Southwestern Pennsylvania, indeed the entire Appalachian Region, is an area of remarkable beauty. Unfortunately, residents and visitors alike can often miss this natural beauty, blinded by the overshadowing regional legacy of pre-regulatory coal mining. Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the most widespread water quality problem, as well as a significant economic and social constraint. Today, AMD is a painful reminder of the poverty and economic abandonment that currently exists in coal country, the emblematic orange silent signature of dying communities.

Full story available at: http://www.pawatersheds.org/WWeekly/issue.asp?ID=199#wsspotlight (from POWR’s Watershed Weekly)

6/1/2004