About the Inventory 

There are thousands of miles of steams in the Appalachian Region that have been contaminated by drainage from abandoned underground and surface coal mined lands. In some areas, acid mine drainage is the largest single source of water quality impairment.  This inventory is of treatment systems constructed to address mine drainage from abandoned mine land sources.  That is, the mining causing the discharge occurred prior to implementation of the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.

There has been a significant growth in activity over the last 10 to 15 years to address the impacts of AMD on streams of the Appalachian Region. Dozens of local watershed groups have been formed to address water quality issues including AMD.  Federal and State agencies have dedicated significant funding and technical support to the construction of treatment facilities, and hundreds of treatment facilities have been constructed. Because individual projects are often funded and constructed through partnerships, with many different sponsors, OSM found a lack of consolidated information regarding the scope of the effort.  There was a consensus among the AMD treatment partners that a single consolidated data base of treatment projects would provide valuable information in the decision making processes.

Therefore, OSM has conducted an extensive outreach to State and Federal agencies, local governments, watershed groups, other non-profit organizations, consultants and others involved in the funding, construction and operation of AMD treatment projects. The goal is to collect basic project information on all AML/AMD treatment projects, and have it available in one data base.

Either by using the simple queries included in this web site, or by downloading the complete data base, users can identify all the treatment projects in a watershed, county, state; where they are located; the source of the AMD, the treatment technology used, the total cost of the project; the primary funding partners and their contribution; and some basic water quality information. We hope users find that having this information in one location, will provide useful information in knowing where the projects are located, making decisions regarding the selection of future treatment projects, evaluating the applicability of different treatment technologies, as well as who the primary funding partners are and how much funds have been dedicated to the effort.

Caution:  As with any data base, things are always changing. Although OSM made an extensive effort to find all the AMD treatment projects, there are probably some that were not found.  Also, there are new projects being constructed all the time. Our information on existing projects may also not be wholly accurate, complete or current. Therefore, OSM welcomes feedback to alert us to new, updated or corrected information.  It is our intent to re-canvas the primary funding partners and responsible organizations at least once a year to update the inventory.  Please feel free to use the contacts listed on the web site for comments and new or better information.

Caution:  The water quality information is probably the weakest part of the data base. Information came from existing sources, and was not field updated or verified by OSM.  For some projects on the inventory, virtually no water quality information was available. For others, only limited outdated water quality is included. Water quantity and quality and project treatment effectiveness can change rapidly. OSM welcomes the submission of recent project water quality and quantity data.

Terms:

Acid Mine Drainage -  This is a term that is used to encompass all water discharging from coal mines.  However, mine water can exhibit a wide range of characteristics ranging from near pH neutral, 7, to extremely acidic with pHs in the 2 to 3 range. Mine drainage may not even be “acidic”, and be classified as “net alkaline”  Whether mine water is net acidic or net alkaline determines the type of treatment technology that will be used.

 Metals dissolved or suspended in mine water including iron and aluminum, can kill aquatic life in a dissolved state (aluminum) and smother aquatic life when precipitated even if the pH is near neutral.

Passive Treatment -  This term is used to describe a large variety of treatment technologies including aerobic wetlands for net alkaline mine water, to alkalinity addition systems for net acidic water. The term is used to distinguish a body of treatment technologies which do not require frequent operation and maintenance activities, from active treatment technologies in which chemicals are introduced into the mine water by metering devices that require monitoring, from tanks that must be refilled on a periodic basis. However, in recent years, hybrid systems have been developed that incorporate active components such as mechanical aerators, piping and siphons to flush treatment beds, with passive components such as aerobic wetlands and vertical flow beds.

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