News

Published in WVU Magazine | Research 2023

Paul Ziemkiewicz has been working to clean up streams for decades, but the discovery that acid mine drainage or AMD, holds the elements used in electronics has made that effort not only noble, but potentially profitable. The most valuable — neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium — that make high-performance magnets and others that fire up flat screen televisions, smart phones and LED lights, can be found in the leftover gunk from coal mines that turns streams orange and sterile.

Registration is open for both  WVWRI Virtual Seminar Series and Three Rivers QUEST Virtual Roundtable Series!

Land and Water Reclamation | 12/21/23 10:00-11:00 am

The Water Research Institute (WRI) recently initiated two new projects that will advance the production and processing of Rare Earth Element/Critical Material (REE/CM) concentrates from acid mine drainage (AMD).  The new awards were made by the U.S. Departments of Energy ($8M) and Defense ($3M) through funding supported by U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Capito to advance work on increasing the domestic supply of REE/CMs.

West Virginia University researchers will continue to develop and advance their pioneering method to extract and separate rare earth elements and critical minerals from acid mine drainage and coal waste, courtesy of $8 million in new funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The grant, part of President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda, will lead to the design, construction and operation of a pre-commercial demonstration facility for separating and refining rare earth elements and critical minerals, according to Paul Ziemkiewicz, project lead and director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute at WVU.

A new study by WVU and West Virginia Water Research Institute (WVWRI) researchers utilizes 3RQ data to analyze how management changes have impacted water quality in the Monongahela River Basin. The study focuses on twelve sites on the Monongahela River and its major tributaries that, as part of the 3RQ program, have at least monthly water quality data dating back to 2009. 

Meet Paul Ziemkiewicz, PhD. Paul grew up in western Pennsylvania. As a child, he dreamed of cleaning up his local rivers and streams, which were devoid of life due to acid mine drainage. Today, as the Director of Water Research at West Virginia University (WVU), Paul is living out that dream.

Abandoned coal mines cause various types of water pollution. Acid mine drainage is the most prevalent. Abandoned coal mines leave pits of highly acidic water that contain large amounts of heavy minerals. Over time, infiltrated groundwater and surface water from precipitation fill these pits to the brim. When the water spills over, harmful chemicals are carried into the surrounding water and soil. These chemicals can hurt humans, plants, and animals.

Article written for WVU Foundation News by Cassie Rice

Thousands of acres of abandoned mining land in West Virginia will get new uses out of part of a large-scale development project Coalfield Development Corporation is leading with support from West Virginia University. The project is among those to receive funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration as part of the “Build Back Better Regional Challenge Grant.” 

The objective of the comprehensive project, called Appalachian Climate Technology Now, is to create a more sustainable future in areas previously reliant on coal. 

On a recent afternoon, near the headwaters of Deckers Creek, in West Virginia, Paul Ziemkiewicz, the biological scientist who directs the Water Research Institute at West Virginia University, squatted by a blood-red trickle seeping from a hillside. The color, he pointed out, was the telltale sign of water contaminated by a form of coal waste called acid mine drainage, which poisons aquatic life. For decades, this contaminated water has devastated Appalachia, killing many of the creeks and rivers that lie between Kentucky and southwestern Pennsylvania. “I’ve spent thirty-two years making this waste go away,” Ziemkiewicz told me. He had come to meet Brian Hurley, the executive director of Friends of Deckers Creek, a local watershed group that had been working to clean up the waste. Hurley had shaggy hair, and wore rubber boots and sunglasses propped on the brim of his baseball cap. In another era, he might’ve found work in a local coal mine, or a steel mill, but those industries were mostly gone. There are, however, increasing opportunities in cleaning up the mess left behind. Part of Hurley’s job is to monitor the water-treatment systems for the creek, some of which Ziemkiewicz had helped to design. “You can make a living now fixing things and making them better,” Hurley said.

Ziemkiewicz, who is lean and studious-looking, explained that acid mine drainage forms when air and water come into contact with the exposed and pyrite-rich rock on the surfaces of mines, starting a chemical reaction that releases sulfuric acid, which then flows into creeks. Ziemkiewicz directed Hurley to open the metal door of the treatment system, which looked like a miniature grain silo built over the seep. Inside, a waterwheel dropped chalky white lime dust into the vermillion stream below. “It’s a glorified eggbeater,” Hurley said. The lime, a base, neutralizes the acid in the contaminated water. The water then flows from the silo into a large holding pond, where heavier metals and other elements drop out, forming a rainbow sludge. The puddles of sludge take on vivid hues: glacial blue indicates the presence of aluminum; terra-cotta red means iron. The treated water then flows from the pond, down the bank, into the creek.

WVU researchers are studying plots of switchgrass and miscanthus planted at a former surface mine site in Upshur County to determine whether the plants are more effective at capturing and storing carbon in soil than other grasses.