Deckers Creek Acid Mine Drainage ARRA Project

Beulah Chapel Site 1 Visit

Acid mine drainage (AMD) has degraded the water quality in Deckers Creek by lowering its pH and introducing high concentrations of iron and aluminum. The Deckers Creek Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) Remediation Project will treat acid mine drainage from mining sites using passive treatment measures such as open limestone channels, limestone ponds, and settling ponds. The project is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Beulah Chapel Site 1 (Preston County) was completed August 6, 2010. It is one of four project sites.

Large-scale coal mining started in the Deckers Creek watershed at the turn of the twentieth century. Most of the abandoned deep mines along Deckers Creek produce acid drainage because of the acidic nature of the Upper Freeport coal seam that runs through the area. Water seeps into the abandoned mine workings until the mine pool rises above the level of the creek. Much coal was mined and their associated workings abandoned long before the passage of the Clean Water Act and Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Water from most of these deep mines flows into Deckers Creek untreated.

The original watershed plan was authorized in 1963 under the authority of Public Law 83-566. This project is the result of a Supplemental Watershed Plan which addressed the acid mine drainage degradation issues in the watershed. The project partners are the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Monongahela Conservation District, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection – Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation, and the West Virginia Conservation Agency.

	Kevin Wickey (State Conservationist) discusses work at the Beulah Chapel site with Joseph Seybert (Project Manager), James Allen (Inspector), and Matt Pyle (Project Engineer/COTR). Assistant State Conservationists Louis Aspey and Herb Andrick also reviewed the work in progress for the Deckers Creek water quality initiative.
	Kevin Wickey (State Conservationist), Joseph Seybert (Project Manager), and Matt Pyle (Project Engineer/COTR), discuss the remediation measures used on the Beulah Chapel project.
	An open limestone channel is a passive treatment measure to increase the pH of the mine drainage and aerate it as it flows through the limestone. These processes cause the metals in solution to precipitate from the water.
	Water flows into a settling pond to collect sediment and precipitates before entering Deckers Creek. The pond above is partially complete but functional.

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