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From- Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Sunday, October 19, 2008
By Deborah Weisberg
VENANGO COUNTY -- Williams Run wends through State Game Lands 39 -- a densely-wooded tract that blazes with the rich warm colors of autumn.
Hunters who venture into this forested valley would never guess that Williams Run is practically dead, the consequence of an old strip mine that ravaged nearby farmland.
But that is about to change as work nears completion on a $1 million public-private project to backfill the mine and run Williams Run through limestone beds and settling ponds at its headwaters. Restoring Williams will allow a population of wild brook trout now isolated on an unnamed tributary to expand into Williams, which has the cold temperatures brookies need to survive. The run feeds South Sandy Creek, which merges with the popular stocked-trout destination Sandy Creek between Polk and the Allegheny River.
"Williams is the only problem in a generally good watershed," says Valerie Tarkowski, of the South Sandy Creek Watershed Association. "Once we clean up Williams, it will benefit everything the water feeds, from fish to aquatic insects. It will release the trout on a trib we call East Branch to at least the lower reaches of Williams. That will push the trout, which are already at the westernmost part of their native range, a little farther west."
Anglers could eventually see brook trout on South Sandy, too, according to Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologist Al Woomer.
"South Sandy already has a low level of wild trout -- an improved Williams should populate it more," he says. "The main stem of Sandy Creek is a little too warm, so the brook trout probably won't go that far. We'll just continue to stock it."
Although 90 percent of Williams flows through State Game Lands, 10 percent is on Chuck Woods' 450-acre property. In the 1950s, Woods' grandfather, a dairy farmer, sold the coal rights to a company that strip-mined his pastures for 10 years, leaving a crater 30 feet deep through much of the landscape and a constant hemorrhage of iron- and aluminum-laden water into Williams Run.
"The fine print allowed the company to walk away from the project without filling it," says Woods, 58, who was 5 when his grandfather signed a contract with the miners. He grew up with the hazard of the high walls. So did his children and now his grandchildren.
"When my grandfather tried to sue the company, it declared bankruptcy," he says. "A few years later, they were back in business."
The state first approached Woods 30 years ago about fixing his scarred land, but given the number of old mines statewide it took until May for that begin to happen. But the project is more comprehensive than anything the state could have done alone, thanks to the efforts of the watershed association. More than a half-dozen agencies have joined in the project, which includes backfilling the old mine and treating the drainage at two sites at Williams' headwaters.
"It's a passive treatment approach ... very basic," says Bill Dadamo, a construction supervisor for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, which is wrapping up work on the largest portion of the project. At $650,000, it involves backfilling the mine, which will be reseeded and restored to green pasture land, and diverting acid mine drainage through a nearly 1,000-foot pipeline to a neutralizing limestone bed before emptying into the run.
DEP installed a splitter box to regulate flow into the bed. As water is pooled there, iron and aluminum will gradually fall out. The limestone can be churned every few years to keep water aerated.
A similar limestone bed is being created on a different part of Woods' property, which is stained rust-red from years of mine seepage. That project will make use of settling ponds, too.
"The change in water quality will be immediate," predicts Van Sheykhet, the engineer for Quality Aggregates, which is performing the work. "It won't take long for Williams Run to improve."
But that doesn't mean the work on Williams will be done.
Tarkowski said her group plans to tackle improvements on another part of the watershed that once served as a tipple, or coal-washing site, that blights an otherwise pastoral landscape.
The work on Williams is receiving attention beyond Irwin Township. The National Fish Habitat Action Plan has named the run one of America's "10 Waters to Watch."
"We chose Williams because it's an easily fixed problem at not a lot of cost that we believe has potentially good results," says Ryan Roberts, a spokesman for the quasi-government group that works to create conservation partnerships.
The prospect of a fishable Williams Run is something Woods never expected to see in his lifetime.
"I've never known this land to be anything but what it's been -- a danger to my kids and my grandkids," he says. "Now I have something to look forward to when I retire: a nice little brook trout stream to fish."
Sunday, October 19, 2008
By Deborah Weisberg
VENANGO COUNTY -- Williams Run wends through State Game Lands 39 -- a densely-wooded tract that blazes with the rich warm colors of autumn.
Hunters who venture into this forested valley would never guess that Williams Run is practically dead, the consequence of an old strip mine that ravaged nearby farmland.
But that is about to change as work nears completion on a $1 million public-private project to backfill the mine and run Williams Run through limestone beds and settling ponds at its headwaters. Restoring Williams will allow a population of wild brook trout now isolated on an unnamed tributary to expand into Williams, which has the cold temperatures brookies need to survive. The run feeds South Sandy Creek, which merges with the popular stocked-trout destination Sandy Creek between Polk and the Allegheny River.
"Williams is the only problem in a generally good watershed," says Valerie Tarkowski, of the South Sandy Creek Watershed Association. "Once we clean up Williams, it will benefit everything the water feeds, from fish to aquatic insects. It will release the trout on a trib we call East Branch to at least the lower reaches of Williams. That will push the trout, which are already at the westernmost part of their native range, a little farther west."
Anglers could eventually see brook trout on South Sandy, too, according to Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologist Al Woomer.
"South Sandy already has a low level of wild trout -- an improved Williams should populate it more," he says. "The main stem of Sandy Creek is a little too warm, so the brook trout probably won't go that far. We'll just continue to stock it."
Although 90 percent of Williams flows through State Game Lands, 10 percent is on Chuck Woods' 450-acre property. In the 1950s, Woods' grandfather, a dairy farmer, sold the coal rights to a company that strip-mined his pastures for 10 years, leaving a crater 30 feet deep through much of the landscape and a constant hemorrhage of iron- and aluminum-laden water into Williams Run.
"The fine print allowed the company to walk away from the project without filling it," says Woods, 58, who was 5 when his grandfather signed a contract with the miners. He grew up with the hazard of the high walls. So did his children and now his grandchildren.
"When my grandfather tried to sue the company, it declared bankruptcy," he says. "A few years later, they were back in business."
The state first approached Woods 30 years ago about fixing his scarred land, but given the number of old mines statewide it took until May for that begin to happen. But the project is more comprehensive than anything the state could have done alone, thanks to the efforts of the watershed association. More than a half-dozen agencies have joined in the project, which includes backfilling the old mine and treating the drainage at two sites at Williams' headwaters.
"It's a passive treatment approach ... very basic," says Bill Dadamo, a construction supervisor for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, which is wrapping up work on the largest portion of the project. At $650,000, it involves backfilling the mine, which will be reseeded and restored to green pasture land, and diverting acid mine drainage through a nearly 1,000-foot pipeline to a neutralizing limestone bed before emptying into the run.
DEP installed a splitter box to regulate flow into the bed. As water is pooled there, iron and aluminum will gradually fall out. The limestone can be churned every few years to keep water aerated.
A similar limestone bed is being created on a different part of Woods' property, which is stained rust-red from years of mine seepage. That project will make use of settling ponds, too.
"The change in water quality will be immediate," predicts Van Sheykhet, the engineer for Quality Aggregates, which is performing the work. "It won't take long for Williams Run to improve."
But that doesn't mean the work on Williams will be done.
Tarkowski said her group plans to tackle improvements on another part of the watershed that once served as a tipple, or coal-washing site, that blights an otherwise pastoral landscape.
The work on Williams is receiving attention beyond Irwin Township. The National Fish Habitat Action Plan has named the run one of America's "10 Waters to Watch."
"We chose Williams because it's an easily fixed problem at not a lot of cost that we believe has potentially good results," says Ryan Roberts, a spokesman for the quasi-government group that works to create conservation partnerships.
The prospect of a fishable Williams Run is something Woods never expected to see in his lifetime.
"I've never known this land to be anything but what it's been -- a danger to my kids and my grandkids," he says. "Now I have something to look forward to when I retire: a nice little brook trout stream to fish."
