Environmental Agencies to Check Streams for Golden Algae That
Caused Fish Kill
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
18 November 2009
By Don Hopey,
State and federal agencies are checking southwestern Pennsylvania
streams for the non-native, golden algae that had a role in killing
aquatic life in 30 miles of Dunkard Creek in September.
Helen Humphreys, a state Department of Environmental Protection
spokeswoman, said the department is working with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to test 11 streams and the Monongahela River near
West Virginia where water-quality monitors show conditions may be
suitable to support golden algae.
"We recognize the algae may be spreading and know that it requires a
more saline environment than that which occurs in most Western
Pennsylvania streams to thrive," Ms. Humphreys said, "so we'll be
looking at streams with high conductivity numbers, which usually means
high total dissolved solids."
Lou Reynolds, an aquatic biologist with the EPA in Wheeling, W.Va.,
said the agencies will sample streams today in Greene and Fayette
counties. The results should be known sometime next week.
Whiteley Creek, a small warm-water fishery in Greene County just north
of the Dunkard Creek watershed, is of particular interest. Mr. Reynolds
said Consol Energy has found evidence of golden algae there.
That finding has not been confirmed by state or federal agencies
although the EPA took an initial water sample last week. No fish kills
have been reported there.
Mr. Reynolds said sampling at four sites on the Mon will be done just
downriver and on the same side where tributaries enter the river.
"We want to see if there are any pockets where the algae can thrive on
the inside of river bends or in eddies where the water is slower moving
and the algae can thrive," Mr. Reynolds said.
Total dissolved solids and chloride levels were high in Dunkard Creek
when the month-long fish kill started around Sept. 1. The DEP said
stream sampling identified discharges from Consol Energy's Blacksville
No. 2 Mine as the "primary immediate source" of the fish kill, which
also threatened water quality in the Mon, the drinking water source for
850,000 people.
Those discharges, combined with low-flow stream conditions, may have
created the aquatic environment for golden algae, which is usually
found in brackish waters in the South and Southwest. The West Virginia
DEP has blamed the algae bloom for killing fish, mussels, salamanders,
crayfish and other aquatic life in Dunkard Creek but hasn't explained
how the algae got there.
Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.