Argonne at 50

Argonne researchers help reclaim abandoned mine site

ARGONNE, Ill. (Sept. 21, 1996) -- "This site is an ugly waste," Illinois Governor Dan Walker said 20 years ago today as he surveyed a barren wasteland of coal refuse in downstate Macoupin County.

"But it will be restored and put to good use," he continued. And with that proclamation, Walker and other state and county officials broke ground for an Argonne National Laboratory-supervised reclamation project to turn a 53-year-old refuse heap into a recreation area and wildlife refuge.

The refuse heap was located at an abandoned deep coal mine near Staunton in southwest Illinois. Dominating its 35-acre site was an 80-foot-high, 600-foot-long refuse pile -- an eyesore of rocks, sand, clay and small coal particles left over after coal was processed for delivery to the mine's customers.

Acidic water and sediment runoff from the mound had scoured erosion channels up to 10 feet deep on the site and was polluting nearby Cahokia Creek. The nearby city of Staunton had repeatedly resurfaced the road passing the site because the runoff washed out the pavement.

A year later, however, the transformation was well underway. The mound of refuse had been regraded to a gentle 14-foot slope, and a 12-foot-deep man-made pond had replaced the erosion channels. After the site had been regraded agricultural limestone was applied to neutralize the acid in the soil. The limestone also acted as a buffer between soil from the refuse mound and the foot of cover soil that was added next. The final treatment before seeding was to fertilize the new cover soil with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Indeed, by the summer of 1977, green shoots of grasses and legumes could be seen popping up throughout the 35-acre site. Seeds from cattails, cut from a nearby stream and shaken over the pond had also taken root, their new stalks jutting several inches above the water.

Even Mother Nature had begun to work on the site. Wind-carried seeds took root along the pond's edge, and small brown toads began to appear there.

The project was also an opportunity for Argonne scientists to systematically study reclamation techniques and determine which ones produced the best results at the lowest cost. Researchers conducted a three-year monitoring effort at the site as changes were made. Overall, the project was deemed a success, and many of the reclamation techniques implemented at the Staunton site are still being used today.

The Staunton project was unique because it was the first time the federal government and a state government had combined their efforts in an abandoned mine land reclamation project.

Today, Argonne scientists continue to research ways to improve environmental cleanup and restoration techniques. For example, environmental scientists are investigating bioremediation -- the use of micro-organisms and green plants to remediate sties contaminated with hazardous waste -- to clean up sites contaminated with diesel fuel and soil contaminated by explosives.

Another Argonne study has shown that two common perennial plants can naturally reduce the volume of wastewater created in natural gas production. This biological process, called phytoremediation, uses plants to store, remove, degrade and metabolize environmental contaminants, including metals, hydrocarbons and other toxic organic compounds.

Methods of rapidly assessing and characterizing sites have also been developed at Argonne. The laboratory was one of the first organizations to develop expedited site characterization processes and methodologies that lead to significant cost and time savings.

Argonne will continue addressing environmental problems well into the future. Last month, several Argonne environmental research projects received more than $9.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The grants are part of DOE's Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) Initiative which will develop long-term basic research solutions to environmental problems. Research under these grants will include a project to study new techniques for sensing toxic substances during cleanup of contaminated sites and a project to evaluate a new technique for treating and removing underground contaminants.

The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Donna Jones Pelkie (630/252-5501 or djpelkie@anl.gov) at Argonne.