Morgantown Dominion Post
17 April 2007
By Evelyn Ryan
The West Virginia Bass Federation will host a major bass fishing tournament - with a $10,000 prize - on the Monongahela River this summer.
The announcement came during a break-out session at Monday's 2007 Monongahela River Summit at Waterfront Place Hotel.
The session was an update on water quality, fishing, clean-up and recreation efforts on the Monongahela, which runs from Fairmont north to Pittsburgh, where it flows into the Ohio River.
Jim Matuga, representing the Bass Federation, said most people, when they think of the organization, think of fishing tournaments.
This year, 50 teams from the tri-state area are expected in Morgantown on July 28-29 for the biggest bass fishing tournament the organization will sponsor in the Mountain State this year, he said.
"We hope to dispel the myth that there are no fish in the Monongahela," Matuga said. The competitors will weigh-in with their catch at the Hazel Ruby McQuain Riverfront Park.
A much wider range of fish can now be found in the Monongahela River, said David Argent, a fish biologist at California State University of Pennsylvania. He's been monitoring fish species on the upper Monongahela, in Pennsylvania, for several years.
While about half the fish they catch during the fish count is either carp or catfish, the variety of species in the remaining 50 percent has increased, and includes a couple of small fish that are on the state's endangered list, Argent said.
That variety, he said, indicates how much the water quality has improved.
In fact, when Pittsburgh recently hosted the Bassmasters Classic Tournament, he said, most of the fish at the three rivers were caught in the Monongahela.
Improved water quality has improved the fishing, agreed Frank Borsuk, a fish biologist with the U.S. EPA in Wheeling. Since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, acid mine drainage into the watershed has declined and the acidity of the water has dropped 98 percent.
Despite all the efforts so far, he said, some communities still have sewage and storm drainage in the same sewer, with heavy rains causing an overflow into streams.
WVU hydrogeologist Joe Donovan, who monitors the acid mine water accumulating in abandoned mines in this region, said two treatment plants are helping reduce the underground mine pool. That pool stretches from Fairmont to Pittsburgh.
The plants are treating acid mine water in above-ground plants, then feeding the clean water into streams.
Small abandoned mines cause many of the acid mine drainage problems, but one of the area's worst is at Richard, on Decker's Creek. Decker's Creek runs east from Morgantown into Preston County.
Martin Christ, of Friends of Decker's Creek, said the organization has developed a plan to deal with the sources of acid mine drainage along the creek. One agency is providing money to deal with the smaller sources of acid mine water; another issued a grant to do the Richard mine, which covers three miles underground, Christ said.
Tim Terman, who conducts kayak tours on the Monongahela, said he's expanded his offerings to include a summertime program aimed at children. The Monongahela Monitor trips not only give youngsters a chance to boat - and swim - in the river, but they learn about the ecology and clean up litter along the banks.