'Everything is being killed': 161 aquatic species have died along
Dunkard Creek
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
20 September 2009
By Don Hopey
Verna Presley covers her nose to block out the smell
of rotting fish as she walks along Dunkard Creek with her husband, Ed,
on their property near the village of Brave in Greene County. So far,
161 species of fish, mussels, salamanders, crayfish and aquatic insects
have been wiped out along the creek. - Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette
Just 20 days ago, Dunkard Creek, which meanders lazily back and
forth across the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, was one of
the most ecologically diverse streams in both states, containing
freshwater mussels, mudpuppy salamanders and a host of fish species
from minnows to 3-foot-long muskies.
Generations of families picnicked along its sycamore-lined banks and
swam in its warm water. Fishermen plied its green, slow-moving pools
with lures and bait in hopes of catching lunker bass.
But today, the 38-mile creek is all but dead, its 161 species of fish,
mussels, salamanders, crayfish and aquatic insects killed by mysterious
pollutants coming from sources state and federal agencies have yet to
pinpoint despite aggressive field work.
"We've just been decimated down here. Everything is being killed almost
from the headwaters of the creek to where it flows into the Monongahela
River," said Betty Wiley, president of the Dunkard Creek Watershed
Association. "It's such a tragedy for the creek. An ecosystem has been
destroyed."
And fish continue to die as the initial mass of pollution moves down
the creek, which flows into the Monongahela just down river from Point
Marion, Fayette County, and as additional pollution is discharged from
its mysterious source.
Environmental agencies are treating the creek as a crime scene.
Longtime environmental and fisheries officials say the fish kill, which
preliminary counts have put at more than 10,000, is one of the worst
they've seen.
"A lot of supposition and science needs to be pieced together, but this
is bad," said John Arway, chief of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat
Commission's environmental services division. "The fish that couldn't
escape up side tributaries were killed."
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Friday said
more than 30 miles of the stream have been damaged by the discharge. It
has killed 18 species of fish and at least 16 species of freshwater
mussels, including the salamander mussel and the snuffbox mussel --
both candidates for federal listings as endangered species.
"DEP will continue to monitor water quality so that when the
responsible party is determined by West Virginia and [the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency] we are positioned to take appropriate
enforcement action," said Ronald Schwartz, DEP acting regional director.
"This is the worst fish kill I've experienced in 21 years in West
Virginia," said Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the National Research
Center for Coal and Energy's Water Research Institute at West Virginia
University.
Environmental agencies in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, the
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the West Virginia Department of
Natural Resources and the EPA each have had inspectors on the creek in
recent weeks, testing water samples, collecting dead fish and observing
discharges into the water.
An early and continuing focus of the investigation has been discharges
from a mine water treatment facility located at Consol Energy's
Blacksville No. 2 mine in West Virginia.
But state and federal investigators are confounded because chemical
analysis shows the creek water at the treatment facility site contains
extremely high total dissolved solids, or TDS, and chlorides --
properties found in wastewater from Marcellus Shale gas well drilling
operations but not mine water. Total dissolved solids may include
metals, salts and other elements.
Marcellus Shale well drilling water contains about 100 chemicals added
to reduce friction, eliminate algae growth and perform other functions
when water is pumped underground under pressure to fracture the shale
and release natural gas.
Up to 4 million gallons are used for each Marcellus Shale well.
Disposal of wastewater from the wells has caused problems throughout
Pennsylvania, including TDS readings that exceeded federal safe
drinking water standards in the Monongahela River last winter and this
year.
On Thursday, investigators found dead fish for the first time about a
mile and a half up the creek above the treatment plant discharge.
"Our hypothesis was that it's coming out of the Blacksville No. 2 mine,
but the finding of dead fish upstream from the Blacksville discharge
indicates the sole cause cannot be Blacksville," said West Virginia DEP
spokeswoman Kathy Cosco.
The state agencies now are looking at the possibility that someone has
illegally dumped drilling wastewater into the creek to avoid the
expense of complying with laws governing its disposal. The water must
be treated in Pennsylvania or injected deep underground in West
Virginia.
The West Virginia DEP on Friday sent a helicopter to fly over the creek
to look for unauthorized discharges and places where tanker trucks
could pull up and dump drilling wastewater.
"The elevated levels of TDS and chlorides in the creek indicates oil
and gas drilling wastewater," Ms. Cosco said. "We are following up on
every lead that people give us. If they saw a truck pull up to the
creek and put a hose in, we want to know about it. We want the name on
the truck, a license plate number, anything we can use to identify it."
Unlike Pennsylvania, the West Virginia DEP doesn't permit water or
sewage treatment facilities in the state to accept or discharge
Marcellus well wastewater, Ms. Cosco said.
Consol spokesman Tom Hoffman said the company's facility does not
accept or treat gas well drilling wastewater. The company's field teams
also are trying to figure out what's happening.
"Neither they nor we have been able to sort out what's going on," he
said. "It's confounding because we're seeing fish kills in the vicinity
of the treatment plant where you might expect Blacksville No. 2 is at
fault, but also further downstream than you would expect was our fault,
and recently upstream from the Blacksville 2 discharge.
"So Blacksville is a possible contributor, but it's not clear if it's
the lone cause."
Mr. Hoffman said the mining company, at the suggestion of the West
Virginia DEP, agreed on Thursday to shut down plant operations to
assess the effect on the creek.
Water samples taken from the creek at the Blacksville mine treatment
facility show extremely high levels of total dissolved solids, in the
25,000- to 35,000-milligrams-per-liter range, or about the same as in
seawater. The federal safe drinking water standard is 500 milligrams
per liter.
The fish started turning belly up on Sept. 1. By Sept. 4, dead fish
were lining the deep pool below the Lower Brave Dam near the Greene
County town of Brave.
"It's disgusting to see that much life wiped out," said Ed Presley, who
owns property along the creek at the Lower Brave Dam."To see the
quality and beauty of that stream and then to see what happened to it,
well, it really tears at you. I'm not really a tree-hugger but to see
natural things destroyed and wasted like this, it's just dead wrong."
"We're very concerned about this going on and this clearly is not an
easy thing to find the source of," said EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Smith.
"There are a lot of factors, … but this is a tough one."
Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.