Acid Mine Drainage By: Jen Sommers And Jamie Walsh

What Is Acid Mine Drainage? Polluted water that normally contains harsh levels of iron, aluminum, and acid High levels of oxidized iron (rust), can cause a reddish- brown color Mining disturbs pyrite and, as a result, pyrite weathers and reacts with oxygen and water in the environment

Effects on Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems Streams effected by AMD have a pH level of 4 or lower. Has the same acidic count as battery acid.

Why is this a problem for PA? Because there is a lot of mining in Pennsylvania. XGRezchttp:// XGRezc

Affected Animals and organisms in the area around the effected stream are affected. Growth of many species of bacteria. It has a negative effect on beavers, foxes, deer, and different types of fish.

Affected: Cont’d Insects –low pH levels in aquatic species’ blood streams cause a disturbance in the balance of sodium and chloride ions. –Mayflies: most sensitive aquatic insect to low pH levels. Mayflies and stoneflies that live in neutral water, suffer a greater loss of sodium in their blood, than acid- tolerant insects. Leuctra and Amphinemura are examples of acid- tolerant Stoneflies.

Remedies: Active Difficult and expensive Hydrated lime, sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, or ammonia are used to treat AMD. Bactericides (ex: antibiotics and heavy metals). Alconox (ex: an inexpensive detergent)

Remedies: Passive The metals are placed into holding ponds and then weeded out, and placed into another holding pond, and so on and so forth. The cleaned water is then put back into its respected home. nNokMhttp:// nNokM

References ach/gwprimer/acidmine/acidmine.htmlhttp:// ach/gwprimer/acidmine/acidmine.html trt/passtrt.htmhttp:// trt/passtrt.htm inres/districts/cmdp/chap04.htmlhttp:// inres/districts/cmdp/chap04.html