The Casselman River Task Force was formed to identify solutions to the problem. According to Brant, over 240 seeps have been identified. He explains that the dilution effect of unpolluted side streams downstream from the mines causes a gradual improvement in water quality. The area around Shaw Mines Run is being remined, which is contributing in a positive way to the watershed restoration effort because the source of AMD is being removed. Acid mine drainage is treated by active or passive systems.
Active systems are costly in terms of chemicals, equipment, and labor.
The reason why limestone drains, diversion wells, MEC treatment, and other passive technologies such as wetlands have been developed is because conventional water treatment systems are prohibitively expensive. The economic advantages of passive systems and the high costs of active ones make passive systems the only feasible alternatives for large watershed rehabilitation projects like this. ALDs will plug and fail if ferric iron or aluminum precipitates and coats the limestone, slowing the dissolution. In 1989, the TVA and the Tennessee Division of Water Pollution Control began building ALDs to refine the technology. Constructed wetlands another passive water treatment contain plants such as cattails and function somewhat like kidneys in removing metals and acidity by filtering and cation exchange, oxidation and reduction reactions, and microbiological processes.