News

A collaborative art exhibit at West Virginia University focuses on one of the state’s most abundant resources -- water. It also celebrates the many women who protect it. 

 Featuring brightly colored panels covering wide swaths of the downtown campus library’s walls, “WATER: Exploring the Significance, Power and Play of Life’s Critical Resource” explores the state’s rivers and wetland ecosystems, celebrates the art and recreation opportunities afforded by water, and explores challenges and solutions facing the state’s water resources. 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – February has been exceptionally wet, dumping more than one-and-three-quarters-inches greater-than-average rainfall during what is normally the driest month of the year, according to  The Weather Channel. Unusually wet weather is a recipe for mine drainage overflows that can pollute nearby streams, warned  Dr. Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the  West Virginia Water Research Institute at  West Virginia University. Expect abandoned mines’ treatment systems to clog and fail or the mines themselves to blow out during the spring, he said.

Recent news by the Associated Press has drawn attention to the “50M gallons of polluted water [that] pours daily from 42 mine sites” in western states.