Majestic Mines

When one thinks about Athens, they think about the beautiful Ohio University campus, the great scenery, and the Hocking river. The Hocking river may look clean and calm from the roadside, but few know of the contaminants that are polluting the iconic campus river.

The Sunday Creek Watershed group is an organization committed to preserving and cleaning up the rivers in Athens as well as its surrounding counties. The main problem plaguing athens' rivers and creeks is iron leeching out of abandoned coal mines into the rivers.

A specific site, where this precess is displayed, is Majestic Mines, just fifteen minutes from OU's campus. The mine is nestled away in the woods, just a few miles away from Nelsonville's Movie Theatre. The old mine resides in a clearing, just a few yards away from a dirt road. A small river separates a bank of small bushes and foliage, from a looming and tall tree line. The mine is not hard to miss in the trees. Throughout the mines flume, water flows forcefully with the diluted color of rust. A wasteland of rusty-orange silt and mud surrounds the mouth of the mine. The flowing water has cut several paths through the mud, which then runs into and equally orange stream running perpendicular to the mine.

The reason for the contamination and color in the water is the leeching lead from the abandoned mines. Hundreds of coal mines were built in the Athens area during the 1900s. These mine were eventually abandoned and as rainwater filters thought the mines, absorbes and carries out iron from the coal, and the result is the orange water. Because of the extremely high iron content in the water, no life can survive in or around the streams. The water is diluted as it enteres into the hocking however it still effects some of the wildlife in the river and around it.