Rewind the clocks to the year 1997.  The average price of gasoline was $1.36.  Interleague play began in major league baseball.   Titanic was the top growing movie.  And the vertical flow pond, a component in the mine drainage passive treatment system at the Jennings Environmental Education Center in Butler County was first installed-- nearly 15 years ago!

It was predicted to generate sufficient bicarbonate alkalinity to effectively treat acidic mine drainage from an old abandoned underground coal mine for 7 to 10 years.  With minor maintenance, this innovative VFP with a “first-of-its-kind” treatment media “recipe” far exceeded performance expectations.

After almost 15 years of operation, however, the loss in permeability of the treatment media resulted in the inability of the VFP to treat all of the influent acid mine drainage.   As the permeability issue continued to worsen, more and more untreated AMD was passing through the emergency spillway and into a forested area.

The lush, created wetlands with flourishing wildlife habitat which are used in environmental education programs became in imminent danger of being lost, as these wetlands are fed by the treated VFP effluent.

To eliminate these and other environmental impacts, an extensive rehabilitation of the VFP was completed this fall.  The work was done primarily by Buck Neely and Ryan Mahony, with occasional help from Bryan Page, Shaun Busler and Kelsey Palmer, all of Stream Restoration Inc. and the Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition.

This rehabilitation was made possible thanks to grants from the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, a Quick Response grant via the Western Coalition for Abandoned Mine Restoration and DEP’s Growing Greener Program, funding from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the very generous donation of Mineral CSA from HARSCO Minerals.

In-kind contributions were also received from volunteers and BioMost Inc.

The rehabilitation consisted of: removing, placing and encapsulating (with alkaline material) the spent treatment media; replacing the underdrain (piping and aggregate; replacing/ rehabilitating VFP inlet and outlet piping and other ancillary piping; and replacing the VFP treatment media.

Due to advancements in technology, the underdrain piping is now of a larger diameter and single-shredded wood chips were added to essentially the same media “recipe” of spent mushroom compost and “hi-cal” limestone aggregate.

The expected results are the restoration of the VFP treatment performance with a similiar or greater design life with even less maintenance, the sustainability of the created wetlands and the elimination of negative impacts to the forested area and receiving stream.

We look forward to working with partners in the future monitoring and caring for the system and educational outreach opportunities: Jennings Environmental Education Center, Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition, Stream Restoration Inc, BioMost Inc, Boy Scouts, volunteers and others.

(Reprinted from the December issue of The Catalyst published by the Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition.)

1/14/2013