Conservation Board OKs Resolution on Fish Kill
Washington, PA Observer-Reporter
23 September 2009
By Bob Niedbala, Staff writer
niedbala@observer-reporter.com
WAYNESBURG - Greene County Conservation District approved a resolution
Tuesday supporting efforts to identify the cause of the Dunkard Creek
fish kill and urging re-establishment of the creek as a warm water
fishery.
The board also agreed to ask state and federal agencies responsible for
enforcing environmental regulations and investigating the kill to
attend a public meeting to discuss the situation.
State and federal agencies involved in the investigation have not been
able to determine what caused thousands of fish and other aquatic life
to die in the creek during the last three weeks.
The board wants to make sure this doesn't happen again, said Robbie
Matesic, county director of development.
"They were alarmed by the fact we don't know about activities taking
place in the Dunkard Creek watershed that the federal and state
agencies do know about," she said.
One issue discussed by the board was the permit issued by the federal
Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 to CNX Gas to operate an
injection well at the former Blacksville No. 1 Morris Run Mine Shaft
for brine from the company's coal bed methane wells.
EPA issued an administrative order last month assessing the company a
$157,500 penalty for failing to adequately staff and secure the well
site, monitor the well's cumulative volume and report permit
non-compliance.
EPA found that between September 2007 and March 2009 at least 100
truckloads of materials were discharged at the site with levels of
total dissolved solids "significantly higher" than levels included in
the permit application.
Though the well is not being blamed for the fish kill, local officials
were unaware of its existence. "We can find no evidence we received any
notice of this permit, the violation or the consent order," Matesic
told the board.
Martin Niverth, also with the county department of development, called
the EPA consent order "vanilla," saying it requires the company to do
only what it should have been doing from the beginning.
"We must take ownership of our resources," Niverth said later. This
will involve putting in place methods to be aware of such developments
and to comment on them before they become reality.
Matesic said the county estimates the economic value of the 38 miles of
lost stream, using Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission restoration
guidelines, is more than $30 million.
The resolution approved by the board cites efforts by the county and
the conservation district to address water quality issues in the
watershed.
They include spending $460,000 for the development of sewage plans and
line extensions, participating in a study to explore the treatment of
acid mine discharge sources and cleaning up illegal garbage dumps.
County and the conservation district have worked to take care of
problems they are aware of in the watershed, Niverth said. "We've
worked our butts off and spent money only to have this slap us in the
face," he said.
The resolution notes exploitation of Marcellus shale gas has caused a
significant demand on local water resources and water treatment
capacity "that responsible permitting, monitoring and enforcement
agencies were unprepared to accommodate."
The resolution further states that any extractive industry should bear
the responsibility, regardless of costs, for the full protection and
restoration of natural resources after extraction is completed.
DEP: Aquatic disaster 'different from any' in recent years
A chief environmental enforcement official said Tuesday the massive
fish kill in Dunkard Creek is "different from any that we've had in
recent memory." Michael Zeto of West Virginia's Department of
Environmental Protection Agency said what makes this fish kill so
different is there may be more than one source causing the aquatic
disaster. "Typically, there is a chemical or physical characteristic
that points to a single source. Then, we deal with who is responsible
from there. However, this fish kill may have several possibilities that
could be contributing to the cause," Zeto said. West Virginia DEP is
investigating the fish kill jointly with the West Virginia Department
of Natural Resources, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and West Virginia University. "We understand the
frustration people are feeling, because we feel it, too," said Scott
Mandirola, director of the West Virginia DEP's Division of Water and
Waste Management. "That's why we have a large number of people working
on this and are working with other agencies to try to determine what
could be causing it," he said. Because of heavy mining activity in the
area, the industry was an early suspect. In fact, after conferring with
West Virginia DEP, Consol Energy, which operates an active mine in
Blacksville, W.Va., agreed to shut off its discharge into Dunkard Creek
at its Blacksville No. 2 site. However, at the same time Consol was
shutting off its pumps, dead fish were found upstream from its outlet,
indicating that the outlet at that site is not the sole cause for the
dead fish. In addition, inspectors checked mine pools from previous
mining activity that are often sources of acid mine drainage. However,
the water levels in the area are hundreds of feet below stream
elevation at this time because the area has not received much rain in
recent weeks. The agencies also have received reports from area
residents suspecting tanker trucks of dumping waste water from oil and
gas drilling activities into Dunkard Creek. Various agencies continue
to investigate those reports. "We have found that those trucks that
have been reported are withdrawing water from the stream, rather than
dumping waste water," Zeto said. On Friday, staff members from West
Virginia DEP flew over the area in a helicopter to see if there was
anything they could see from the air. The staff noted the stream was
clouded with a rust color from the Pennsylvania line upstream to a
beaver dam in the South Fork of the West Virginia Fork of Dunkard. As a
result, additional staff was brought in to take samples along the
25-mile stretch. Investigators also have solicited the assistance of
micro-biologists to help determine whether some form of algae or
similar growth may be a contributing factor.