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Acid Mine Drainage Requires NPDES Permit
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.1994.tb06279.x
Subject(s) - acid mine drainage , drainage , environmental science , water quality , pollutant , surface runoff , pollution , cadmium , drainage system (geomorphology) , bay , environmental engineering , waste management , water resource management , mining engineering , environmental chemistry , geology , engineering , chemistry , civil engineering , ecology , biology , organic chemistry
East Bay Municipal Utility District and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board owned and operated the Penn Mine facility, which was the site of an abandoned copper and zinc mine that operated intermittently from the 1860s through the 1950s. Mining companies had left waste that formed “acid mine drainage” when exposed to oxygen and rain. The drainage, which had high concentrations of chemicals including sulfuric acid and cadmium, was carried downhill into the Mokelumne River. To reduce the threat of continued toxic runoff, the defendants built a facility to capture contaminated surface water. Occasionally water and drainage that had collected in the reservoir passed into the river and a reservoir. An environmental group brought this action, alleging that the facility discharged pollutants without a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The trial court found for the group.