Acid Mine Drainage Status in Pennsylvania
DAVID R. MANEVAL, Acting Deputy Secretary
Department of Environmental Resources
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
INTRODUCTION
In Pennsylvania, wherever man has mined coal, he has encountered water
which has created problems for him. In the normal deep bituminous mine,
approximately three to four tons of water on the average, must be pumped for every
ton of coal which is brought to the surface. This water is not only a nuisance to the
mining engineer who must go to the extensive and expensive trouble of pumping it
out of the way but in addition, more often than not, this water is a source of
pollution when it is discharged into a surface stream. The source of this pollution lies
in the minerals which are associated with coal. Basically, pyrite and/or marcasite
minerals which are associated with both hard and soft coal measures, are iron sulfide
in a form which can be solubilized when exposed to oxygen and water. The chemical
solubilization of these minerals is felt to be a combined process of chemical
oxidation, electrochemical oxidation and biochemically catalyzed reactions.
It is hard to define an average composition for acid mine drainage. The Water
Quality Office of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined
that virtually all mine drainages can be classified into four general types. By most
measures, the highly acidic, high iron containing classification is the most toxic and
most difficult water with which to cope. In Pennsylvania alone, over 3,000 miles of
the State's 50,000 miles of streams are polluted by acid mine drainage. Coal mining
has been practiced in Pennsylvania for almost 200 years. It is said that early English
settlers made certain coal discoveries in western Pennsylvania when they observed the
typical yellow-red waters being discharged from certain mountainside coal outcrop
seeps. It was not until late 50's or early 1960's that significant and strong legislation
was enacted which required the mining industry to perform their mining in such a
way that polluted water was not discharged into the waters of the Commonwealth.
In Pennsylvania, strip mines in general create only a relatively small proportion of the
total problem while deep mines by volume contribute much the larger amount. An
estimate made by the State in 1965 indicated that water from abandoned mines
contributes roughly 1 billion gallons per day of acid mine drainage to the streams in
Pennsylvania.
STATUS OF COAL INDUSTRY
ACTIVITIES AT ACTIVE MINES
The active mining industry has been under mandate from the State Legislature
since 1965 to build water treatment plants wherever polluted waters might be
discharged into open streams. The mining industry is aggressively seeking ways to
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