Mine drainage usually runs out from a rock wall that leads back into a larger system of abandoned mines. Water flows from the tunnel, often into streams, which then lead into the rest of a community’s watershed.
Much of that water is tainted with heavy metals – mostly iron, but also trace amounts of copper, lead, and mercury. And this can lead to streams that are dead, no bugs, fish or frogs in the creek. More importantly, the runoff into the larger watershed affects the water quality of everything downstream.
In some communities, the water is orange, the result of iron oxide deposits on the creek floor. In Ohio, two university professors sought to attack that problem directly by developing an economically viable commercial product from the drainage they collect from local streams: Paint. Read more about how happy orange mud can be, and how you CAN make lemonade out of lemons.
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