Post-reclamation water quality trend in a Mid-Appalachian watershed of abandoned mine lands

Abandoned mine land (AML) is one of the legacies of historic mining activities, causing a wide range of environmental problems worldwide. A stream monitoring study was conducted for a period of 7 years to evaluate the water quality trend in a Mid-Appalachian watershed, which was heavily impacted by past coal mining and subsequently reclaimed by reforestation and revegetation. GIS tools and multivariate statistical analyses were applied to characterize land cover, to assess temporal trends of the stream conditions, and to examine the linkages between water quality and land cover. In the entire watershed, 15.8% of the land was designated as AML reclaimed by reforestation (4.9%) and revegetation (10.8%). Statistic analysis revealed sub-watersheds with similar land cover (i.e. percentage of reclaimed AML) had similar water quality and all tested water quality variables were significantly related to land cover. Based on the assessment of water quality, acid mine drainage was still the dominant factor leading to the overall poor water quality (low pH, high sulfate and metals) in the watershed after reclamation was completed more than 20 years ago. Nevertheless, statistically significant improvement trends were observed for the mine drainage-related water quality variables (except pH) in the reclaimed AML watershed. The lack of pH improvement in the watershed might be related to metal precipitation and poor buffering capacity of the impacted streams. Furthermore, water quality improvement was more evident in the sub-watersheds which were heavily impacted by past mining activities and reclaimed by reforestation, indicating good reclamation practice had positive impact on water quality over time.

Research Highlights
► A monitoring study was conducted for 7 years in a post-reclamation watershed.
► Acid mine drainage was still the dominant factor leading to poor water quality.
► Sub-watersheds with similar land cover had similar water quality.
► Improving trends were observed for mine drainage-related water quality variables.