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.