\n\n“Everywhere coal is mined \u2014 however it\u2019s mined \u2014 something is left behind. At surface mines, where huge machinery strips away the top layers of the earth, the coal is separated from the surrounding rock and what remains are piles of refuse. Known as tailings or slag (or, more colloquially, culm or gob), the loose rubble is saturated with toxins and heavy metals. With each rain, more and more of the contaminants leach into the soil and nearby waterways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In underground mines, removing the coal leaves other minerals exposed. This is especially problematic in places like southeastern Ohio, where there\u2019s a lot of what Natalie Kruse Daniels, professor and director of the environmental studies program at Ohio University, calls \u201csulfur coal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrimarily what we find is pyrite \u2014 something that most people recognize as \u2018fool\u2019s gold,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cAs it\u2019s exposed to oxygen and water, that sulfide weathers and it produces acid and a lot of iron.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s what is happening below the ground at the Truetown Discharge. The mine was abandoned and sealed in 1964 with the coal gone and sulfide minerals like pyrite left behind. It filled up, either with rainwater, groundwater, captured surface water, or a combination. In 1984, mounting pressure forced open the seal and the acid brew burst forth, carrying 6,000 pounds of iron oxide \u2014 basically, rust \u2014 out into Sunday Creek every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe best estimate we have on this is that it will continue discharging for at least 600 to 800 years,\u201d says Michelle Shively MacIver. She began working with Rural Action as the Sunday Creek Watershed Coordinator more than a decade ago. Today, she\u2019s the director of project development at True Pigments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The iron oxide is heavy, MacIver explains, and at Sunday Creek it precipitates out of the water fairly quickly, building up in thick, rough-looking scales along the creek bed and the shore. \u201cThe biggest problem the iron poses is it covers the entire bottom, and it just suffocates a healthy aquatic system,\u201d she says.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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“The iron build-up is only half the problem. The other byproduct inside the mine is sulfuric acid, which lowers the water\u2019s pH too much for almost anything beyond some algae to thrive.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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“Acid mine drainage can also worsen flooding, as build-up narrows streams and creeks and reduces their capacity for floodwater.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n