T
here has been a global, 30-year nitrogen and phosphorus availability
increase in surface mining (1), which through internal eutrophication (15,
is now the dominant driver of land-use 16). Elevated SO4 can also increase
change in the central Appalachian ecoregion microbial production of hydrogen sul-
of the United States (2). One major form of fide, a toxin for many aquatic plants and
such mining, mountaintop mining with valley organisms (17). Mn, Fe, Al, and Se can
fills (MTM/VF) (3), is widespread through- become further concentrated in stream
out eastern Kentucky, West Virginia (WV), sediments, and Se bioaccumulates in
and southwestern Virginia. Upper elevation organisms (11) (figs. S1 and S2).
26506, USA. 7Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC and other pollutants associated with mine run- dominantly male coal miners (24).
27109, USA. 8Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA. off, can directly cause environmental degra-
9
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720,
USA. 10University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel
dation, including disruption of water and ion Mitigation Effects
Hill, NC 27599, USA. 11Johns Hopkins University, Balti- balance in aquatic biota (12). Elevated SO4 Reclamation of MTM/VF sites historically
more, MD 21218, USA. can exacerbate nutrient pollution of down- has involved planting a few grass and herb
*Author for correspondence. E-mail: mpalmer@umd.edu stream rivers and reservoirs by increasing species (20, 25). Compared with unmined
00
00
20
50
0–
–1
>5
0–
0–
destroyed, headwater streams are lost, and bio- Philadelphia, PA, 2002); http://www.epa.gov/region3/
50
10
20