by Elyse Johnston
Hobet Coal Mine's Effects on the Surrounding Water:
1. Loss of headwater resources:
According to the EPA's study, both the indirect and direct effects of mountaintop removal have caused the permanent loss and burial of more than 1,900 kilometers of headwater streams (EPA).
2. Impacts on water quality:
Studies found that the "changes in “changes in water quality observed in streams downstream of mountaintop removal include alteration of flow and temperature regimes; increased fine sediments; and increases in ions, some metals, and nitrogen" (EPA). In addition, they found that "valley fills influence downstream water quality by acting like aquifers that store at least some of the water that enters from groundwater, surface drainage, or direct precipitation" (EPA). The water found below valley fills are often alkaline, and as a result, "the metals that are not soluble under higher pH conditions (i.e. Fe, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn, and Al) were generally not elevated in effluent waters below valley fills" (EPA).
3. Toxicity impacts on aquatic organisms:
Mountaintop valley fills are especially decimating aquatic populations. In this study, "results of laboratory toxicity tests using the crustacean Ceriodaphnia dubia predict that acute lethality will occur at the high end of specific conductivity observed downstream of mountaintop removal operations" (EPA). The same fate awaits thousands of other aquatic species.
4. Impacts on aquatic ecosystems:
The EPA found that "all surveys that used multimetric and aggregate taxonomic indices reported degraded biological conditions in streams downstream of mountaintop removal” with both fish and macroinvertebrate populations being affected.
*Note: the studies referred to above are discussed in the scholarly article "The Effects of Mountaintop Mines and Valley Fills on Aquatic Ecosystems of the Central Appalachian Coalfields" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Key Themes of the EPA's Findings:
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Springs and ephermeral, intermittent, and perennial streams are permanently lost via mountaintop removal and from burial under fill.
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Concentrations of harmful ions are constantly elevated downstream.
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Water quality levels have degraded to a level that is actually lethal to organisms.
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Selenium (Se) concentrations are elevated, reaching concentrations that have caused toxic effects in fish and birds.
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Macroinvertebrate and fish communities are perpetually destroyed as a result of mountaintop removal.
This is a figure from the EPA showing the permit boundaries for surface and underground mining in southwestern West Virginia. The Hobet mine is shown by point "a".