A study of the effects of strip-mining on the water composition of Cross Creek in West Virginia and Pennsylvania

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1982

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The Ohio State University

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Strip mine runoff has long been known to have detrimental effects on local surface water quality. The Cross Creek drainage area can be divided into an upper portion largely unaffected by strip mine activity and a lower portion in which several major tributaries run directly through abandoned mines to feed the creek. Essentially all the heavy mining of the area adjacent to the creek and within its drainage basin ceased approximately 10 years ago. A study of several selected elements contained in water samples from areas both above and below the mines, as well as other parameters, indicates that the Cross Creek area has nearly completely recovered from the effects of mining. Analysis was also made for toxic trace metals as part of a water quality study and significant concentrations were not detectable.

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