Dunkard Creek Fish Kill and the DEP

Acristickid

Acristickid

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Follow up article on the Dunkard Creek fish kill.



Environmental agencies to check streams for golden algae that caused fish kill
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
State and federal agencies are checking southwestern Pennsylvania streams for the non-native, golden algae that had a role in killing aquatic life in 30 miles of Dunkard Creek in September.

Helen Humphreys, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman, said the department is working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to test 11 streams and the Monongahela River near West Virginia where water-quality monitors show conditions may be suitable to support golden algae.

"We recognize the algae may be spreading and know that it requires a more saline environment than that which occurs in most Western Pennsylvania streams to thrive," Ms. Humphreys said, "so we'll be looking at streams with high conductivity numbers, which usually means high total dissolved solids."

Lou Reynolds, an aquatic biologist with the EPA in Wheeling, W.Va., said the agencies will sample streams today in Greene and Fayette counties. The results should be known sometime next week.

Whiteley Creek, a small warm-water fishery in Greene County just north of the Dunkard Creek watershed, is of particular interest. Mr. Reynolds said Consol Energy has found evidence of golden algae there.

That finding has not been confirmed by state or federal agencies although the EPA took an initial water sample last week. No fish kills have been reported there.

Mr. Reynolds said sampling at four sites on the Mon will be done just downriver and on the same side where tributaries enter the river.

"We want to see if there are any pockets where the algae can thrive on the inside of river bends or in eddies where the water is slower moving and the algae can thrive," Mr. Reynolds said.

Total dissolved solids and chloride levels were high in Dunkard Creek when the month-long fish kill started around Sept. 1. The DEP said stream sampling identified discharges from Consol Energy's Blacksville No. 2 Mine as the "primary immediate source" of the fish kill, which also threatened water quality in the Mon, the drinking water source for 850,000 people.

Those discharges, combined with low-flow stream conditions, may have created the aquatic environment for golden algae, which is usually found in brackish waters in the South and Southwest. The West Virginia DEP has blamed the algae bloom for killing fish, mussels, salamanders, crayfish and other aquatic life in Dunkard Creek but hasn't explained how the algae got there.

Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014258-113.stm#ixzz0XDVp4fSe
 
just a question, wouldn't what killed the fish be flushed well downstream by now?? unless of course it's still getting into the stream.
 
If the mine discharge keeps the water habitable for the algae, I guess it just stays clung to whatever it clings to. I would think winter would take care of it eventually but I'm just guessing here.
 
More follow up. Carp to contribute to the loss of gamefish.

EPA pins killing of Dunkard Creek on mine discharges
Thursday, December 03, 2009
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report blames a September bloom of toxic golden algae for wiping out almost all fish, mussels, salamanders and aquatic life on 43 miles of Dunkard Creek along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.

The 17-page interim report released Tuesday also tied mine treatment discharges high in total dissolved solids to the creation of salty water conditions that allowed the algae, normally found in brackish waters in Southern and Southwestern states, to thrive and bloom.

Although the EPA report confirms a late September West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection finding fingering the algae, it offers no explanation of how the algae got in the creek and said it will be almost impossible to remove. The only way to control its growth and toxicity and foster stream restoration, the study said, is to limit mine drainage containing high TDS.

Kathy Cosco, a West Virginia DEP spokeswoman, said it's also learned from golden algae experts during two days of meetings this week that it will be difficult to control the algae's growth and spread to other bodies of water.

The EPA report and stream algae survey information were released as the Upper Monongahela River Association and the Greene County Conservation District prepare to hold the first informational meeting on the Dunkard Creek ecological disaster from 4 to 8:30 p.m. today at the Mount Morris Gospel Tabernacle Church.

"People who live in and around the Dunkard Creek watershed want to know what's going on, and this is the first meeting we'll have where the agencies can tell us what they know and we can ask questions," said Betty Wiley, president of the Dunkard Creek Watershed Association. "A good ecological study of the creek needs to be done to figure out what happened and what needs done to restore it."

She said a preliminary estimate by the Greene County Conservation District put the cost of restoring the creek at $30 million.

Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute at West Virginia University, said analysis of the creek water shows that the bulk of the TDS load in the creek probably came from mine water discharges at Consol Energy's Blacksville No. 2 mine and Loverage Mine, Patriot Coal's Federal No. 2 mine near the creek's headwaters and AMDRI's Shannopin Steel Shaft discharge.

"All of those discharges are treated to remove acidity and metals, but the TDS doesn't change at all," said Mr. Ziemkiewicz, who is scheduled to speak at the meeting.

Water chemistry readings taken at the Blacksville No. 2 mine discharge Sept. 9 show sodium at 5,780 micrograms per liter, chloride at 6,120 micrograms per liter and sulfate at 10,800 micrograms per liter -- all extremely high and the highest found anywhere on the creek that day.

"High TDS levels are good conditions for the growth of the algae bloom, and that's what we had at Dunkard," said Lou Reynolds, an EPA aquatic biologist.

But Joe Cerenzia, a Consol Energy spokesman, said the mining company disputes the conclusion that the algae bloom was linked to the mine discharges.

"It's our belief that a lot was happening in that creek and you can't with any certainty make that final determination," Mr. Cerenzia said. "Experts can't pinpoint what happened and there might have been other factors, like higher nutrients due to runoff."

The EPA also confirmed Tuesday that its recent stream survey found golden algae on Whiteley Creek, the watershed just north of Dunkard Creek in Greene County. No fish kills have been reported on Whiteley Creek, which also has high concentrations of dissolved solids or TDS. The survey found no golden algae in 10 other streams or four sampling areas of the Monongahela River.

The West Virginia DEP has also found high levels of golden algae in Cabin Creek, near Charleston, but has not seen any fish kills.

Robbie Matesic, executive director of economic development for Greene County, said that while the meeting will focus on Dunkard Creek it shouldn't lose sight of the bigger ecological picture.

"Specific to the Dunkard fish kill I'm not going to hold my breath on finding the responsible party for that," Ms. Matesic said. "But I want to know what the agencies are doing to protect water quality in the Mon River basin. We could hit a tipping point at any time now."



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09337/1018118-113.stm#ixzz0YdObWhDC
 
oh what a wonderful world!!
maybe they will stock asian carp in all our waters after we kill off our native fish.
 
Another update after town meeting.

The last sentence sums up my feeling on mining and drilling.



Dunkard Creek kill frustrates residents of Greene County
Saturday, December 05, 2009
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
John Heller/Post-GazetteJohn Yesenosky, East Dunkard Water Association president, attends the public meeting in Mount Morris, Greene County, to talk about the fish kill in Dunkard Creek.MOUNT MORRIS, Pa. -- Just a stone's throw from Dunkard Creek, the frustration of local residents is more palpable than the toxic golden algae that state and federal agencies say decimated fish, mussels and aquatic life throughout 43 miles of that flow in September.

As the fatal fall algae bloom has faded, many along this creek that meanders along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border say they are disappointed about the slow pace of investigations and angry that no one has been held accountable.

"All we're asking for is an honest investigation," said Jim O'Connell, a member of the local conservation group, Friends of Dunkard Creek, at an informational meeting that attracted more than 200 people Thursday evening in the Mount Morris Gospel Tabernacle Church.

"We are concerned that the emphasis on golden algae, which may be one cause, is nonetheless a smokescreen for the real cause, high total dissolved solids in the creek. We want Dunkard Creek restored by the people who killed it."

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has asked the Pennsylvania attorney general to conduct a criminal investigation into the cause of the fish kill. Eric Shirk, a spokesman for the attorney general, said the office is "looking into it," but declined yesterday to provide details.

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency interim report released earlier this week and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection say discharges high in total dissolved solids came from mine drainage treatment facilities along the creek and created the kind of brackish water conditions in which the toxic algae thrives.

But none of those investigations has yet determined how the algae got there or who is to blame for creating the stream conditions that allowed it to bloom into a fatal force that caused big bass and muskies to start going belly-up three months ago.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection estimates that between 15,000 and 22,000 fish -- many of them large game fish -- died because of the toxins released by the algae. Also killed were large salamanders or "mudpuppies," and 14 species of freshwater mussels, some of them already ecologically threatened.

The Greene County Conservation District, which sponsored Thursday's meeting along with the Upper Mon River Association, has estimated the cost of restoring the creek at $30 million.

Consol Energy, which discharges mine water high in TDS from its Blacksville No. 2 mine and Loverage mine, has said other factors could have produced the algae bloom that killed the fish.

"No one is 100 percent sure what caused the algae bloom. There's a lot of other loading and factors on the creek," said Joe Cerenzia, a Consol Energy spokesman.

Under an agreement with the West Virginia DEP, Consol must figure out a way to reduce the TDS in its discharges by the end of 2013. Mr. Cerenzia said the company hasn't decided how it will do that.

Angela McFadden, a member of the EPA's month-old regional resource extraction task force, said the EPA is reviewing Consol's agreement with West Virginia to determine if a fix can be done sooner. She noted that Consol took just two years to build a new treatment facility at one of its mines in West Virginia.

Another complication for the creek that is adding to the local frustration is Consol's request to resume mine water discharges from its Blacksville No. 2 mine that were stopped after the fish kill was discovered. The company has said the mine has been filling up and could soon become unsafe for mining.

"We're very concerned about the situation in the mine, and we'll have to start pumping soon," Mr. Cerenzia said.

But Raymond Yackel, whose family owns a farm along the creek in Pennsylvania, said Consol shouldn't be allowed to pollute the creek again. He said Consol should be made to pump the mine water into tankers and truck it to treatment plants.

"We live in the community -- I've been here for 31 years -- and we're heartbroken about what happened to our creek," Mr. Yackel said. "I went down to the creek in mid-September to see all the dead fish and I drove away crying
.

"Now I'm frustrated. No one is standing up to the people in industries," he said. "It's simple economics. We're ruining the environment because someone wants to take a shortcut."

Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09339/1018659-113.stm#ixzz0YorQIRHj
 
your right, the last sentence sums it up.
 
Consol owns CNX gas. Hmmm Did they use the mine to dispose of drilling frac waste water?
 
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