Water Quality Changes in a Polluted Stream over a Twenty-Five-Year Period
Jason Stewart and Jeff Skousen*
Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV 26506-6108
The water in Deckers Creek was sampled in 1974 at 29 locations along the main stem and resampled in 1999–2000 to determine water quality changes over this 25-year period. Water at almost all sampling points showed lower acidity and metal contents in 1999–2000 compared with 1974. Water pH increased at the mouth from 5.4 in 1974 to 6.0 in 1999–2000. Acidity and iron concentrations were decreased an average of 70% in the upper stretches of the creek.. In the upper section, the water quality in Deckers Creek has improved due to decreased surface and underground coal mining activities, reclamation of abandoned and recently permitted surface mined lands, and natural healing of past land use scars from timbering and mining over time.
Water quality has improved in many streams, rivers, and lakes in the USA over the past 20 to 30 years (Smith et al., 1987). This is due largely to the passage of laws that regulate discharges into waters of the USA. For example, the Clean Water Act (CWA) was passed in 1977 (including amendments of the previously passed Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 [Arbuckle et al., 1993]), which was established "to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters." To achieve this purpose, a permitting system called the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) was developed to regulate pollution from point sources into rivers or lakes of the USA. As a result, all chemical, manufacturing, energy, and mineral extraction companies are required to obtain NPDES permits with effluent standards for discharged water since 1977. Municipalities discharging wastewater effluent into rivers and lakes were also forced to obtain NPDES permits, which prompted the construction of wastewater treatment facilities.
Another example is the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), which became law in 1977. The SMCRA established mining performance and land reclamation standards, including the assurance that "surface coal mining operations are so conducted as to protect the environment." It also provided a mechanism where previously disturbed and abandoned, unreclaimed land could be reclaimed to current standards.
The effects of these two laws on water quality improvements are often overlooked because changes in land and water resources over decades of time are forgotten or not passed on to succeeding generations. The Deckers Creek watershed has a long history of industrial development and associated environmental abuses from both land and water pollution practices. This watershed is used as an example to evaluate the changes of water quality in the Appalachian region where resource extraction practices have occurred during the past 100 years.
Beginning in March 1999, water samples were collected at the same 29 sites along Deckers Creek. A Model 3500 water quality meter (YSI, Yellow Springs, OH) was used to measure temperature, electrical conductivity, and pH in the field. Two water samples were collected at each site. The first sample was collected in a 250-mL plastic bottle and was neither filtered, nor acidified. A second sample of 20 mL was filtered with a 0.45-µm filter and acidified to pH 2.0 with 0.5 mL of concentrated hydrochloric acid. Both samples were placed on ice and transported to the laboratory. The first sample was analyzed for pH, acidity, and alkalinity with a TitraLab Autotitrator (Radiometer A/S, Brønshøj, Denmark), while the second sample was analyzed for total iron, aluminum, calcium, and several other elements with a Plasma 400 inductively coupled spectrophotometer (PerkinElmer, Wellesley, MA). All titrations were performed within 6 h of sample collection.
Flow Measurement
Flow determinations were made at the same time water samples were taken. At the beginning of the study at each sample point, the cross-section of the stream channel was mapped and a reference point was marked for subsequent depth measurements. At later sampling times, the depth of the water was measured at this reference point and used to calculate the vertical area of water flow at the stream cross-section. Water velocity was measured with a FP101 flow probe (Global Water, Gold River, CA), which computed an average velocity over a 10-s period. Multiplying the cross-sectional area of the water in the stream by velocity provided the estimate of flow at that sampling point.
Water Chemistry
Another water sample was collected two or three days after chemistry samples were obtained each month and tested for the presence of FC bacteria. A membrane filtration technique was used (Clesceri et al., 1998). Samples were collected in 1-L plastic sterilized bottles that had been treated with 3 mL of sodium thiosulfate to bind any residual chlorine present in the creek water. Six volumes were analyzed (0.1, 1.0, 5.0, 10.0, 50.0, and 100.0 mL) to produce plates with between 20 and 60 countable colonies. Both the 0.1- and 1.0-mL volumes of sample were combined with 12 mL of peptone buffer to pass a sufficient volume of fluid through the filters. The 5.0-mL sample had 8.0 mL of peptone added, the 10-mL sample had 4.0 mL of peptone added, while the 50- and 100-mL volumes had no peptone buffer added. Suspensions were plated onto m-FC agar and incubated at 44.5°C ± 0.2°C for 24 h. Individual colonies with a bright blue color were counted to determine the number of colony forming units per 100 mL.
Statistical Analysis
Regression analysis (Microsoft Excel) was used to compare rainfall with stream flow data (Microsoft, 1997). Statistical software (SAS and Excel) was used to perform t tests on pairs of data points (1999 vs. 2000 data) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the 1974, 1999, and 2000 data sets (SAS Institute, 1989). The least significant difference (LSD) method was used to separate means when significant differences were found by ANOVA. To compensate for variations over orders of magnitude in FC bacteria counts normally seen in microbiological studies, geometric means were analyzed. When working with a data set with large variations, geometric means give a better measure of centrality than do arithmetic means (Hunter et al., 1999).
pH
The data indicate that pH and alkalinity at 75% of the sites have significantly increased (p < 0.05) between 1974 and 1999–2000, and acidity and iron have significantly decreased (P < 0.05) at 60% of the sites (Table 1). Less improvement, however, occurred at the Tramps site and on downstream.
Table 1
Comparison of mean values for five selected parameters. Means are from monthly samples obtained between March to June in equations for each month based on rainfall and flow data from 1948–1970. 1974, 1999,
and 2000 (n _ 4).
Heavy Metals
Total iron levels dropped 90% throughout the upper stretches of the watershed (Table 1), but no differences were found at three of our eight locations: Headwaters, Tramps, and Morgantown. Tramps had the highest iron levels in 1999–2000 due to inputs of untreated mine drainage at Richard. Iron is less toxic than aluminum, and will readily combine with hydroxide ions to form precipitates that coat stream bottoms.
Aluminum and manganese concentrations in Deckers Creek were not analyzed during the 1974 study. In 1999–2000, average aluminum concentrations in Deckers Creek were lower than the state standard (0.75 mg L-1) at all points upstream from the Richard Mine discharge (Table 2). The Richard discharge water averages 71 mg L-1 aluminum, 173 mg L-1 iron, and almost 4 mg L-1 manganese. At each sampling site downstream of Richard, average aluminum concentrations in Deckers Creek were 3 to 4 mg L-1. Average manganese levels were lower than the state standard of 1.0 mg L-1 at all sites, except the Richard discharge water.
Table 2
Table 4. Mean concentrations of five elements at nine sites during
March–June 1999–2000 (n _4) in Deckers Creek and the input
of these elements at the Richard underground mine discharge.
Fecal Coliform (FC) Bacteria
Populations of FC bacteria were found to be very high in some parts of Deckers Creek. Masontown was by far the most heavily affected site in the creek. During the summer months of 1999, FC bacteria levels was found to be 9.7 x 105 colony forming units per 100 mL. Statistical analysis indicates that FC bacteria levels were significantly different among sites (p < 0.01) and that a significant difference also existed among seasons (p < 0.01) at each site (data not shown).
Water chemistry in Deckers Creek has significantly improved between 1974 and 1999–2000. The creek is a good example of the changes in water quality of many streams in the Appalachian Region during the past 20 to 30 years that were affected by resource extraction activities over the past century. Water pH was generally 1 to 2 units higher, and acidity has declined by more than 38% between these two dates across all sampling locations. The upper portion of the creek showed dramatic improvements with >70% reductions in acidity and metals. Measurable improvements have been realized after 20 years with the enforcement of environmental laws and regulations developed in the 1970s. Natural reclamation and time passage also have had beneficial effects on improving stream quality. Water quality has improved because of reduced surface and underground mining activities, better reclamation and water control techniques on active surface mines, reclamation of abandoned surface mined lands, treatment of mine discharges, and natural healing of past land disturbances over time. This study also showed that as the chemistry of Deckers Creek improved to support aquatic life, sewage inputs were found to be an increasingly noticeable problem. Sewage treatment by wastewater treatment plants is needed to limit the direct input of sewage into the creek and to restore the quality of Deckers Creek. The City of Masontown, one of the major contributors of FC bacteria to the creek, will complete a treatment plant in 2003.
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