"It's kind of subtle and insidious, because you rarely see things like fish kills," said Christopher Rowe, a toxicologist at the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. He and other researchers have found frogs and lizards with deformities and other problems in ash-contaminated ponds in southern states. Developmental and reproductive problems might not kill creatures right away, but could affect their abundance and diversity over time.
At 400 acres, the Carlos mine operated by ICG Inc. is one of the largest surface excavations for coal in Maryland. State mine regulators and mine officials showed a reporter last week how ash is deposited in gashes in the hill from which coal has been excavated, then buried under tons of dirt and rock. The ash dumped there is gray and damp, a bit like sand - wetted down, officials say, to keep it from becoming airborne.
As the earth movers finish extracting coal from the hill, the land is restored to its original contour and replanted with trees, officials said. Rainfall running off the slope is channeled to settling ponds before draining into Staub Run, a stream that empties into George's Creek, a tributary of the Potomac.
