WV Presented Appalachian Regional Award

{West Virginia}...The U.S. Department of the Interior presented an Appalachian Regional Award to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Abandoned Mine Lands program for a mining reclamation project in Tucker County that eliminated dangerous remnants of pre-law mining and improved water quality in existing streams on approximately 60 acres of land. The project was completed in 2009 at a cost of $2.3 million and involved backfilling, re-grading and vegetating dangerous highwall; installing seals on two partially collapsed mine portals; and removing two surface impoundments. Environmental and water quality issues on site also were addressed by reseeding and reforesting; adding limestone to tributaries and implementing natural stream channel design techniques; and installing a passive water treatment system.