Majestic Mines part two

Approaching the Majestic Mines on a cold and gloomy fall evening was an experience like no other. As we pulled into the mines, there was an eerie feeling about the whole place. The road broke off from the original paved one, to a slightly beaten side road with clear tire marks from past visitors carving segments out of the dirt like a surgeon in the emergency room. As the road broke, it turned into a rocky path that led us straight into this gloomy forest. The trees were tall and thick and were looking as if they were about to surrender to falls brisk weather. The landscape looked as if we were entering into a scary movie scene. It was as if we had just exited the realm of the earth, and were now being thrusted into an alien environment where chemicals and elements had contaminated the surface. As we gathered together as a class, we all noticed that the water had a rusted color to it and there were no signs of any wildlife around. The eye-popping orange water came from an old coal mine that dates back to the early 1900’s. The area around our fieldtrip site was heavily populated with coal mining sites that led to many jobs and many opportunities for an area commonly stricken with poverty. The iron, manganese, and phosphate pigments from the mine have killed everything in its path leaving nothing but acidic water behind and a trail of desolation. As we learned more about the mines, I found out that the mines were leaking because they were collapsed into subsidence holes, making the ability to extract coal impossible. Subsidence holes are where mines have previously collapsed; these holes fill up with water and distribute polluted water to nearby streams, creeks, and rivers. Acidic area’s created by abandoned coal sites around the area lead directly to the hocking river, directly affecting the marine wildlife that calls the Hocking there home.

After learning about the mines and getting a little more back ground information, I put on an over-sized pair of boots to test the pH levels of the water. As I put these boots on and crossed a small, slightly unstable wooden plank over a small stream of water, I entered my feet into a pool full of orange sludge. The sludge reminded me of the quicksand that populates the area of the world located closer to the equator. The sludge was thick and would stain any article of clothing that it could. We were asked to take an acidity reading from the mine; one from the creek and one from the mine. Just to ensure that my readings were accurate, I held my pH tab in the water for a solid minute. After I got both readings, I walked back over the plank and compared my results to the pH bottle. My reading read a three out of the mines mouth and a four a little further down the stream. Our fieldtrip guide informed me that my reading were so acidic that it was comparable to vinegar and soda. Mr. Brian Blair explained that nothing can live in an ecosystem when there is a pH level of three or worse. This struck me as a sad sign of human’s tendency to be self-centered, completely dismissing how much we are tampering our natural environment.

The Majestic Mines produce over one million gallons of acid discharge a year. It is an endless pumping of toxic elements that mix with oxygen, causing horrible damage to the area surrounding the mine. The Sunday Creek Watershed Group is working extensively to restore and preserve this water. While they are working on decontaminating this water they are also applying research to learn more about these Majestic Mines. The Sunday Creek Watershed Group has a
major task ahead of them, but with research and hard work I feel they will get this water cleaned up. The efforts of Brian Blair and the entire Watershed Group is a shining light in an area that is shadowed in lifeless darkness. Mr. Blair and people with his same ideals about the environment are an inspiring, and fieldtrips such as the one we attended will help spread the awareness about the detrimental effects humans can have, all for a search for money and power.