ACTIVE MINING
Coal strip mines are allowed to discharge water to Hurricane Creek.
Most of the time, coal mines only discharge water when it rains. All
of the rain that falls on the strip mine runs off the land and is collected
in settling ponds before it is discharged. The water in the settling
ponds is supposed to be treated prior to it entering the creek. Treating
the water by adjusting the pH allows most of the metals that were picked
up by the runoff to settle out in the ponds.
Each
coal mine must have an NPDES permit (National Point-Source Discharge
Elimination System), which is issued by the
Alabama Department of Environmental
Management
(ADEM). [Each coal mine also must have an Alabama Surface Mining Commission (ASMC)
permit, but we won’t discuss those now.] The NPDES permit allows the strip
mine to discharge water to the creek, and it sets forth specific limits on what
can be in the discharge water.
For most coal mines, the NPDES permit specifies
different limits based on the amount of rainfall. For example, when
it is not raining, the permit
is the strictest
about the concentrations of iron and manganese that the coal mine can discharge.
When it rains some, the coal mine can discharge a higher concentration of iron
and manganese. And when it rains a good bit, there are no limits on the concentration
of iron and manganese the coal mine can discharge. Keep in mind that most of
the time, coal strip mines only discharge when it rains. The other situation
in which
a strip mine would discharge water into a stream is if they hit the aquifer
in the process of mining, which they certainly try to avoid.
In
the Hurricane Creek watershed there are two active coal strip mines.
The first is Black Warrior Minerals, which
you may remember turned the
creek bright
orange in January
of 2002 all the way from their mine to the mouth of Hurricane Creek. An
orange stripe of water could be seen all the way down the
Black Warrior
River to the campus of the University of Alabama. Apparently the orange
creek was caused
by the collapse of a settling pond’s spillway. The plans for the
spillway called for rebar to be in the spillway, but none was present,
which led to
its collapse.
The second active coal strip mine in the watershed is owned by Tuscaloosa Resources. This newest coal mine is located in the North Fork watershed, which suffers from some of the worst water quality in the watershed due to the high number of old, abandoned strip mines. The North Fork suffers from high concentrations of metals associated with strip mining, such as iron and aluminum, as well as large amounts of sediment that choke out stream habitat, and highly acidic waters. Al three of these problems are likely made worse by an active strip mine.
The Friends of Hurricane Creek along with the Alabama Rivers Alliance submitted comments on the draft NPDES permit saying that this coal mine has the potential to make water quality problems worse. ADEM issued the permit anyway. Therefore, the FOHC and ARA are appealing this permit, contending that both the Clean Water Act and Alabama law prohibit the issuance of a permit to a facility that has a reasonable potential to contribute to impairment. We are currently awaiting a decision in this case.
"Can we afford clean water? Can we afford rivers and lakes and streams and oceans which continue to make possible all life on this planet? Can we afford life itself? Those questions were never asked as we destroyed the waters of our nation, and they deserve no answers as we finally move to restore and renew them. These questions answer themselves." -- Senator Ed Muskie of Maine, arguing for the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972
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