Mine Pools Pose Risks
Morgantown Dominion Post
23 December 2014
Morgantown Dominion Post Editorial
Some will call it a new front on the so-called “war on coal.”
But for many, it’s just another dark legacy that’s flowed out of
our region for decades.
This past week, the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation
and Enforcement released a report that warns underground mine
pools could pose a serious threat to the Potomac River.
The report’s focus was on the North Branch, whose source is at the
junction of Grant, Preston and Tuckers counties, of the Potomac
River Mine Pool.
That mine pool covers 12 already flooded underground mine pools
beneath the Potomac.
In a separate assessment, the report’s authors also studied the
Fairmont Mine Pool, eight large and some smaller flooded mines
underneath the Monongahela River.
All together, the Potomac and Monongahela supply drinking water to
nearly 5 million people.
The threat from these flooded mine pools is the concentrations of
iron, sulfate and total dissolved solids (TDS) that collect in
their waters.
The reports note those concentrations could pollute surface and
groundwater in these watersheds.
We’re quite familiar with pollution from abandoned mine pools’
runoff. Matter of fact, miles of a nearby stream — Deckers Creek —
have been devoid of most aquatic life for as long as most of us
have been alive.
Other such waterways, ranging from the Buckhannon River to Dunkard
Creek, have recent and past experience with mine drainage that has
degraded watersheds.
Drainage issues from mines are not easily or cheaply resolved. In
most instances, it requires virtually eternal monitoring of the
pool’s elevation and concentrations of pollutants and ensuing
treatment of its runoff.
If water levels would rise suddenly and significantly in these
major mine pools, the resulting flows into major waterways, such
as the Potomac and the Monongahela rivers, pose serious risk to
the entire water system.
The effects of large concentrations of iron, sulfate and TDS on
humans are not raised in these reports. However, judging by the
effects on the life in waterways during such incidents it’s
obvious it would be hazardous to our health, if not fatal.
Though the report does call for monitoring these mine pools, it
does not provide any mechanism or set up funding for monitoring
plans.
We urge our congressional delegation to take note of this report
and seek funding for monitoring these pools.
The potential for an overflow or breakout of such mine water is a
very real possibility.
It’s critical that we at least know when or where an outburst
might occur someday.