expose minerals like pyrite to oxygen from rainwater and the air. In turn, this pyrite creates sulfuric acid — a toxin to aquatic wildlife that frequently enters water runoff.

But new research at West Virginia University (WVU) aims to remove harmful minerals from acid mine drainage, and repurpose them into usable industrial materials.

Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of WVU’s Water Research Institute, began working on the project in 2016. His team has already developed technology to extract minerals like pyrite from local water supplies, effectively ridding it of mine pollutants.

“You have to treat the acid mine drainage… [in] a treatment plant or facility,” he said. “We have a process that basically is a way of treating acid mine drainage while recovering valuable minerals and cleaning up the environment at the same time.”

Ziemkiewicz said that his team helps operate a plant near Grant County that treats from 500 to 1,000 gallons of acid mine drainage per minute. According to Ziemkiewicz, facilities like these help proactively treat drainage before it enters a body of water.

Minerals extracted from this drainage can be repurposed for industrial benefits, which brings additional value to the extraction process, he said.

An additional $5 million in funding secured this week from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) will help the team embark upon part two of the project: converting extracted minerals into industrial materials.

Ziemkiewicz said his team secured the funding after responding to a DOE project solicitation sent out nationally. The group has received funding from the DOE roughly 10 times, he said.

“What we’re doing now is taking that concentrate and developing new processes that are very environmentally friendly, and that will take those mixtures of rare earth and other metals and separate those into individual, usable components,” Ziemkiewicz said.

Rare earth elements are used in a variety of goods ranging from cell phones to alternative energy technology, he said. Many of these elements are primarily imported from China, but Ziemkiewicz said projects like his own could develop methods of obtaining them domestically.

Additionally, state law grants individuals or groups who treat acid mine drainage rights to the usage of extracted materials. This means treatment plants can sell the materials they extract and use them to finance operations, Ziemkiewicz said.

Beyond sustaining environmental upsides, Ziemkiewicz said that the prospect of self-funded treatment plants would also stand to create jobs for coalfield communities devastated by the decline of the mining industry.

“Being able to bring in an industry that cleans up the previously polluted water while creating economic opportunities through the extraction of the rare earth is creating wealth for these communities,” he said. “It creates wealth where previously you had basically environmental degradation.”

Manchin Blames McConnell For Senate Failure Of Permitting Bill

Manchin’s bill to overhaul permitting for fossil fuel and renewable energy projects couldn’t get the 60 votes it needed to advance in the 100-member chamber.

Last week, the Senate voted down Sen. Joe Manchin’s bill to fast-track the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Manchin, D-WV, says he knows why.

Manchin’s bill to overhaul permitting for fossil fuel and renewable energy projects couldn’t get the 60 votes it needed to advance in the 100-member chamber.

He got 40 Democrats to go along and needed 20 Republicans.

But when the Senate Republican leader announced his opposition, that was pretty much the end of it.

“And I watched it happen, and Mitch McConnell held all the Republicans off,” Manchin said. “We got seven. That was it.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, was one of the seven who signed on. President Joe Biden also gave it his endorsement.

Manchin said he plans to try again next year.

Manchin did chalk up a win, though, for West Virginia in the big spending bill Congress is about to pass. It includes the STREAM Act, which will allow funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to be used to clean up acid mine drainage.

New Research Finds Toxic Risks For Some Coal Waste Disposal In W.Va.

Two of coal’s pollution legacies are acid mine drainage, the waste from mining coal, and fly ash, waste from burning coal. For years, some energy companies have put the waste into wet or dry storage impoundments.

Research has proved that combining fly ash with acid mine drainage can neutralize the acid. But a new study called, “Water quality implications of the neutralization of acid mine drainage with coal fly ash from India and the United States” found that the combination can be toxic, and include things like arsenic, lead and more.

A few years ago companies began using it in abandoned coal mines to neutralize some of the acid drainage.

In fact, putting fly ash into former mine sites is done in West Virginia. The study found that the combination can cause contamination harmful to human health.

“We realized that the properties of coal ash allows it to neutralize very acidic fluids like acid mine drainage,” AvnerVengosh, Professor of Environmental Quality at Duke University said.

The article was published in Fuel, an open-access, peer-reviewed research journal about fuel science.

Vengosh is one of the authors.

“Some fly ash has a very successful ability to neutralize acid mine drainage,” Vangosh said. “For example, [fly ash] in India, because of the chemistry of the original coal, they have less capacity to neutralize acid mine drainage. But coming back to the U.S., we found that the Appalachian fly ash, fly ash that we use so commonly in West Virginia, has pretty good capability of neutralization. However, because of the chemistry of the fly ash, and because it contains high concentrations of contaminants like arsenic, selenium, molybdenum, some elements that we know could hurt human health and the environment.

“When we [observed] the interaction of acid mine drainage with the fly ash, we actually found a negative impact on the treated effluent. So it’s like, pick your poison. On one hand, we are reducing the acidity of the acid mine drainage and it becoming no acid anymore, and therefore it’s very beneficial. However, on the other hand, we are generating what we call secondary contamination. So the fly ash would contribute contaminants into those effluent.”

Even though contaminants like arsenic occur naturally in the environment, it’s still dangerous to human health.

“Even a small amount of arsenic could be devastating for your health. So the fact that it’s coming from naturally occurring has nothing to do with its toxicity and its impact on human health,” Vengosh said. “This is really important. The quality of the water in West Virginia is one of the best I’ve ever measured in my life. Because of the spring and the water, the surface water is really clean. However, once you start to have mining, mountaintop mining, and or acid mine drainage, this high quality of water deteriorates very quickly.

“Water is becoming a major issue and one of the consequences of climate change. And global warming that we are seeing is that water in some areas is becoming more scarce. And we’re talking about water, the amount of water, but the quality in many parts of the world are being degraded because of climate change as well. So preserving clean water is really essential for our next generation to come.”

Vengosh said he’s not an activist, but he hopes to see new policies that protect public health based on this research.

“I think, is awareness that, regardless of your political belief, regardless where you come from, you have to understand the fact that coal ash is, and coal mining in general, presents challenges to our environment and to human health.

“I hope that there will be some kind of political consequences that people would say, ‘stop hurting, stop polluting our water,’ and that we are not putting ourselves in danger.”

Vangosh also wants to take this research on location in the “real world” and question the benefits of such disposal.

“I would expect the West Virginia authorities [WVDEP] would jump into that and test all the water that’s coming from those abandoned coal mines,” Vengosh said, “and to determine what are the actual risks on the ground for people who live there.”

Cleanup On The Cheat Underway Following Acid Mine Drainage Leak

Environmental advocates are beginning to measure the impact after the failure of an acid mine treatment facility last week in Preston County that sent high acidic water and sediment flowing downstream for miles.

The state-managed, $8.5 million treatment plant on Muddy Creek was one of the last major steps put in place to restore the Cheat River watershed. Last Thursday, a pipeline ruptured at the plant following heavy rainfall in the region.

Crews have since repaired the pipeline and the acidity of the stream water has stabilized, according to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP).

Amanda Pitzer, director of the environmental group Friends of the Cheat, said the full impact isn’t known right now but it’s definitely a setback.

“My guess is, Muddy Creek is going to be fairly devastated by this release because it was so fragile to start with,” Pitzer said.

For the first time in decades, essential microorganisms in the water had begun to regenerate, and last year, 10 species of fish were found in the stream. Pitzer said the organization will conduct tests to determine the impact on these fragile emerging populations

The confluence of orange acid mine drainage from Muddy Creek and blue, clear water from the Cheat can be seen on aerial footage captured by the Friends of the Cheat during the release.

The Cheat River was stained for several miles into the canyon towards Cheat Lake.

“It’s too early to say what the long-term impacts will be,” Pitzer said. “The good news is we have not seen any dead fish.”

While the impact of the blowout appears not as severe as similar blowouts in 1994 and 1995, she said it highlights the need for better communication between state agencies and local organizations and a contingency plan for future high-water events.

The WVDEP is investigating to determine the cause of the ruptured pipeline with the help of private industry and experts from West Virginia University.

Terry Fletcher, DEP’s acting communications director, said the investigation into the incident is ongoing and the next steps will be decided at its conclusion.

The plant is equipped to handle up to 7,600 gallons per minute during a blowout and last week’s high water event peaked below the maximum capacity at 6,200 gallons per minute.

Pitzer said the episode highlights the need for the reauthorization of the Abandoned Mine Land fee, a key source of funding for her organization and others like it. Without congressional action, it is set to expire this September.

While the river and land will heal over time from last week’s rush of acidic water, Pitzer said the land deserves a higher level of stewardship.

“Every time we get a rainstorm, we cannot have this happen or we will never see restoration,” she said. “Fish need clean water 100 percent of the time.”

State Environmental Authorities Plug Acid Mine Drainage Leak

This wasn’t the first time Dave Bassage had seen orange water gush down the hillside and into Muddy Creek.

He was kayaking down the stream when the original blowout happened in 1994 at the abandoned T&T Mine Complex in Preston County.

Last Thursday, another blowout overwhelmed a pipeline at the $8.5 million treatment facility and sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of highly acidic water and sediment into the creek.

The water ran orange once again.

“It was like a recurring bad dream,” Bassage said “It really hit me in the gut.”

State environmental authorities said Monday that crews have contained the leak at the acid mine drainage treatment facility.

Water levels from the mine and the acidity of Muddy Creek have returned to normal, according to a statement from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP).

Due in part to heavy rainfall, the facility experienced a sudden increase in water pressure last Thursday. A pipeline was damaged as a manhole ruptured, allowing 300 to 500 gallons per minute of untreated water to bypass the plant, according to a WVDEP statement.

Bassage, the founder and former director of Friends of the Cheat, a nonprofit devoted to restoring the watershed, created the organization after the first blowouts in 1994 and 1995. Those events brought national attention and funding to the Cheat Watershed.

For the last 25 years, the organization worked to restore the Cheat Watershed from the effects of acid mine drainage and bring the river back to life. Just this past year, biologists found 10 species of fish at the mouth of Muddy Creek for the first time in years.

In a statement following the most recent blowout, the environment group called it a “major ecological setback” for Muddy Creek’s recently re-emerging fish population.

“This is ever more proof of the risk abandoned mine lands pose to healthy ecosystems, and that our work is not done,” the group wrote.

The plant is built to treat up to 4,200 gallons per minute of acid mine drainage. During a blowout, the facility can handle up to 7,600 gallons every minute.

During last week’s blowout, the flow peaked below the total capacity of the facility at 6,200 gallons per minute.

WVDEP is working with experts from West Virginia University Water Research Institute and the private sector to determine the exact cause of the blowout and find solutions to prevent future ones.

Since its completion in 2018, the treatment plant has successfully cleaned up Muddy Creek, a waterway previously devoid of life.

Bassage said the important “little bugs” required for a healthy creek ecosystem had returned and the water was less acidic and metallic.

With a rush of orange water last week, the delicate balance of fostering new life in streams long plagued with pollution was laid bare.

“All of a sudden, my old home watershed is being horribly insulted,” Bassage said. “It’s going to take a while to get it back to where it was just a year ago.”

Pilot Project Mines Coal Waste For Valuable Rare Earth Elements

A pilot-scale facility that extracts valuable rare earth elements from coal waste byproducts officially opened its doors this week at West Virginia University.

Advocates of the project are hopeful that environmental waste left by Appalachia’s coal mining legacy could one day fuel an economic boom in the region while also providing some national security.

“This could go a long way forward in creating new economic opportunity for West Virginia and this region and treat acid mine drainage, and turn it into a financial boon instead of a financial burden,” Brian Anderson, director of WVU’s Energy Institute told the crowd.

The Rare Earth Extraction Facility located at the National Research Center for Coal and Energy on WVU’s Evansdale campus in Morgantown is a collaboration between the university, the Department of Energy (DOE) and private partners.

The research facility extracts valuable rare earth elements from acid mine drainage (AMD), which is the most abundant pollutant in West Virginia waters. In just West Virginia and Pennsylvania, it’s estimated that about 10,000 miles of streams are polluted by AMD.

17 rare earth elements exist on the planet and they’re used in everything from cellphones to stealth bombers. While ubiquitous in the earth’s crust, they’re called “rare” because they don’t exist anywhere in concentrated amounts. Currently, China dominates the global rare earth elements market.

“Without those rare earth elements, we can’t have energy security, we can’t have financial security, we can’t have defense security,” said Steven Winberg, assistant secretary for fossil energy at the Department of Energy. “That’s how impactful this is.”

Developing a domestic source of rare earth elements is a research priority for the DOE. The agency kicked in much of the funding for the pilot facility and researchers from the National Energy Technology Laboratory have participated in the project.

Still More to Learn

At the pilot plant, sludge from the nearby Omega Mine in Grafton is treated with a series of acidic chemicals. Then, it’s filtered through up to 100 milk carton-sized mixers that quietly whir, no louder than your run-of-the-mill fan. At every stage, the rare earth elements separate out.

Two of the mixers at the Rare Earth Extraction Facility at WVU.

What remains is a concentrated amalgamation of a bunch of rare earth elements that will need to be further processed.

Paul Ziemkiewicz is director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute and the lead developer behind this project. He said it’s likely the elements will separate at some degree.

“But we won’t really know until we run this thing,” he said.

The pilot plant aims to iron out the kinks before this process can be scaled up, but if it can be done, Ziemkiewicz believes it could mean an economic windfall for the region. His team estimates Appalachia’s coal sludge could produce up to 800 tons of these elements each year, worth more than $190 million.

He said they hope to be able to scale up the project for commercial use within five years.