OSM Funds Two Watershed Cooperative Agreement Projects in WV

(Washington, DC) - The Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining has awarded funding to two cooperative agreements aimed at cleaning up acid mine drainage problems from abandoned mines in Preston County, WV.

One award is for $93, 804.74 to the Friends of Deckers Creek, Inc. Watershed Association under a watershed cooperative agreement.

Funds will be applied to correct problems with acid mine drainage at the Valley Point 12 AMD Remediation Project. Friends of Deckers Creek will also receive $57,808 from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation. The OSM, WV, and Friends of Deckers Creek in kind contribution of $3,248 will bring total funding for the Valley Point remediation project to $154,860.74.

This project addresses AMD problems arising from an abandoned underground mine at the headwaters of Kanes Creek, a tributary of Deckers Creek.

In addition to the Deckers Creek award, OSM also awarded $99,602 in funding a Watershed Cooperative Agreement with the Lower West Fork Watershed Association, Preston County, WV. This grant will run through March 31, 2007.

The association's project is also funded by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation, which will fund the major portion of the project with a grant of $230,951. Additional in kind contributions bring the total cost to $333,553.00.

Remediation of acid mine drainage around a deep mine portal will improve the water quality in both Nixon Run and its receiving stream, Shinns Run. To accomplish this, new open limestone channels will be built along with a steel slag leaching bed. Water will then progress through an alkaline producing system and then go to a baffled settling pond ending in an aerobic wetland.

West Virginia coal production for fiscal year 2004 was 136,478,537.36 tons.