BUREAU OF GEOLOGY


8. On-Site and Regional Monitoring Systems
 "Since the Mining Act addresses the full range of peat mining impacts,
the Division of Land Resources should apply its provisions to require
monitoring of the full range of impacts. These expanded requirements
should be incorporated as conditions on the mining permit. Also, the
Division of Environmental Management should continue to expand its
ambient air, surface water, and groundwater monitoring system in the
peat mining region.
 "Incorporation of surface water, air, and groundwater monitoring
requirements in conditions of mining permits does not diminish the pri-
mary role of the Division of Environmental Management in setting these
requirements and in analyzing the results. An advantage of the package
approach to permits for peat mines is that monitoring can be fully coordi-
nated among the concerned agencies. The peat permit application
review group should play a central role in this coordination.
 "As soon as the results of Skaggs and Gregory's peat hydrology pro-
ject (See Table I) are available, they should be thoroughly evaluated by
the Department and, where appropriate, incorporated in monitoring
requirements. The surface and groundwater hydrology model developed
by Skaggs and Broadhead may allow a predictive capability sound
enough to relax some monitoring requirements. Even so, several years of
very detailed monitoring results will be needed to verify the model. Fur-
ther effort will be needed to expand the model for general applicability
since it is presently rather site-specific for the 15,000 acre First Colony
Farms site.
 "Since the task force's 1981 report, mercury in drainage water from
peat mines has arisen as a major concern. In preparing their applications
and analysis, PMA found mercury levels exceeding state standards in the
waters receiving drainage from the First Colony Farms peat mine, and
PMA reported their data to the state. Questions have arisen about the
sampling and analytical methodology which produced these values, and
a new sampling series has been proposed. PMA has not yet applied for
nor received an NPDES permit for the First Colony Farms mine.
 "The mercury issue reemphasizes the need to require an NPDES permit
for each peat mine. The department should require detailed analysis of
mercury issue as part of each peat mining permit and NPDES permit
application. All mining permits should require monitoring on-site and in
receiving waters by the mine operator. Laboratory and field experiments
should be initiated by the Division of Environmental Management,
assisted by N.C. State University, to identify the chemical species of
mercury present, mechanism of release, and transport mechanisms of
mercury. These experiments should be supplemented with further and
continuous biological monitoring by the Division of Environmental Man-
agement and Marine Fisheries. Finally, the Division of Environmental
Management should research to develop any needed water treatment
standards for mine drain water.


146