Why is Our Water Orange?
By Serena Bennett and Nickolas Kies
As we all know, living in the Coal Region has lots to offer. We have our own interesting culture, great people, and yummy food. Of course, we also have the thing that gave us our name—coal mines.
Evidence of acid mine drainage on the Mahanoy Creek in Girardville, PA.
We all know the legacy of coal mining is part of our landscape. We see the big black culm banks and deteriorating collieries as we drive around, but some may not know that harmful substances have come from abandoned mines.
Many abandoned mines have caused environmentally unfriendly damage to our streams and lakes—known as acid mine drainage or AMD. It’s the reason some places in the Coal Region have orange water, which contains iron and gives off a sulfur odor that smells like rotten eggs.
AMD drains from abandoned coal mines; and although acidic rock drainage is natural in some environments as part of the rock weathering process, when large amounts of sulfur-filled rock are disturbed through processes such as mining, the drainage is increased. Acidic water may then take up to 100,000 years to become pH neutral.
Cleaning Up the Mess
The PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) established the Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation to address the problem, and non-government organizations such as the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation were formed for the same purpose. There have been numerous efforts to treat the drainage — and progress has been made — but trying to get a neutral pH scale is tough. Water and oxygen oxidizes the high amounts of sulfur found in coal. This produces sulfuric acids that are very high in the pH scale.
AMD is most harmful to downstream areas. There, acidic water can contaminate the ground and the animals, plants and fungus that drink or absorb the water. Aquatic life that comes into contact with contaminated water can be killed if it can’t stand the high levels of pH the acidic water carries.
The polluted Mahanoy Creek runs through the borough of Girardville, PA.
Trying to treat the acidic drainage, in most cases, has proven to be almost economically impossible. In some cases, in an attempt to treat the water, mining companies have mixed the sulfide tailings (finely ground rock and mineral waste products of mining) with cement. Doing that covers the exposed rock, water and air, making the open rock unable to be oxidized. After that costly process, the water becomes close to being pH neutral.
Another way is to treat AMD through limestone diversion wells. There are several in Schuylkill County including one in Sheppton that treats drainage from the massive Audenreid Tunnel, according to Wayne G. Lehman, County Natural Resource Specialist for the Schuylkill Conservation District.
“Diversion wells take advantage of the water pressure created by the changing elevation from the higher AMD intake to the lower pipe outlet,” says Lehman. “This change in elevation develops high water pressure that churns the limestone to allow it to dissolve faster. Dissolved limestone then ‘sweetens’ the water and improves its pH significantly.
Lehman adds, the Mahanoy Creek Watershed Association is working to improve the quality of the Mahanoy Creek, which flows 56 miles from its origin to where it empties into the Susquehanna River. The association is involved with a large piece of land nicknamed “The Swamp” that was converted to wetlands as a passive AMD treatment system. The association has also held stream cleanups in Ashland, Girardville and Helfenstein with about 60-85 people participating in each event. They have also helped to form the Lens on Litter Program, and have applied for funding from DEP for a watershed assessment.
Although the Coal Region has much to offer, acid mine drainage isn’t one of our best qualities. Hopefully, continued action can be done to help improve the pH balance of our water.
For now, it might be in your best interest to stay away from any orangey-yellow looking sulfury-smelling water!
For more information contact:
Mahanoy Creek Watershed Association
Roseann Weinrich, President
570-875-4642
Schuylkill Conservation District
“Porcupine Pat” McKinney, Environmental Education Coordinator
570-622-4124 x 113