Our Region S Water Quality Has Improved. True Or False?

Our region’s water quality has improved. True or False?

The correct answer is “False.” Or at least mostly false.

Yes,many of our rivers and streams are much healthier than they were a couple of decades ago. Then many of our waterways were nearly lifeless, as acidic as vinegar, and running orange or white with concentrations of iron, aluminum and manganese. Now wehave active fisheries and cleaner waters enjoyed by a variety of outdoor enthusiasts.

And it is true that because of state mandates, communities are removing more of their sewage from our rivers; and farmers are improving in their handling of agricultural fertilizers and sediment that also contribute to waterway degradation.

But the elephant remains in the room. Our region’s hundreds of coal mines – most of them long-abandoned – haven’t gone away. They are still spewing out as much toxic, acidic, metal-laden mine water as ever.

What has changed over the past couple of decades is that much of that water is being treated before it causes harm. Its acidity is being buffered with alkaline materials, its metals are dropping out as it slowly works its way through settlement ponds or wetlands.

All of this has happened through the tireless efforts – and extensive resources – of a coalition of taxpayer-funded agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Department of Environmental Resources and the Federal Office of Surface Mining; Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts.

But these federal and state agencies primarily provide funding and expertise. The heavy lifting of project fund-raising, planning, design, administration, oversight and on-going maintenance is done at the local level, mostly by county conservation districts, often assisted by a variety of volunteers.

Occasionally, one of these projects is a real game-changer. One example is the Oven Run passive treatment system along the Stonycreek River in east-central Somerset County.

Before the six-site Oven Run system was developed in the 1990s, the Stonycreek was virtually a dead river. Over the 20 years since, this river valley has blossomed. There’s an active fishery all the way to its mouth in Johnstown, a whitewater boating destination featuring the rapids of the Stonycreek Canyon and Whitewater Park, andQuemahoning Lake, a former Bethlehem Steel reservoir that’s now filled with people enjoying fishing, boating, swimming, picnicking, camping and bicycling.

However, Oven Run’s highly toxic discharges have not gone away. And the six sites of the treatment system were only expected to last about 20 years.

So for the Somerset Conservation District, which now has the dubious honor of being responsible for the maintenance of four of the six Oven Run sites (the other two are owned by the state), it is time to completely rehabilitate these passive-treatment sites before they fail and allow the ever-continuing abandoned-mine drainage to once again poison the Stonycreek.

The conservation district recently awarded the first rehabilitation contract for Site E near Wilbur. The contractor will replace a pond with a wetland, install new piping, add extra limestone to neutralize the acid, wash iron-coated stone, replace compost and remove old plant growth. Similar rehab work will need to be done at the other sites as well.

Somerset Conservation District Manager Len Lichvar points out that without continuing efforts of the public agencies listed above, along with local watershed groups, the Stonycreek-Conemaugh River Improvement Project, and non-profits such as the Somerset County Conservancy (which owns the Oven Run sites), “we will never be able to maintain what we’ve achieved.”

So it’s important for us to remember that our region’s water quality really hasn’t improved. If we stop treating that water, our fish- and recreation-filled rivers and streams will resume their death spiral.

Which means we must support our public agencies and coalitions of county, nonprofit and volunteer organizations in their continuing efforts to keep our water clean. Maybe forever.