Burgess & Niple was retained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington District, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources under Section 1135 of the Water Resource Development Act to evaluate acid mine drainage (AMD) impacts to Wills Creek Lake in Coshocton County, Ohio.
The project area consisted of a 62-acre subcatchment area of the lake. For a number of years, the site contributed to a serious decline in aquatic habitat potential in the receiving waters of the lake.
The restoration included more than 10 acres of coal spoil and treatment of AMD from a deep mine. The treatment plan included a combination of land reclamation, water diversion and aerobic wetlands treatment. In its second year of operation, results included increased pH from 2.9 at the inflow to 8.3 at the outflow, with a corresponding decrease in metals concentration.