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New Study Documents Cumulative Impact of Mountaintop Mining [View all]
http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/news/new-study-documents-cumulative-impact-of-mountaintop-mining[font face=Times, Serif][font size=5]New Study Documents Cumulative Impact of Mountaintop Mining [/font]
Dec 12, 2011
Contact: Tim Lucas at (919) 613-8084 or tdlucas@duke.edu
[font size=3]DURHAM, N.C. – Increased salinity and concentrations of trace elements in one West Virginia watershed have been tied directly to multiple surface coal mines upstream by a detailed new survey of stream chemistry. The Duke University team that conducted the study said it provides new evidence of the cumulative effects multiple mountaintop mining permits can have in a river network.
Our analysis of water samples from 23 sites along West Virginia's Upper Mud River and its tributaries shows that salinity and trace element concentrations, including selenium, increased at a rate directly proportional to the cumulative amount of surface mining in the watershed," said Duke researcher Ty Lindberg. "We found a strong linear correlation."
Changes in water quality due to the increased salinity in the Upper Mud from mine runoff also were found to be "exceptionally persistent," Lindberg said. "Mines reclaimed almost two decades ago are continuing to release effluents with salinity similar to active mines in the region."
The Duke team's study appears this week in the peer-reviewed online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1112381108Dec 12, 2011
Contact: Tim Lucas at (919) 613-8084 or tdlucas@duke.edu
[font size=3]DURHAM, N.C. – Increased salinity and concentrations of trace elements in one West Virginia watershed have been tied directly to multiple surface coal mines upstream by a detailed new survey of stream chemistry. The Duke University team that conducted the study said it provides new evidence of the cumulative effects multiple mountaintop mining permits can have in a river network.
Our analysis of water samples from 23 sites along West Virginia's Upper Mud River and its tributaries shows that salinity and trace element concentrations, including selenium, increased at a rate directly proportional to the cumulative amount of surface mining in the watershed," said Duke researcher Ty Lindberg. "We found a strong linear correlation."
Changes in water quality due to the increased salinity in the Upper Mud from mine runoff also were found to be "exceptionally persistent," Lindberg said. "Mines reclaimed almost two decades ago are continuing to release effluents with salinity similar to active mines in the region."
The Duke team's study appears this week in the peer-reviewed online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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