State of AMD in Alabama

Abandoned mine sites recovering, but slowly
Acid flows in Alabama streams while the money flows to Western states

The Birmingham News
Sunday, December 03, 2006
KENT FAULK
News staff writer

John Wathen points to colorful features dotting the scarred landscape from his seat in a Cessna 182 soaring above Tuscaloosa County. Light brown sediment clogs one stream. Reddish-orange acidic water flows into another. Aqua green water - likely tinged by aluminum - fills a pond.

Wathen, creekkeeper for the Friends of Hurricane Creek, flies with SouthWings Environmental Group to monitor mining excesses. He blames much of that unnatural environment on abandoned coal strip-mine operations or coal refuse piles from old underground mines.

"It has forever destroyed huge tracts of land and polluted streams," he said.

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