West Virginia Mine Pool Atlas

A statewide study and mapping resource evaluating flooded abandoned coal mines as potential groundwater sources, with direct relevance to AMD work in the Appalachian coalfields.

The West Virginia Mine Pool Atlas came out of a two-year study to evaluate abandoned underground coal mines as potential groundwater sources. Flooded mine workings hold enormous volumes of water, and the Atlas maps where those pools are, what is known about their extent and quality, and where they might be usable for industrial or public supply. For watershed groups in the coalfields, the value runs the other way as well: mine pools are the same reservoirs that discharge as acid mine drainage, and understanding where they sit, how they are connected, and what is in them is foundational to any AMD treatment or abatement planning. The Atlas complements the AMD funding and treatment programs already in this library by supplying the underlying hydrogeology. It is hosted by WVDEP's Water Use Section alongside the state's Water Resources Management Plan mapping tool and large quantity user data, so the mine pool information can be read against actual withdrawal and use patterns.