Streams which flow by abandoned mines can be highly acidic, due to heavy metals leaking into the water. Most efforts to clean up such sites focus on increasing the water's alkalinity, in order to neutralize the acid content.

But traditional mine reclamation methods run into trouble when there's aluminum in the water. Colson Blakeslee is with the conservation group, Trout Unlimited. The group's been sponsoring a pilot project to remove the aluminum from Cook's Run... which was a trout stream before pollution from an abandoned mine began killing all the fish in the area.

"Instead of just adding alkalinity, the chemical reaction is facilitated by sulfate reducing bacteria. The most common one is desulfovibrio. It's found in most mammalian feces."

Blakeslee says it's easy to use the bacteria. By letting a stream flow into a pond filled with a mixture of shredded wood, hay, and cow manure... the aluminum levels can be brought down far enough to treat the water's acid problems.

Blakeslee says the test-project represents the first use of this particular bacteria to clean up an abandoned mine in Pennsylvania.

More information's available on the web at GreenWorks.tv. I'm Brad Linder.




The Environmental Reporter is a partnership of GreenWorks.tv and WHYY Radio, which makes all reports available to public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania.