Bell Colliery AMD Treatment Site Traditional Geocache
OReviewer: Archiving as the area is now posted
Bell Colliery AMD Treatment Site
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Size: 
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This cache is located in close proximity to the Bell Colliery Abandoned Mine Drainage Remediation Project in the Schuylkill River Watershed. The cache container is a larger sized ammo can seeded with many useful items and a Bonus FTF prize of a small cache ready to be placed. Parking is available at the waypoint coordinates listed along Route 209, please do not block the trail or the gate. The route to the cache may be long and easy or short and possibly wet its your choice.
This site was formerly the site of an underground drift mine entrance. Unfortunately, I was only able to dig up a little history of the mine itself, so if anyone has any more it would be much appreciated. On May 18, 1927, Steve Sabo, Vincent Terrazi and James Jacobs, Brockton, were killed by a premature explosion of dynamite at Bell Colliery. I also found that the colliery was worked at least until the early 1940’s. As with many mining sites in this region the underground mine was eventually abandoned and the remaining coal was surfaced mined and the land abandoned. This left scarred land and a polluting discharge at this site. This area has not been reclaimed yet as it is not a high priority site with open pits or high walls. Some mining activity is still occurring in this area in sporadic places, but not in the immediate area.
Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD) is created when iron pyrite found in the rock exposed during coal mining operations is contacted by water and oxygen. The water is present in the mine due to infiltration from the surface and from mining below the local groundwater table. Air and thus oxygen is forced though a mine during an active operation for the miners to breathe and to prevent build-ups of toxic gases, this air flow requires an entrance and exhaust. Although the air circulating facilities have long been dismantled the fresh air and exhaust vents that still exist provide adequate oxygen for AMD to be created. This exposure of the iron pyrite to water and oxygen causes a chemical reaction to occur which dissolves the iron into the water and produces sulfuric acid. In an unmined area insufficient water and oxygen are present to cause this reaction. Coal itself does not create AMD but the process of getting to the coal creates AMD.
AMD is usually recognized by the orange colored streams in the area, which is the case of this stream, although AMD in its strongest form actually looks like a clear pristine stream. The degree of AMD pollution of a stream can only be determined by water quality testing. The orange color is actually produced as a result of the stream beginning to clean itself, the orange color is actually the iron becoming a solid particle again and settling out of the water thus leaving the orange color coating the bottom of streams. This orange coating left behind is not toxic to aquatic life however it does suffocate the aquatic insect life. Although a stream is coated with orange iron deposits it may have life, trout can survive in this water as long as the pH is high enough, the temperature is in the correct range and there is food to eat. Another form of AMD is aluminum which produces a white color on the stream bottom and is toxic to all aquatic life in large enough concentrations. Manganese is another heavy metal found in AMD but this metal is usually not the major component of the AMD.
The treatment system you will see at this cache speeds up what nature does very slowly. The water exits the former drift mine entrance upstream of the culvert and upon exiting the culvert the water enters a flow splitting chamber where the amount of flow entering the treatment system is controlled and split between the two limestone beds. In times of high flow, flow in excess of the design flow is diverted around the treatment system via the by-pass channel. After the splitter box the water then enters the top of the limestone beds via a pipe from the splitter box and travels the surface of the bed eventually moving downward through the limestone bed and being collected in a network of pipes on the bottom of the bed. The piping is arranged to allow a pool to be formed over the limestone beds during normal operation and allow the system to be flushed by opening a valve and draining the normal pool. Should the limestone become clogged before the system is flushed or water in excess of what can travel though the bed enters the system an overflow is provided at the downstream end of the limestone beds. Both of the limestone beds are approximately five (5) feet deep and one bed contains one foot of mushroom compost on top of the limestone. Upon exiting the limestone beds the water enters a wetland cell to provide further neutralization of the acid and settling of any remaining iron particles. The treatment system was recently upgraded and now has a separate flushing pond, on the other side of the river from the treatment area, the flush water originally entered the wetland which was not large enough to handle settling of the flush water and would cause iron to be flushed into the stream. The new flushing pond allows adequate settling time and decreases iron flush outs. The water level in the wetland is controlled by a water level control structure and then reenters the Schuylkill River which is generally unpolluted upstream of this site.
The project sign at the site has further information on the funding sources for this project and the project partners. I also put a plan of the system in the cache to understand what you are looking at better. The caretakers of the treatment system have been notified of the cache placement. Please do not alter the position of any of the structures or valves at the site, walk into the posted area or the mine entrance. Regular maintenance and monitoring is preformed on this treatment system, therefore be aware of muggles in the area.
Current Conditions:
October 2013
Construction is complete for the Phase III renovations to the system. The work solved some clogging issues we are having with the system, added some structures for better control of the flow rates, converted the system from a down-flow limestone bed to an upflow limestone bed, combined the treatment beds into one bed with two flushing zones, and replaced all the limestone in the system due to clogging of the stone media that was found upon excavation.
August 2014
The system is still working exceptionally well increasing pH and reducing Iron.
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