Spearheading the Ohio Valley
Interstate Mine Drainage Control
LARRY COOK
Chairman, Coal Industry Advisory Committee to ORSANCO
Executive Vice President, Ohio Reclamation Association
Columbus, Ohio
It is doubtful whether any other pollutant offers as many problems as that
of acid mine drainage, and laboratory results have so far offered only a guide
to its control in actual practice. The basic reason for this is that acid mine
drainage is not a simple dilute solution of pure acid. Its quality has been
affected by all of the soluble materials with which it has come in contact
under conditions which do not offer the opportunity for positive control. Even
the acids picked up are not simple solutions. They are formed by the oxidation of the pyrites into any one of a series of iron sulphate or aluminum
sulphate salts. When these acid salts or a combination of them are dissolved
in the water which passes through the mine, they are subject to further action
by other materials with which the water has come in contact. The result,
which we call by the simple term acid mine drainage, is actually a complex
and variable mixture of dissolved and suspended materials, in which actions
and reactions have occurred and in which actions and reactions may continue
to take place.
Although laboratory efforts are still being made to find a simple and
positive solution to the problem, most of our activities the past few years
have been directed to the development of practical control measures which
would serve to prevent the production of the acid. In January 1960, upon
recommendation of its Engineering Committee, the Ohio River Valley Water
Sanitation Commission approved certain measures for the control of acid mine
drainage from coal mining and related operations with the adoption of Resolution 5-60. They were accepted by the Coal Industry Advisory Committee
on behalf of the industry.
Such measures were recommended in January 1960 by the ORSANCO
Engineering Committee which is comprised of the executive engineer officers of the pollution-control agencies of the states signatory to the ORSANCO
Compact, approved by the Commission, and accepted by the committees
representing the coal mining industry in the Ohio River basin, on the surface
it would seem logical to expect that they would be in general practice today.
On the other hand, a complete understanding of the conditions we are facing
may cause you to wonder how we have attained the degree of compliance
which is in effect today.
Coal mining is itself variable and complex, and these measures, which
are general in principle, are variable and complex in application to each
specific operation. They cannot be considered as separate from the operation,
but must be considered as a day-to-day part of the mining process, whether
the operation be large or small, whether it is an underground mine, a strip
mine, or an auger mine, and regardless of the terrain, the equipment used,
or the geologic conditions encountered.
Let us take a look at these control measures contained in ORSANCO
Resolution 5-60.
- 543 -