73 Paul Ziemkiewicz: Researcher's dirty job leads to clean streams

Apr 20, 2008 (The Dominion Post - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- -- You could say Paul Ziemkiewicz likes to get his hands dirty. As director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute, he sometimes sits behind a desk at the NRCCE building. But in two months, he also racked up 1,900 miles on his car.

How?

He's out looking at streams, creeks and rivers that have been affected by acid mine drainage, and trying to find solutions to clean them up. Acid mine drainage is acid water from metal or coal mines that often enters streams and rivers, polluting them.

"What we've been doing is finding technologies that work in West Virginia, in Appalachia," Ziemkiewicz said. "What we're trying to do is really recover stream miles."

On site, he discusses the situation with scientists and community members to figure out what needs to be done. Ziemkiewicz then returns to his office to put together a plan, and try to secure funding by writing proposals and grants.

"I think Paul is more comfortable in a pair of field boots than in a tie," said Tamara Vandivort, program coordinator for the institute. "It really goes back to his assisting people and resolving issues by doing, rather than by talking about it."

Ziemkiewicz has worked with local watershed organizations and has traveled to other states in search of answers to the acid mine drainage problems.

"Acid mine drainage is the biggest economic problem we have in the United States, at least in Appalachia," he said.

In the past 20 years, he has watched the cleanup of the Cheat River, as well as local streams. Working with watershed organizations and many others, he tries to persuade policymakers to give money to the environmental projects, and he's had a lot of success.

"We've gotten to the point where there's an evolution in mine drainage cleanup," Ziemkiewicz said. "Twenty years ago, there were very few technologies available."

One of his jobs has been helping to find out which method works best for what stream. There are several different kinds of pollution, he said, ranging from low pH levels to high pH levels and not enough iron to too much iron.

Ziemkiewicz grew up in western Pennsylvania. His grandfather came to the U.S. from Italy to work in the coal mines.

"I grew up learning about coal, hearing about coal stories," he said.

He also grew up swimming in the Allegheny River, which was badly polluted at the time from acid mine drainage.

"I spent my childhood swimming in the Allegheny," Ziemkiewicz said. "There were chunks of what I now know is ferrous hydroxide floating by."

Although he remembers the river's pollution, he also remembers its cleanup, which he said piqued his interest.

Because of this enthusiasm for acid mine drainage cleanup, he attended Utah State, graduating with two degrees, a bachelor's in biology and a master's in range ecology. He then received a fellowship at the University of British Columbia and graduated with a doctorate in forest ecology.

After graduation, Ziemkiewicz worked for Alberta Energy in reclamation research for 10 years in Canada. But he said he knew he wanted to return to the area where he grew up, so he began looking for jobs and found the institute. He applied for a job there and, in 1988, moved to Morgantown to work for the institute, where he has centered his work on acid mine drainage.

But that's not the only project he works on at the institute. He also works on the Brownfields Program, which takes industrial sites, such as the old glass factories along the river, and turns them into useful real estate.

He also plays a role in finding solutions for land that was used in mountaintop mining in the southern part of the state.

There are three aspects he has worked on: stream mediation, onsite mitigation for mine companies; selenium, developing different treatment methods for streams affected by the mining; and switchgrass opportunities, a plan where the plant would be grown on abandoned mines to be harvested for biofuel.

Ziemkiewicz said that with all of the projects he and his constituents are working on, it can take years to see changes taking place.

"It's like playing slow-motion chess," he said, but "there's lots of ways to see if you're winning or losing."

"Paul has been a real example in how people make a difference one day at a time, one step at a time," Vandivort said.

Ziemkiewicz said he goes in with a mindset of following a schedule, and if things veer off the schedule, he knows efforts will have to be stepped up. But, you can see small changes along the way by sticking to that schedule, he said, and he knows he's making progress.

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