W.Va. DEP Hopes Water Monitors will Find Cause of Fish Kill

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
14 July 2010

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said it hopes water monitors on Dunkard Creek will provide clues next week to what caused a fish kill on a one-mile section of the North Fork of the West Virginia Fork of the creek earlier this month.

Approximately 7,000 minnows and darters died in the Dunkard Creek tributary near Wadestown, W.Va., on July 1, probably due to illegal dumping of a harmful substance into the stream. Crayfish and freshwater mussels in the area of the fish kill were unaffected.

"We do have continuous water monitors in the area and will get the readings next week," Kathy Cosco, a West Virginia DEP spokeswoman, said Tuesday. "Those may tell us what was put into the stream."

In September 2009, a bloom of toxic, non-native golden algae caused by high concentrations of total dissolved solids discharged from mines in the area killed almost all fish, mussels, crayfish and salamanders in a 43-mile long stretch of the stream that meanders into Greene County along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia state line.

The two fish kill incidents do not appear to be related, Ms. Cosco said.