CONTAMINATION CAUSED BY ACID MINE DRAINAGE AND OTHER POINT SOURCES IN THE PRINCE WILLIAM FOREST NATIONAL PARK IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Prince William Forest National Park is among the newest parks established in North America. Located along Interstate 95, only a short distance south of Washington D.C., the area has long been characterized by increasing land use. Over the past decade, since the park was given a National Park status, mitigation efforts have concentrated on the land and surface water contaminated by a long-abandoned pyrite mine in the central part of the Park, by a federal military training area along the western margin of the Park, and by home communities constructed along the northern margin of the Park. Recent measurements of stream sediments throughout the Park reveal that the mitigation efforts have significantly reduced or eliminated most of the contamination. However, some areas of acid mine drainage are still present, in spite of extensive reshaping of the land surface and streams in the proximity of the pyrite mine.