River Researchers Help Assess Monongahela Water's 'Health'
McKeesport Daily News
19 January 2012
By Eric Slagle
It's a cold January morning.
Ben Mack, a research associate from West Virginia University's
West Virginia Water Research Institute, leaves a fresh set of boot
prints in the snow as he walks down the ramp leading to the shore
of the Monongahela River in Elizabeth.
Mack is carrying a backpack full of plastic jugs, a sophisticated
meter that measures water quality, and a tattered log book, tools
of a trade he's been practicing on a bi-weekly basis for two years
as part of a university research program.
Mon River Quest samples the Monongahela River and its tributaries
at 16 locations in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Western
Maryland, with stops in the Keystone State measuring as far north
as Elizabeth on the Mon and Sutersville on the Youghiogheny.
Until now, the sampling work has been carried out by university
employees. Now the program is being expanded to include watershed
groups and other volunteers as sample takers.
The sampling program provides a record of factors used to measure
river health such as water temperature, conductivity, total
dissolved solids (TDS) content, oxygen and pH.
"It's mostly driving. It only takes about five or 10 minutes to
take the sample," said Mack, who in addition to visiting Elizabeth
will make a handful of other sampling stops in Pennsylvania and
West Virginia before the day is done. Samples collected this day
will help determine water quality on the Yough in Sutersville and
near its confluence with Sewickley Creek, and Mon tributaries Ten
Mile Creek, Whitely Creek, Dunkard Creek, the Cheat River and
White Day Creek.
At the end of the circuit, Mack, who lives in Washington, takes
the samples back to the Morgantown campus for analysis.
WVWRI director Paul Ziemkiewicz said the expansion effort to
include volunteers and watershed groups "gives us more feet on the
ground."
The institute hopes a growing group of volunteers will bring in
data that is currently missing from headwater streams that feed
into the Mon, and provide a better overall picture of the river
basin's health. Volunteers receive training on how to use water
monitoring equipment and proper procedure for recording their
findings.
Collecting baseline data from streams is essential for determining
what impact mining and drilling activities are having on the river
basin. Marcellus shale drilling has resulted in increased levels
of salt and bromides in rivers and streams. Water becomes a better
conductor of electricity when salts are added.
Water pumped out of mines and into rivers tends to result in
higher levels of TDS being measured.
Ziemkiewicz said the institute has worked with mine operators to
reduce the flow of mine water into rivers when river levels are
low in late summer. By holding back the flow when water levels are
down and releasing more mine water when rivers are high, fewer TDS
are entering the river, he said.
Results of the sampling efforts are available online at Mon River
Quest's website http://www.monwq.net.
Noting that the network of sampling crosses state lines,
Ziemkiewicz said, "The data is out there for anyone that wants to
use it."
Two Pennsylvania groups that are working with the institute are
the Greene County Watershed Alliance and the Washington County
Watershed Alliance.
Terri Davin of Waynesburg is the project coordinator of the Greene
County Watershed Alliance. She said their group found its purpose
after a mining-related toxic algae bloom resulted in a massive
fish kill in Dunkard Creek in 2009. She said the group vowed then
"to never let this happen again."
She said the Greene County group has about 12 volunteers
monitoring 25 sites along streams in that county. Sampling
frequency varies daily, weekly and monthly depending on the
situation, she said. The data they collect is shared with Mon
River Quest.
"We thought it was really important to protect our local streams
and our downstream neighbors," she said.
WVWRI outreach coordinator Dave Saville said, "What we're
interested in with our volunteers is creating a first alert to
monitoring disruptions."
Saville said the institute hopes to have another volunteer
training session in March.
Mon River Quest appears to have broad-based support from diverse
institutions.
The volunteer initiative is funded by the Pittsburgh-based Colcom
Foundation. The Alliance for Aquatic Resources Monitoring based in
Dickinson College in Carlisle has provided some of the training to
volunteers at the National Research Center for Coal and Energy in
Morgantown. Davin said her group has gotten support from volunteer
sample takers from Waynesburg University, and Saville said Penn
State University has expressed interest in creating a similar
monitoring program.
Peters Creek Watershed Association president Tim Schumann, who
lives in Clairton, said he knows about Mon River Quest but was
unfamiliar with the volunteer monitoring program.
"It's definitely something worth looking into," said Schumann, who
noted his organization has shared its water monitoring data with
Trout Unlimited.
"You've got to have baseline data; it's absolutely essential,"
said Schumann, whose organization is trying to recover damages
from Pennsylvania American Water in relation to a water line break
last summer that resulted in chlorinated water in a ton of stored
road salt being washed into the stream and killing fish.
Groups and individuals interested in getting involved with Mon
River Quest should contact the program's volunteer coordinator
Glenn Waldron at 304-293-7085.
Eric Slagle can be reached at eslagle@dailynewsemail.com or
412-664-9161.