The West Virginia Water Research Institute (WVWRI) at West Virginia University will be administering three research projects over the next two years on the impact of coal mining on water quality across the state.
One project will use historical records dating back 30 years to study how streams recover from acid mine drainage. The project team, lead by WVWRI s Paul Ziemkiewicz, Jennifer Simmons and Craig Mains, will compare present day water quality to the historical record while comparing the stream life on mine and unmined watersheds.
“The insect larvae and other stream organisms that comprise the food source for game fish are excellent indicators of stream health,”said Mains, the projects stream biologist.”This project will allow us to get an idea of whether natural recolonization occurs and how long it takes.”
“When we plan a mine drainage treatment project, we need to understand how clean the water needs to be at the end of the day in order to sustain a viable fishery,”said Ziemkiewicz, director of the WVWRI .”The difference between clean enough and extremely clean may be tens of millions of dollars. Where we draw the line will determine the project cost for a given ecological outcome.”
To answer these questions, a second project, expected to last two years, will attempt to establish criteria for restoring the health of mining-impacted watersheds. It will be led by WVU Assistant Professor of Forestry Todd Petty, who will combine stream biologic surveys and water quality assessments to determine not only water quality goals, but to identify how many healthy tributaries are needed to sustain a viable fishery in a large river like the Cheat.
A nine-month project will look at the effects of longwall mining on headwater streams in northern West Virginia. It will use a new method of assessing damage to headwater streams based on the biological community. Ben Stout, professor of biology at Wheeling Jesuit College, will lead a four-person team conducting biological assessments in Marshall and Monongalia counties.
Funding for the projects comes from four sources: WVWRI ($64, 658), WVU Division of Forestry ($110, 531), U.S Geological Survey ($84, 763) and Wheeling Jesuit University ($31, 753).
For more information on the projects, visithttp://wvwri.nrcce.wvu.eduor call 304-293-2867.