Louis M McDonald

• Ph.D.
• West Virginia University

Naturally occurring concentrations of selenium (Se) are very low: 0.02 µg L-1 in freshwater and 0.01-2 mg kg-1 in soil. Mining operations must discharge water in accordance with the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s established maximum contaminant level and may be required to discharge at even lower limits set by the state. For accura...

Interactions of karst aquifer sediments with organic contaminants or microplastics (MPs) have received relatively little attention even though the susceptibility of karst aquifers to contamination and their ability to store and transport sediment are well documented. Studies using polystyrene microspheres as surrogate tracers for bacteria transport...

Land degradation and desertification (LDD) has gained worldwide policy attention due to decline in land quality and the resultant economic burden accrued upon a vast population reliant on land-based natural capital. In India, the impacts are becoming apparent as 24 out of 29 states have been experiencing LDD since the early 2000s. Here, we adopt a...

Abstract Marginal lands are an untapped source of agricultural potential, particularly regarding high‐yielding, low‐input bioenergy crops like Miscanthus × giganteus (Miscanthus). Miscanthus is of specific interest since it can be productive and sequester carbon in soil even under the stressful conditions present on some degraded lands. A key compo...

The essential roles of Fe oxides in stabilizing long-term soil organic carbon (SOC), especially aromatic dissolved organic carbon (DOCaro), are well-established in forest soils and sediments. We chose to focus on these processes in agricultural soils in which the input and translocation of native DOC to deeper soils are impacted by management pract...

Typical of soils in humid climates, soils in the Monongahela National Forest (MNF) in West Virginia are acidic because of leaching of base cations, uptake of Ca and Mg by vegetation, and release of organic acids by organic matter (OM) decomposition. Soil acidity has increased because of anthropogenic acid deposition causing declines in forest healt...

Soil organic C (SOC) pools have various stabilization mechanisms and turnover times, which change with depth and are highly influenced by land use. Total SOC (TOC), particulate organic carbon (POC), mineral-associated organic carbon (MOC), and carbon management index (CMI) were used as indicators to compare cropland with manure application (CM) and...

Mounting concerns over food insecurity have emerged as a key agenda in many recent global development dialogues, on accounts of observed and expected health outcomes. The present study attempts a reflective summary around a yet little-explored aspect of food insecurity: health and social ramifications of coping behaviours (adaptive strategies to im...

Sustainable agrarian development has emerged as a key agenda in many recent global development dialogues, owing to its intimate links with rural development. Agrarian development paradigms, however, mostly root for technocratic solutions (agro-systems’ modernization), overlooking the social dimension (social networking/learning) of agricultural inn...

Metal sulfides in coal and associated rocks of the Appalachian coalfield weather in the presence of air and water to produce metalliferous, acidic mine drainage (AMD). When watersheds lack sufficient geologic buffering, AMD from surface and underground mines can impair surface waters. Appalachian coalfield AMD is similar to acidic mine waters found...

Background and objectives: aggregation and structure play key roles in the water-holding capacity and stability of soils and are important for the physical protection and storage of soil carbon (C). Forest soils are an important sink of ecosystem C, though the capacity to store C may be disrupted by the elevated atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (...

Sustainable delivery of drinking water of adequate quantity/quality sits at the core of rural development paradigms worldwide. The overarching goal of this study was to assess operational performance of rural water supply services (RWSS) in India to help authorities understand challenges/shortfalls vis-à-vis opportunities. Data on habitation-level...

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and iron (Fe) have been observed to be the important contributors to surface water brownification. Additionally, the DOC quality influences water color by forming Fe-DOC complexes that provide additive effects and is influenced by dominant land use type within watersheds. However, the influence of quantity and quality...

Heavy metal accumulation in edible plants grown in contaminated soils poses a major environmental risk to humans and grazing animals. This study focused on the concentration and speciation of Zn in different edible plants grown in soils contaminated with smelter wastes (Spelter, WV, USA) containing high levels of the metals Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd. Their ac...

Manure elemental composition determination is essential to develop farm nutrient budgets and assess environmental risk. Portable X‐ray fluorescence (PXRF) spectrometers could facilitate hazardous waste‐free, rapid, and cost‐effective elemental concentration determinations. However, sample moisture is a problem for elemental concentration determinat...

Acid mine drainage (AMD) occurs after mining exposes metal sulfides to oxidizing conditions. Leaching of reaction products into surface waters pollute over 20 000 km of streams in the USA alone. The coal mining permitting process requires prediction of AMD potential, most commonly via overburden analysis. Where a potential exists, AMD control measu...

Anthropogenic and industrial emissions have resulted in historically high levels of acidic deposition into central Appalachian forests. Despite the reduction in acidic inputs due to legislation curbing industrial emissions in the United States, continued N deposition may impact forest ecosystems. Soil and foliar samples were collected from four hig...

Humic substances comprise chemically and physically complex forms of organic C that are recognized to be involved in the catalytic cycling of electrons in diverse biogeochemical reactions. Recent investigations have indicated that humic substances existing in redox‐dynamic terrestrial environments, such as intermittently wet soils, may be uniquely...

Effects of temperature and moisture on nitrogen (N) mineralization from organic amendments in high tunnel farming systems are rarely studied to assist N fertilizer management for high N-demand crops with short cycles. In this study, soils from a new high tunnel site were incubated at four temperatures (2, 10, 20, & 30°C) and five gravimetric water...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of one-step and two-step H3PO4 activation on activated carbon characteristics. Kanlow Switchgrass and Public Miscanthus and their biochars obtained via pyrolysis were used as precursors. The precursors were impregnated with H3PO4 and activated at a temperature of 900 °C to produce biomass-de...

This study investigated the influence of one-step and two-step KOH activation on the characteristics of activated carbons. The biomass precursors [Kanlow Switchgrass (KS) and Public Miscanthus (PM)] and their biochars produced at pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C, were impregnated with KOH and activated at a temperature 900 °C for 30 min in an inert...

The recent development of portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometers (PXRF) has created new avenues for rapid plant elemental concentration determination at reduced cost while avoiding hazardous chemicals. A few studies have indicated the potential use of PXRF for homogenous plant tissue analysis. However, there is a lack of information for analysis...

Contemporary mining creates environments that differ from preexisting conditions, yet those preexisting conditions are expected to be largely re-established during reclamation. As public awareness of impacts of mining increases, regulatory and public expectations of the mining industry advance concurrently. As a consequence, environmental laws that...

Filter socks frequently are used for erosion and sediment perimeter control during oil and gas development activities in the Appalachian Basin of the United States. Regulations specify the use of composted wood material for sock construction. This specification, as opposed to non-composted or fresh wood chips (woods-run), has created inefficiencies...

Acid mine drainage (AMD) occurs after mining exposes metal sulfides to oxidizing conditions. Leaching of reaction products into surface waters pollute over 20,000 km of streams in the USA alone. The coal mine permitting process requires prediction of AMD potential via overburden analysis. Where a potential exists, AMD control measures including spo...

The Forestry Reclamation Approach recommends that two tree types be planted during reclamation reforestation projects to reclaim the site to a forest ecosystem. Late succession trees such as oaks (Quercus), maples (Acer), poplars (Liriodendron), and pines (Pinus) are planted as crop trees, but understory trees and shrubs of native forests are not o...

Iron-impregnated granular activated carbon (Fe-GAC) has been shown effective for selenite adsorptive removal from aqueous solutions, but similar effectiveness was not observed with selenate. This study examined the effects of background electrolytes and pH on selenate adsorption on to Fe-GAC, and surface bindings to elucidate the selenate adsorptio...

In 1999, West Virginia University (WVU) established an organic farming systems project with a market garden section consisting of 32 plots measuring 16 × 25 ft arranged in a completely randomized design. Sixteen of these plots were managed as high-input and 16 as low-input plots. High-input plots received 10 tons/acre per year of dairy manure and a...

Composted livestock waste (CLW) was studied as one low-cost material to remove Pb(II), Cu(II), Cd(II) and Zn(II) from simulated acid mine drainage (AMD) by batch and column experiments. The adsorption isotherm data were well fitted by the Langmuir model. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacities were 0.5485 mmol/g for Pb(II), 0.4092 mmol/g for Cu...

Mine drainage from the low-sulfur surface coal mines in southern West Virginia, USA, is circumneutral (pH > 6) but contains elevated selenium (Se) concentrations. Removal of selenite ions from aqueous solutions under anoxic condition at pH 6-8.5 by zero valent iron steel wool (ZVI-SW) was investigated in bench-scale kinetic experiments using wet ch...

When appropriately designed and maintained, passive systems can provide long-term, efficient, and effective treatment for many acid mine drainage (AMD) sources. Passive AMD treatment relies on natural processes to neutralize acidity and to oxidize or reduce and precipitate metal contaminants. Passive treatment is most suitable for small to moderate...

Appalachian USA surface coal mines face public and regulatory pressure to reduce total dissolved solids (TDS) in discharge waters, primarily due to effects on sensitive macroinvertebrates. Specific conductance (SC) is an accurate surrogate for TDS and relatively low levels of SC (300–500 μS cm−1) have been proposed as regulatory benchmarks for inst...

Knowledge of how biochar impacts soil denitrification kinetics as well as the mechanisms of interactions is essential in order to better predict the nitrous oxide (N2O) mitigation capacity of biochar additions. This study had multiple experiments in which the effect of three biochar materials produced from corn stover (Zea mays L.), ponderosa pine...

Choosing soil series scale for assessing phosphorus (P) retention and release characteristics may help relate routinely collected series-specific soil survey data with P retention and aid in designing series-specific P management strategies. Phosphorus retention and release characteristics of pedons collected from two benchmark upland soil series (...

The Appalachian coal industry has been successful in developing technologies to identify, handle, treat and isolate potentially acid-forming overburden materials at coal mines in the region. Modern coal mining permits have stringent guidelines for reclamation and water discharge limits. Total dissolved solids (TDS) is a new water quality parameter...

In an energy limited world, biomass may be converted to energy products through pyrolysis. A byproduct of this process is biochar. A better understanding is needed of the sorption characteristics of biochars which can influence the availability of plant essential nutrients and potential water contaminants such as phosphorus (P) in soil. Knowledge o...

High flows during spring runoff and snowmelt can increase the concentrations of contaminants in the discharge or dilute them. In the Appalachian region, March tends to be a time of high flows from underground mines, May has moderate flow rates, and July has low flows. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of flow rate on water qua...

The Appalachian coal industry has been successful in developing technologies to identify, handle, treat, and isolate potentially acid-forming overburden materials during coal mining to reduce or eliminate acid mine drainage. However, the techniques used to predict acid mine drainage potential have not been tested for total dissolved solids (TDS) pr...

With adoption of appropriate reclamation strategies, minesoils can sequester significant amount of soil organic carbon (SOC). The objective of this study was to isolate different SOC fractions and coal-C in a reclaimed minesoil chronosequence and assess effects of increasing time since reclamation on each SOC fraction and selected soil properties....

Metal pollution is an important concern because of its potential to affect human health. Metals such as lead and cadmium can enter soil via the food chain and exceed normal limits, producing harmful effects. In this study, six common garden and residential plant species were grown in soils from Spelter, WV, USA, contaminated with a variety of metal...

Several counties in eastern West Virginia have extensive animal agriculture and generate considerable animal waste. Often these manures are surface applied to satisfy crop N demands. This leads to over application of P, and the environmental soundness of this practice is dependent on a soil’s ability to sorb any excess P. However, preferential flow...

Studies on molecular characterization of soil organic carbon (SOC), although critical to understanding SOC dynamics, are relatively scarce for reclaimed minesoils. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of time since reclamation on SOC molecular properties in a reclaimed minesoil chronosequence using different spectroscopic indices. The ch...

Reclaimed minesoils have well-defined ages (time since reclamation), making them suitable for studying temporal changes in terrestrial carbon sequestration. The objective of this research was to assess the effect of time since reclamation on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration and related soil properties such as texture, bulk density, and catio...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of rainwater infiltration on volumetric water content (VWC), groundwater level, and ground and surface water quality in mine waste rock and tailings. The VWC and electrical conductivity was recorded with sensors installed at five depths. Three boreholes 7–13m in depth were drilled to monitor g...

The grasslands of the Appalachian region spread over undulating terrain with high annual precipitation rate which causes a large variation in soil and nutrient factors like water potential (WP), pH, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) levels. There is a need to understand these factors and their interactive effects to design precise agronomic practices...

In Appalachian grasslands, soil acidity and highly variable topography are the main factors negatively affecting the productivity. There was a need to develop a yield response function and determine nutritive value of grasslands. Soil factors such as water potential (WP), soil pH, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) levels are highly variable across mo...

Preferential flow is a mechanistic description of irregular water movement in a soil profile where part of the soil matrix is bypassed during periods of infiltration and percolation. Although a common phenomenon, there is little research specific to West Virginia soils, particularly those under pasture management. To identify the active preferentia...

Confined poultry production results in large quantities of phosphorus (P)-containing manure. The repeated application of manure to soils based on the nitrogen content of this material results in soil P buildup; a process that has been linked to eutrophication of surface waters. Active treatment of acid mine drainage produces an iron-based waste pro...

Most of what is known about the environmental fate and transport of contaminants comes from studies of dilute, aqueous solutions. Theoretical and practical aspects of hydrophobic organic contaminants in aqueous mixtures of organic solvents are well developed, but relatively little attention has been paid to those situations where inorganic contamin...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) stock (in metric tons of carbon per hectare) is calculated from SOC concentration (in grams per kilogram) and soil bulk density (ρb; in grams per cubic centimeter). Temporal changes in SOC stock are used to calculate terrestrial carbon sequestration rates used in global climate change models. The inherent variability in so...

Reducing phosphorus inputs can be an effective method to reduce phosphorus runoff and increase profitability of crops if optimal phosphorus requirements can be determined. In order to test our hypothesis that phosphorus levels required for maximum flower production are dependent on flower color we grew white, apricot, purple, yellow, rose, and blue...

The success of a liming program is dependent upon the accuracy of the lime recommendation, which in turn depends on the quality of the underlying correlations and calibrations. Because of the expense, large-scale field calibration experiments are rarely conducted. The relatively low economic returns from pastures make it even more unlikely that a c...

Acidity of water from abandoned underground mines decreases over time, and the rate of decrease can help formulate remediation approaches and treatment system designs. The objective of this study was to determine an overall acidity decay rate for above-drainage underground mines in northern West Virginia from a large data set of mines that were clo...

Preferential flow is a mechanistic description of water movement in a soil profile where much of the soil matrix is bypassed during periods of rapid infiltration. The occurrence of preferential flow could lead to the movement of phosphorus (P) down through the soil profile. The objectives of this research were (i) to verify the presence of preferen...

Soil-related parameters (such as moisture, texture, temperature, and rooting depth) and vegetation-related parameters (such as tree density and species complex) impact the longevity, 269 sorption, desorption, and bioavialibility of soil-injected chemicals, but little is known about these parameters in eastern hemlock forests. As a first step to elu...

Equivalent conductivities of dilute solutions of calcium nitrate, cadmium nitrate, zinc nitrate, and calcium chloride (c < 0.0021 eq·dm−3) were measured in binary aqueous mixtures containing up to 70 wt % cosolvent (methanol, ethanol, and acetone) at 298.15 K ± 0.1. Data were treated by the Fuoss−Edelson equation, and its parameters, the limiting e...

The conditional acidity constants, pKa, of methyl red and phenol red were determined in (10, 30, and 50) wt % binary aqueous mixtures of methanol and ethanol at 298.15 K and at constant low ionic strength (2.5·10−3 mol·dm−3) by a spectrophotometric method. For methyl red and phenol red and in the studied cosolvent + water systems, pKa ranged from 3...

Very little information is available on organic specialty cut flower production, especially fertilization requirements. In order to better understand organic fertilization requirements of two specialty cut flower crops, Limonium sinuatum and Celosia argentea, we initiated a field and greenhouse experiment to study the effect of compost (organic) an...

The duration of acid mine drainage (AMD) flowing out of underground mines is important in watershed restoration and abandoned mine land reclamation projects. Past studies report that AMD flows from underground mines for hundreds of years with little change, while others find that poor drainage quality only lasts 20 to 40 years. In northern West Vir...

Calcium-sodium exchange on Wyoming bentonite in methanol, ethanol and acetone-water systems were investigated at 0.03 N Cl and at room temperature. Calcium-sodium exchange isotherms were plotted at cosolvent concentrations ranging from 0 to 70% wt./wt. using Ca and Na ionic activities before and after correction for CaCl+ formation. In both cases a...

The effects of ethanol- and methanol-water mixtures on Zn and Cd sorption onto bentonite and illite were investigated at low initial metal concentration (< or =10(-5) M) and low ionic strength (2.5 mM Ca(NO3)2). For all cosolvent fractions, the percent coverage of Zn and Cd to clay minerals was low (<5%) and independent of the solution dielectric c...

The duration of acid mine drainage flowing out of underground mines is important in the design of watershed restoration and abandoned mine land reclamation projects. Past studies have reported that acid water flows from underground mines for hundreds of years with little change, while others state that poor drainage quality may last only 20 to 40 y...

Background concentrations of trace elements in soils are important due to recent interest in contamination potential and toxic effect of these elements on humans and the environment.. We assessed the trace element content of three major soil series in Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) 126 of the Appalachian region of the USA by two extraction techniq...

The effects of acidic deposition on agricultural soils have not received much attention because they are regularly limed and receive acid forming fertilizers far in excess of what would accumulate in these soils from atmospheric acidic deposition. However, not all agricultural soils are managed with equal intensity, and some may be prone to element...

Acid-base accounting (ABA) is an analytical procedure that provides values to help assess the acid-producing and acid-neutralizing potential of overburden rocks prior to coal mining and other large-scale excavations. This procedure was developed by West Virginia University scientists during the 1960s. After the passage of laws requiring an assessme...

Extractives play an important role in the fixation and leaching of chromated copper arsenate (CCA) from treated wood. Sapwood of two Appalachian hardwoods, yellow-poplar and red oak, and southern pine, were extracted with two solvent systems: water/ethanol and acetone/water/ethanol. Extracted and unextracted wood of these species was vacuum-treated...

It is important to consider floc properties when designing acid mine drainage treatment (AMD) systems. Relatively few studies have evaluated the effects of neutralizing base, neutralization pH, and sulfate in solution on floc properties in active treatment systems. We used NaOH and NH4OH as neutralizing bases, 0:1, 2.5:1, and 5:1 SO4:Fe molar ratio...

Numerous studies have been reported regarding atrazine (2-chloro-4-isopropyl-6 ethyl-diamino-triazine) sorption/desorption and mobility in soil using the pure atrazine compound. Relatively little research has been carried out on atrazine behavior in soil minerals in the presence of surfactants. We hypothesized that clay mineralogy and surfactants m...

Open limestone systems have been widely used to treat acid mine drainage (AMD) in Appalachia, especially for abandoned mine lands, but their treatment effectiveness has been variable. This study was conducted to understand the effects of limestone surface area, iron concentration of the AMD, and coating thickness on limestone neutralization of AMD....

An understanding of the controls on aluminum solubility is essential because Al can reach toxic levels in waters that are affected by acidic precipitation or acid mine drainage. One factor which has received little attention is the role of in-lake sinks for Al. We hypothesized that a chloritization mechanism was capable of removing large amounts of...

The presence of organic chemicals in natural systems requires an understanding of how these chemicals distribute themselves between the different phases of the environment. Partition coefficients (K) then are an important parameter for environmental fate studies. One experimentally critical parameter in the estimation of K for solid-liquid systems...

The duration of acid mine drainage flowing out of underground mines is important to watershed restoration and abandoned mine land reclamation projects. Reclamationists usually employ remediation strategies once (land regrading, revegetating, and installing water treatment) with the hope that these methods will adequately improve the water for a lon...

Acid-Base Accounting (ABA) is an analytical procedure that provides values to help assess the acid-or alkaline-producing potential of overburden rocks prior to coal mining. This procedure was developed at West Virginia University in the late 1960s. After the passage of laws requiring an assessment of surface mining on water quality, ABA became the...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kentucky, 1998. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-91).