Illinois Natural History Survey Reports

              1
I LLINOIS
NATURAL
HI STORY
S U R V E Y R e p o r t s
Summer 2004
No. 380
I N S I D E
Fishing Illinois via the
Internet
2
INHS Researcher
Named Fellow by
American
Association for the Ad-vancement
of Science
3
Hill Prairies Along a
Stretch of the Illinois
River
4
New INHS
Publications
5
Species Spotlight:
Bur Oak
6
Naturalist's Appren-tice:
Make an Oak
Tree Collection
7
Continued on back page
Hyalella azteca, a type
of amphipod crusta-cean
that is sensitive
to sulfate toxicity in
Illinois streams. Photo by
Michael Jeffords, INHS Offi ce
of the Chief
In recent years, Illinois has
consistently ranked among the
top 10 states for both produc-tive
capacity and number of coal
mines; underground mines are
currently more common than
surface mines. Illinois coal has a
high BTU rating (produces more
heat per pound), but because of
the environment in which coal
beds were formed, it is also rela-tively
high in sulfur. In fact, as of
1997, 94% of Estimated Recover-able
Reserves in Illinois fell into
the “high sulfur” category. By
comparison, only 7.5% of Esti-mated
Recoverable Reserves of
Wyoming are considered high in
sulfur. The high sulfur content of
Illinois coal presents problems for
both coal burning power plants
and coal processing facilities re-garding
compliance with environ-mental
regulations enforced under
the Clean Air and Clean Water
Acts.
Upon combus-tion,
sulfur in
coal is released to
the atmosphere,
often in the form
of sulfur diox-ide,
which reacts
with water vapor
to become sulfuric acid. These
reactions are responsible for acid
precipitation problems in much of
the eastern United States. In an
effort to reduce sulfur emissions
as required under the Clean Air
From Air to Water Contamination: Steps to
Reduce High Sulfur Coal Pollution
Act, coal preparation facilities
now wash coal prior to combus-tion.
This practice produces a
liquid waste, or effl uent, that must
be released into a nearby receiv-ing
stream or river. Essentially, to
reduce airborne sulfur emissions
at power plants, processing facili-ties
must increase sulfur contents
in local watersheds. However,
a process similar to the one that
transforms combusted sulfur into
sulfuric acid (H2SO4) in the atmo-sphere
also occurs in freshwater.
In order to comply with the Clean
Water Act, acidic effl uents must
be neutralized prior to release,
usually by the addition of a base
like sodium hydroxide (NaOH).
The result is an effl uent with neu-tral
pH (~7) containing high con-centrations
of dissolved sodium
(Na+) and sulfate (SO4
2-). Because
of the high concentrations of these
dissolved chemicals (or ions), the
effl uent is more similar to saltwa-ter
than freshwater.
It has long been known that
freshwater organisms do not
function well in the presence of
high concentrations of ions (i.e.,
in salty water). In fact, the fi rst
aquatic toxicity experiment is
usually credited to the ancient
Greek philosopher and scientist,
Aristotle, who transferred fresh-water
fi sh to seawater to observe
the effect. In present times,
aquatic ecotoxicologists most
often focus their research on con-taminants
that are toxic at minute
concentrations, such as cadmium
or dioxins; however, in some situ-ations
as described above, ordi-narily
“nontoxic” ions commonly
found in freshwaters at low levels
Abbott Power Plant at the University of Illinois that burns "scrubbed"
high sulfur Illinois coal. Photo by Charlie Warwick, INHS Offi ce of the Chief