| dc.description.abstract |
Mountaintop mining valley fill (MTM/VF) coal mining is currently the dominant form
of land use change in the central Appalachians. MTM/VF activities level mountains,
remove forests and forest soils, bury headwater streams and generate substantial amounts
of acid and alkaline mine drainage. Numerous case studies have documented elevated
concentrations of sulfate and trace metal and metalloids with known toxicity in surface
waters downstream from MTM/VF activity, yet no comprehensive effort has been made
to link landscape scale mining activity and water quality. Here, I used newly obtained
remote sensing data of surface mining activity delineated from 1976 to 2005 to estimate
the extent of MTM/VF impact on downstream surface water quality in the Coal and Guyandotte
river basins of WV. Hydrologic connectivity between mining and water quality was estimated
using an inverse distance weighting technique in GIS (ESRI, Inc.). The findings show
significant biogeochemical alterations, including streamwater conductivity and sulfate
concentrations, even when small amounts of surface mining (<5%) are observed. Results
provide the first comprehensive analysis of the cumulative impact of mining activity
in these watersheds on water quality and demonstrate the need for further investigation
involving strategic water quality sampling with the ultimate goal of developing an
empirical basis on which to form regulations governing MTM/VF throughout the central
Appalachians.
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