By Jessica Nelson and Jeniffer Graham
Read Parts 1 and 2 of the series HERE
Representatives with Save the Tygart Watershed Association and the chief engineer for a closed coal mine disagree on the affects of water coming from the mine might have on the environment.
In a March 10, 2020, certified letter to the Save the Tygart Watershed Association, Kermit E. Fincham Jr., chief engineer of North Division Lexington Coal Co., which owns the Whitetail K-mine, wrote: “The water is not currently being treated nor is there any foreseeable indication that this will be a perpetual water treatment site. The monitoring well at the mine, as well as the water from the borehole, have both demonstrated compliance with any and all state requirements. There are no expected impacts to water supplies. There are no proposed water bonds. This indicates that there are no foreseeable indications of water treatment costs in the future.”
But, Stan Jennings, president of Save the Tygart, and Paul Baker, its chemist, said the discharge from a borehole, which dumps into Raccoon Creek, is disrupting the makeup of the stream.
Save the Tygart has watched the Whitetail Kittanning mine discharge point outside Newburg since last fall when the borehole was drilled as an emergency precaution.
According to Jennings and Baker, the borehole water’s pH is fine, but the sulphates and other dissolved solids are high.
The pH is a measurement of how acidic or basic a substance is on a scale of 0 to 14. Still water — like the kind you can buy in a store — has a neutral pH of 7. Lemon juice, which is very acidic, has a pH around 2 or 3. Bleach, which is a base, has a pH of 13. According to Baker, pH for bodies of water is regulated to stay between 6 and 9. Outside that range, the water can’t sustain fish or other aquatic life.
Citing West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection data from March 12, Baker said the pH of the water coming from the borehole is 7.94. Upstream of the borehole, Raccoon Creek’s pH is 7.03 and downstream, it is 7.23. So although the borehole discharge does affect the stream’s pH, the change is within limits.
Save the Tygart keeps a careful eye on all the Tygart River’s tributaries. Raccoon Creek, which is turning orange and red from the mine water discharge, flows into Three Fork Creek, and Three Fork joins the Tygart River. Eventually, that water makes it all the way to the Monongahela River.
For about 80 years, Jennings said, acid mine drainage (AMD) in Three Fork Creek was so bad no fish could survive. After lyme dosers — silos near polluted streams that add “doses” of lyme, a basic substance, to neutralize the acidity — were installed, fish life returned as “far as Bird’s Creek,” according to Jennings.
In the case of the borehole draining into Raccoon Creek, low pH isn’t the concern.
Jennings and Baker are more concerned about the total dissolved solids flowing unchecked into the stream.
The Safe Drinking Water Foundation defines total dissolved solids (TDS) as the total concentration of organic matter, heavy metals and considerably larger amounts of inorganic salts — such as sulphate, calcium, magnesium, chlorides and nitrates — in a liquid.
Three months after the borehole was drilled, TDS in Raccoon Creek near the borehole had increased 22% and sulphates had increased by 26%. The increased sulphates have given the stream a rust color, and when the sulphates react with certain bacteria, Baker said, it produces a rotten egg odor. The TDS contribute to a high level of electric conductivity, according to Baker.
“In very clean water,” Baker added, “sulphates would run probably around 10, maybe 20 milligrams per liter (mg/L).”
A typical sulphate value for Three Fork Creek — which has been impacted by acid mine drainage in the past — is around 200 mg/L, according to Baker.
On Oct. 30, 2019 — 20 days after the borehole was drilled — DEP data registered 490 mg/L of sulphates coming from the discharge point into Raccoon Creek.
Sulphates also contribute to the total dissolved solids.
Jennings said a good-quality waterway will have a conductivity of 100 microSiemens (uS) or less, but even 200-300 uS is decent. However, he said, at 500 uS, the water begins to have trouble sustaining aquatic life.
Conductivity tests at the Whitetail borehole have measured 2,000 uS.
According to Baker, TDS in Raccoon Creek averaged 200 to 500 uS depending on various environmental factors, such as rain.
DEP data from March 12, shows water upstream of the borehole had a conductivity rate of 335 uS. Water downstream — about a half-mile outside Newburg — registered 418 uS.
While dissolved solids don’t affect fish directly, Baker said, “High levels of dissolved solids tend to degrade the aquatic life in the stream.”
Research has shown high TDS negatively impact aquatic insects — the primary food source for fish in streams. “It interferes with the reproduction and the insect life cycle,” Baker said.
It becomes a domino effect: “It would negatively impact the ability of the fish to survive in the water because they wouldn’t have anything to eat. … If you don’t have a good healthy insect population in the water, the fish struggle to survive,” Baker said. Until there is no aquatic life at all.
“The water discharge from the borehole into Raccoon Creek is directly impacting Three Fork Creek,” Jennings said.
“Three Fork Creek again has precipitate below the mouth of Raccoon Creek and the conductivity has nearly doubled. The borehole is creating conditions not allowable in state waters in both Raccoon Creek and Three Fork Creek.”
Letter of the law versus spirit of the law
While the Environmental Protection Agency regulates pH, TDS is considered a secondary standard — and therefore a voluntary regulation — according to the Safe Drinking Water Foundation. Baker said environmental groups have fought for years to have TDS regulations written into law, but special interest groups, particularly from the coal industry, intervene and the matter goes to the courts, where it stalls despite the research showing the potential harm TDS causes.
By the standards and regulations that do exist, the water from the borehole isn’t a cause for concern, according to Terry Fletcher, acting communications director for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
“It is better than the current stream water quality in Raccoon Creek, which has been highly impacted by pre-law mining,” Fletcher said. He added the water quality is closely monitored.
Baker agrees that by the letter of the law, the borehole water is fine because in the DEP’s eyes, “conductivity is a non-issue.” However, Baker emphasized that although the West Virginia Clean Water Act does not name numerical values for contamination levels, it does say a person or entity is not allowed to degrade the waters of West Virginia.
“Conductivity does degrade the water, and that’s the bone of contention there.”
“We’d like to have some kind of biological assessment station set up above and below the borehole on Raccoon Creek,” Jennings said, “and also we’d like to have a biological assessment station set up above and below the mouth of Raccoon on Three Fork.”
Having such stations would allow researchers to see if the mine discharge changes the water chemistry in a way that hurts aquatic life.
While dissolved solids and high levels of conductivity are more immediate issues, both Baker and Jennings are aware another problem looms.
“As the mine pool is discharged, the mine atmosphere brings in more oxygen through fissures and cracks, reacting with pyrite, creating more contamination for decades to come,” Jennings said.
Baker elaborated. The interaction of oxygen and iron pyrite will create sulphuric acid. As the mine water becomes more acidic, it will dissolve more of the metals in the coal seam — such as iron, manganese and other trace metals, including aluminum — which will drain through the borehole into Raccoon Creek.
Iron is a regulated pollutant. Aluminum, a more toxic contaminant that is even more strictly regulated, isn’t a concern at the Whitetail borehole — yet. At the moment, the discharged water meets the parameters for iron, manganese and aluminum, said Baker. But if the water chemistry changes, so might the levels of metals in the water.
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This is the third in a four-part series looking at the issues caused by water coming from an underground coal mine in Preston County.
Next: Preston representatives comment on the situation
