Use of biomass to supplement the nation's energy needs for ethanol production and green fuel for power plants has created a demand for growing reliable feedstocks. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus), and giant cane (Arundo donax L.) are possible biofuel crops because they produce large amounts of biomass over a wide range of growing conditions, including marginal and reclaimed land. West Virginia's climate and large acreage of available reclaimed mine land provide a land base to generate high amounts of biomass for a biofuel industry. The purpose of this study was to determine the yield of three biomass crops on reclaimed mined land in central West Virginia. A 25-year-old reclaimed site near Alton, WV was prepared using herbicides to eliminate all existing cool-season vegetation on a 5-ha area. Twenty-three plots of 0.4-ha in size were established. Mine soil samples showed an average pH of 7.5 and adequate supplies of plant nutrients. Two switchgrass varieties (Kanlow and BoMaster) were randomly assigned to 10 plots (five replications) and seeds were drilled into the killed sod at a rate of 11 kg ha -1 . Two types of miscanthus (sterile public and private varieties) were randomly assigned to 10 plots and planted with seedling plugs on 0.8-m centers. Giant cane was assigned to three plots and rhizomes were planted on 1.5-m centers. Yield measurements were taken in September the second and third years after planting.

Steel slag is a highly alkaline substance that is a byproduct of the steelmaking process. This substance has been used in many different applications, including the remediation of mine drainage. However, some research has shown that large concentrations of possibly toxic metals may leach from the steel slag matrix when it is used in this capacity.

Abstract. The recently reauthorized Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Program provides West Virginia the opportunity to implement a strategic watershed-based approach for restoring waterbodies impaired by historic pre-law mining. Over the next 15 years the West Virginia program will grow from roughly $23 M/year to a range of $60 to $90 M/year. Under this expanded AML program, the WVDEP Office of Abandoned Mine Land and Reclamation has established a goal of maximizing statewide recovery of cold and warm-water fisheries in AMD impaired watersheds. Given that the magnitude of water quality impairment from pre-law mining is too widespread to address in the traditional source by source treatment approach, restoration actions are being prioritized based on producing the greatest ecological and economic benefits per unit cost. In this paper, we present a process for developing strategic, watershed-based restoration plans in areas heavily impacted by pre-law mining. This process integrates various AMD treatment alternatives into a GIS-based decision support system that quantifies the maximum possible ecological and economic outcomes. We describe an innovative method of representing ecological value of stream segments to create inputs for cost-benefit analysis of various treatment options, and we apply this process to the Three Fork watershed in north central West Virginia. We considered three AMD remediation alternatives in our analyses. The "optimal" alternative is projected to cost approximately $4 M over a 20-year restoration period. This alternative is also expected to recover nearly 36 km of cold and warmwater fishery to the watershed and produce a Net Present Value of approximately $700 K after 20 years. Less optimal alternatives cost less but also resulted in significantly lower ecological benefit. The process presented here can be used to make objective decisions about how best to recover AMD impacted watersheds and may be applicable throughout the eastern coal mining region.

Abstract.A GIS-based decision support system was developed to aid in restoration planning by integrating various chemical and ecological modeling components that the West Virginia Water Research Institute has developed over the past five years. Using the popular GIS platform of ArcMap, computer code was written in Visual Basic .Net environment to develop an extension for GIS to visually illustrate remediation and alternative outcomes. Building upon the existing 1:24,000 segment level or "reachshed" delineation of watersheds for all of WV and a network model to examine pass through issues, the user is able to compare treatment options and locations for building spatially explicit AMD restoration plans. The advantage of the system is its straightforward mass-balance water quality model and logical decision alternative matrix with costs and ecological benefits. It is possible to visually iterate and illustrate outcomes downstream of various treatment/restoration scenarios. The result is a spatially explicit cumulative watershed modeling framework for quantifying stream conditions at multiple scales.

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