Trout Unlimited Celebrates Dramatic Recovery in the West Branch Susquehanna Watershed

Contact: Erin Mooney, National Press Secretary - (571) 331-7970
emooney@tu.org [1]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Trout Unlimited Celebrates Dramatic Recovery in the West Branch Susquehanna Watershed
Event marks widescale watershed improvements resulting from abandoned mine restoration.

Lock Haven, Pa. — Trout Unlimited (TU), the nation's largest coldwater conservation organization, celebrated improvements to the West Branch Susquehanna River and its many tributaries at an event today at Hyner View State Park.

A 2009 TU study shows that the overall health of the watershed is greatly improving compared to 25 years ago. Fish and insect populations have increased and water quality and habitat have improved. Scientists collected data at 90 sites across the watershed to evaluate how abandoned mine restoration has affected the river and its tributaries.

"The West Branch Susquehanna River and many of its tributaries are showing amazing signs of recovery from severe pollution from mine drainage for nearly a century," said Amy Wolfe, TU's Eastern Abandoned Mine Program Director. "There is still an enormous amount of work that needs to be done to achieve full recovery, but these marked improvements prove that the investments of time and money have been well spent."

Within the watershed, more than 1,200 stream miles are polluted with mine drainage from abandoned coal mines. TU's study documents that in the past 25 years, the river's acidity and level of toxic metals have significantly decreased - to levels deemed safe by the DEP - between Curwensville in Clearfield County to Renovo in Clinton County. Water quality has also improved due to water treatment systems and as a result, native brook trout are returning to streams that were previously devoid of life due to the mine drainage.

The PA Fish and Boat Commission assisted with the study by conducting fish surveys at nine sites on the river. There were increases in the numbers and variety of fish found at the sites. The most substantial improvement was found at Hyner, where the amount of fish caught increased by more than 3,000% when compared to a similar survey conducted just 10 years ago.

"Today marks a milestone in the recovery of the West Branch," said John Arway, executive director of the PA Fish and Boat Commission. "This reach of the Susquehanna River has been long considered polluted and beyond repair, a casualty of acid mine drainage. It has taken decades of remediation driven by volunteer groups like TU, state and federal government agencies that provide the funding and industry which now treats wastewater to today’s standards. As a result, the West Branch has responded and I am pleased to declare that it is now fishable again."

Wolfe and Arway say that protection of water and fishery resources from future sources of potential pollution, such as Marcellus shale natural gas drilling, should be a statewide priority as the West Branch Susquehanna and other streams are restored from historic sources of pollution from coal mining.

Additional speakers at the event included John Stefanko, PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Deputy Secretary for the Office and Active and Abandoned Mine Operations, and DEP staff, Pam Milavec and Michael Smith.

The study was funded by PA DEP and the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Major project partners, in addition to the PA Fish and Boat Commission, include PA DEP, Susquehanna River Basin Commission and members of the West Branch Susquehanna Restoration Coalition.

To read the full technical report for the study, go to: www.tu.org/westbranch [2].

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Trout Unlimited is the nation's largest coldwater conservation organization, with 140,000 members dedicated to conserving, protecting, and restoring North America's trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds.