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CLARKSBURG, W.Va. – The Guardians of the West Fork Watershed marked their 25th anniversary with a speaker series at the Waldomore in downtown Clarksburg Tuesday night, highlighting ongoing efforts to restore and protect the West Fork River and its tributaries.

The event focused on a quarter-century of work aimed at cleaning up streams affected by pollution and promoting recreational opportunities throughout the watershed. Senior Research Scientist Mel Shafer of the West Virginia Water Research Institute outlined the long-term environmental damage caused by abandoned mine drainage and other sources of contamination affecting the West Fork River and waterways across the region. She also detailed current mitigation strategies designed to reduce pollutants and improve water quality.

By Mira Rojanasakul | Published June 25, 2025 on The New York Times | University faculty, staff and students have access to The New York Times through WVU Libraries.

This low-tech system, built less than 10 years ago, is transforming life along the water. Fish and sensitive species like salamanders and frogs are returning to Deckers Creek, which for decades flowed rust-orange and lifeless from iron and other pollution.

By Jim Robbins on The New York Times

Reporting from Butte, Mont. Published May 13, 2025

Register Today! The 2025 West Virginia Mine Drainage Task Force Symposium has officially been scheduled for April 16-17, 2025. Complete details are available at WVMDTaskForce.com.

The West Virginia Mine Drainage Task Force was formed in 1978 and assigned to investigate the acid mine drainage (AMD) problem associated with surface mining in central West Virginia. Since then, the Task Force has broadened its scope to include areas outside of West Virginia with many diverse mine drainage issues.

Scientists analyzed coal ash from power plants across the United States and found it could contain up to 11 million tons of rare earth elements — nearly eight times the amount the US has in domestic reserves — worth around $8.4 billion, according to recent research led by the University of Texas at Austin.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Exciting advancements are underway as the Water Research Institute at West Virginia University (WVWRI) expands a transformative program to extract critical materials from acid mine drainage (AMD), supported by a new, $5 million, three-year U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant.  The funding, Production of Individually Separated Rare Earth Metals, will benefit the economy, national security, and the environment.

Rare earth elements (REE) and critical materials (CM) such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium can be found in AMD.  In 2016, the research team, led by WVWRI Director Dr. Paul Ziemkiewicz, pioneered a technique that economically recovers these valuable metals and removes contaminants from AMD, resulting in clean water.  Not only will this be a boon for the environment; it will also create economic and social benefits for the surrounding communities.

David Beard, The Dominion Post

Marc Levy, Associated Press

MOUNT STORM, W.Va. (AP) — Down a long gravel road, tucked into the hills in West Virginia, is a low-slung building where researchers are extracting essential elements from an old coal mine that they hope will strengthen the nation’s energy future.

By Steven Allen Adams for The Intelligencer

MORGANTOWN — With steam coal being replaced by natural gas and renewables, and a slowdown in metallurgical coal mining for steelmaking, a researcher at West Virginia University sees another use for the state’s coal mines.