PA Hopes Mine Damage can Become Boon of Cheap Water and Metals

Saturday Gazette-Mail - APNews: "By MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer LATROBE, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania, the one-time coal-producing king now home to some of the nation's worst mining damage, is hoping to parlay an expensive problem into cheap new resources that could pay for the cleanup. Aided by state grants from a multimillion-dollar program, businesses, academics and entrepreneurs are devising new uses for some of the hundreds of billions of gallons of acidic mine water that range from power generation to powdered metals to 'powder'' on the slopes. Left untreated, the drainage from flooded underground mines pollutes waterways, turning them orange and depositing a heavy iron oxide silt on the bottom that smothers fish eggs and stops reproduction. Even if the drainage from a single abandoned mine is treated, the process can generate six tons of doughy sludge each day that has nowhere to go except a landfill. " --more-- mouse-over link