An ecosystem has been destroyed.
Betty Wiley, Dunkard Creek Watershed Association.
This weekend, my friend Don Hopey, the great environmental reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, had the best story I’ve seen so far about the massive fish kill in Dunkard Creek along the West Virginia-Pennsylvania line north of Morgantown.
Read it here.
I’ve blogged about this previously, as has John McCoy, the Gazette outdoors writer, in his Woods and Water blog.
But Hopey does a far more complete job of pointing out the significance of this particular stream, the size and severity of the fish kill, and the various potential sources being examined by water quality and wildlife investigators.
I mean, just read his lead:
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.
And here’s what he had to say about the investigation:
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.
But as previously reported:
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.
You can learn more about Dunkard Creek from the area Watershed Association here or from this site.
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I remember in 1987 when the mussels in Sandy Creek in Preston County by my friend Dave Haggerty’s house died from mine drainage, their pink bodies floating on the surface of the creek. Dave’s kids cried to see them. Dave was furious at the mining company (and at himself, that he had not been able to protect his children and his stream). Twenty years later, this stretch of Sandy Creek has come back a lot, with bugs and fish, thanks to a lawsuit and an expensive treatment system. But I don’t think the ultra-sensitive mussels (who can’t escape up a tributary) are back yet. Maybe someday.
Before everyone starts jumping on CONSOL let me clear some things for everyone. Our gas divison uses contract drillers to drill our wells. We do not own a gas well drill. We have some of the higest enviromental standards in the industry and we are proud of that. What ever killed those fish(maybe it was a underground mine no one knows about), Im sure our goverment agencies will investegate and discover those responsable.
And so it goes —– “oh no, not us…” ….
Were the extractive industries (coal, gas, timber in order of priority) REALLY as “over-regulated” as each claims, these unexpected consequences may never happen.
Were the regulatory agencies REALLY as on top of things as every DEP, OSM, EPA, etc director/secretary/administrator in my short 30 year history of dealing with these issues claim, these unanticipated consequences, may never have happened.
But they did — they have — and they will continue, unless we all face up to the fact that the government is not to be admonished as the ‘big brother’ who steps in to squelch all corporate attempts to ‘better society’ — and West Virginia in particular. But rather we had better SOON accept state and federal government as a helpful uncle looking out for our well-being (present and future) by necessarily sticking it to the extractive industries (coal, gas and timber in order of priority/importance) by insisting on long term prognosis and planning that would undoubtedly eliminate the false assumption that we enjoy the ‘cheapest energy’ in existence…..
The ‘cheapest’ inflicts immediate costs on many of us that are never acknowledged in the short run and longer term consequences for everyone that are never accomodated for by the persons/companies/industries responsible.
God help us all …. no one else seems to have the strength of conviction to do it.
Mayflyguy called out this possibility early on. Pretty impressive. He knows what he’s talking about.
Does everyone know that the 05 energy bill exempted fracture fluids from the Safe Drinking Water Act and even from EPA study? It’s often called the Halliburton Exemption. Pretty shocking at the time. Even more shocking now. A nurse treating a worker exposed to the fluids in the ER in Durango, Colorado nearly died from chemical exposure in 08. The maker refused to disclosed what was in the fracking fluid, even as the nurse was in intensive care and near death, claiming the list was proprietary information.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/154394
CO Congresswoman Dianna DeGette has introduced a bill, The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, or “The Frac Act”, S. 1215/ H.R. 2766, that would repeal the 05 exemption and force companies to list the chemicals in their fracking fluids.
Lots more information here:
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amall/
We’ve covered some of these Marcellus drilling issues on the Gazette’s Sustained Outrage blog, here:
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/category/oil-and-gas/
But the best stuff is being written by ProPublica:
http://www.propublica.org/tag/Marcellus+Shale
Ken.
Ms Rank, if it turns out to be a issue with CONSOL then Im sure it will be reported in this blog. If not I would like an apology. As for goverment being a Good Uncle. “Beware of the goverment that gives everything, It can take just as easily” Thomas Jefferson
scott14,
1. I have had the same thought as you, regarding an abandoned mine; strong efforts have been made to map them, and to map the extent of flooding in them, but not all is known (thanks to painfully lax standards in the past). Not everyone realizes that Marion and Mon counties are sitting over a giant interconnected labyrinth of acidic mine pools.
2. You should read “The Tragedy of the commons”
No act occurs in a vacuum, and I think the extraction industries and the disposal of potentially harmful chemicals are places where oversight is important to everyone.
3. 10,000 fish. 160 species. What a sad event.
I need to clear something up, I am I no way a member of CONSOL upper management. Nor do I speak for CONSOL or any of its subsidiaries. I am a dedicated employee and now how this company handles enviromental and safety concerns. If I misled anyone I am sorry.
(This is just my personal opinion.)
I would not be quick to believe this is coal mining related.
It was a sudden and quick killoff that had to occur from a slug of deadly water moving through and — apparently — there are no lingering traces of toxicity from it.
No doubt a truck load of well brine water being unloaded on a bridge or backed into the creek itself could cause this to occur. The low DO (dissolved oxygen) level of such water by itself could do it along the ultra high saline (chlorides). The evidence from it would disapate quickly too.
If it were mine-related, it would be evidenced by remnent chemicals (metals and sulfides) and it would had to have been a massive and sudden release.
If this was of real concern to the regulating agencies and to the mining companies themselves, there would be continuous monitoring stations in place that could even detect such a toxic event from a non-mining activity. (That slug of water had to been a pulse wave down the creek.)
Insofar as coal mining related stream killoffs, this is among the classic:
In 1993 an underground mine owned by the Southern Ohio Coal Company (SOCCO) flooded and the partially treated mine water was discharged into Parker Run, killing all aquatic life downstream of that point, a distance of 15.5. miles. [and bivalve mollusk beds many miles down the Ohio River itself.] The company agreed to a settlement with the federal government which required it to pay damages to the U.S. Department of the Interior. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was put in charge of those funds, referred to as the Leading Creek Improvement Account.
(more)
http://www.dispatch.com/live/contentbe/dispatch/2006/12/03/20061203-G3-02.html
http://www.geocities.com/leading.creek/
http://www.epa.state.oh.us/portals/35/enforcement/Ohio%20Power%20Company.pdf
Note: I was with OSMRE (1978-1995) after being an Ohio reclamation inspector (1975-1978); I retired from USGS in 2003.
rhmooney3 — I always appreciate your insights.
By way of clarification, when you say, “No doubt a truck load of well brine water being unloaded … into the creek itself could cause this to occur” are you pointing to a byproduct of natural gas extraction as the most likely culprit? If coal mining pollution is unlikely, is there anything else that is comes to mind as a potential cause?
Coal or gas… oversimplifying a bit, those are two sides of the same coin.
I believe the DEP had an continuous monitoring station in place at the time of the event (it was in place to monitor for the TDS issue in the Mon) and has since put out more.
rhmooney3
Where would they have been taking that water? Somewhere for proper disposal? If so, how is that done and are there adequate facilities? Is it just the brine water or the fracing (fracking?) fluids, too?
I REALLY don’t know, but I stumpled across these materials:
http://uppermon.org/Marcellus_Shale/regional_planning.htm
—
Waste water poses disposal dilemma
August 25, 2008
http://www.mcadoo.info/documents/Speaker8-25-08.pdf
—
Impressions from the PA gas drilling summit
(Dec 10th – 11th, 2008)
http://blogs.cornell.edu/nyswri/2009/01/16/
Municipal waste water treatment (MWWT) facilities are not equipped to handle the type and concentration ranges of pollutants in ‘frac’ and produced water. The chemical signature of produced water varies significantly from E to W and N to S in the Marcellus (e.g. high Barium concentrations in eastern portion of play). High TDS concentrations in wastewater can also significantly disrupt biological processes that underlie almost all MWWT processing. PA has now capped treatment of gas drilling wasterwater at 1% of total annual flows to MWWT. . . .
Specialized treatment facilities (e.g. Hart Resource Technologies, HRT) appear well-equipped to separate out pollutants such as metals, benzene, and NORMs from the fracing fluid and produced water. Sludges created in this process are immobilized (i.e. resistant to acid precipitation and leaching) and then land filled. However, the existing specialized facilities in Pennsylvania are operating at or near capacity and although new facilities have been proposed, none have been permitted yet by DEP. In the near and mid-term, it is extremely unlikely that facilities in PA with be able to accommodate any wastewaters from New York State.
Moreover, it already appears that water quality is being significantly impaired in the Monongahela River from TDS discharges resulting from Marcellus drilling. Many water bodies are at their assimilative capacity with respect to TDS and cannot accommodate additional loadings (e.g. West Branch of the Susquehanna).
Due to geology and other factors, scope for disposal with deep injection wells is extremely limited. At present, there are only 7 of these wells in PA and they only accept very small volumes for disposal.
—
Drilling waste disposal
http://web.ead.anl.gov/dwm/techdesc/index.cfm
rhmooney
thank you for the detailed response!
JB is very right about the area’s underground mine pools. The coal seam in this part of the state dips down like a dimple, creating what amounts to a massive underground aquifer of acid mine water. In fact, there are pumps all around the Western side of Marion and Monongalia counties (it should be noted that these pumps are part of a network relieving pressure and preventing catastrophic mine blowouts from occuring as well as allowing the active mines to continue work without being flooded out). In fact, there is one such pumping station in the headwaters of the Dunkard Watershed….
As far as the comment “was one of the most ecologically diverse streams in both states”…this is true, as it is and was for a great number of WV streams. But the Dunkard was in a state of decline long before this incident. If you want to see some hints of what the Dunkard used to look like, go to Fish Creek just to the West which is just now starting to come under the same stresses as the Dunkard.
It would be helpful if there was a compilation of information on the Dunkard Creek watershed — by those who are actually there.
This steam gauge shows a flow pattern that seems somewhat unnatural — possibly repetitive flushings.
It would be interesting to see the rainfall records for that area…and other nearby gauges.
7-day
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/uv/?site_no=03072000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060,00010
60-day
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00060=on&format=gif_default&period=60&site_no=03072000
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/current?type=flow&group_key=NONE
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/09/funds_pledged_to_delay_shuttin.html
You better believe that this is due to marcellus shale waste. The Clarksburg PSC is getting paid $300,000 per year to dilute waste from Energy Contractors and pump it right into the West Fork River. The WVDEP has sent them a letter demanding they develop their own limits on TDS and other chemicals but the DEP can’t even do that themselves! The bottom line is that you need to check with your local PSD and see what’s going into the wastewater treatment facilities. Also set up an observation team along the creek to find out if these tanker trucks are dumping at night or in remote locations.
Dunkard creek in Wana, WV (4:54 minutes) 9/20/09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCEG436BvE0
The Dunkard Creek Massacre (3:05 minutes) 9/15/09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJbx9XD5GXU
it has been going on for about 2 weeks now and no answers on how the water got contaminated.
This may just be a classic basic fish kill from lack of dissolved oxygen. (If so, muskellunge would have been the first to go with the suckers and catfish being the last to die; especially the biggest and smallest ones.)
The lack of oxygen is always a primary suspect in fish kills — numerous in Floirda.
http://www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/erm/permitting/water-resources/surface-storm-water/fish-kills.htm
If oxygenated water was being removed (by tank trucks) while water with low dissovled oxygen levels was continuing to be added (from mining and other activities), that would result in fish kills.
The USGS gauge on Dunkard Creek (that I noted in a prior posting) showed sudden drops in water levels periodically which could have been from withdrawals — or not.
The lack of rainfall would be a major factor too.
(Dead fish and organisms in the water further delete oxygen levels via decomposition.)
—-
Author: bigursus
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 @ 10:00 AM
http://wvsportsman.net/smf/index.php?topic=9964
Some of you may have heard about a total fish kill in the entire stretch of Dunkard Creek in Monongalia County. Below is an excerpt I received from the WVDEP on this issue and also some pictures I robbed from another website.
Members of the public first reported seeing dead fish in
Dunkard Creek and notified the West Virginia DNR on Sept.
1. At that time, staff from a variety of divisions from the
WVDEP and WVDNR visited the scene, began taking samples and
started looking for a cause.
“This situation is different from past fish kills the
agency has responded to,” said Michael Zeto, the DEP’s
Chief of Environmental Enforcement. “Typically, there is a
chemical or physical characteristic that points to a single
source. Then, we deal with who is responsible from there.
However, this fish kill may have several possibilities that
could be contributing to the cause.”
However, at the same time Consol was shutting off its pumps, dead fish were found upstream from its outlet, indicating that the outlet at that site is not the sole cause for the dead fish.
In addition, inspectors checked mine pools from previous mining activity that are often sources of acid mine drainage. However, the water levels in the area are hundreds of feet below stream elevation at this time because the area has not received much rain in recent weeks.
The agencies have also received reports from area residents
suspecting tanker trucks of dumping wastewater from oil and
gas drilling activities into Dunkard Creek. Various agencies continue to investigate those reports.
“We have found that those trucks that have been reported are withdrawing water from the stream, rather than dumping wastewater,” Zeto said.
I’d say the community needs to find the best environmental law firm in the country… NOW. Whoever the responsible party is, whatever corporation it ends up being, they know who they are and what they’ve done. They are already hiring defense attorneys to get out of paying for this utter ecological disaster.
[...] Charleston Gazetee WV, Coverage of Dunkard Creek http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/09/21/more-on-dunkard-creek-fish-kill/ [...]
Golden algae that they have identified is typically a species associated with high salinities of coastal areas. So how did it get here? More importantly conditions need to be persistent for algae to grow not just one slug of water which gets flushed out in one or two days. This is a constant discharge of high salinity or conductivity water that is allowing algae to grow if that is the case. WV DEP and WV DNR need to look for conductivity measures across the entire area all the way to the headwaters. Then you may find your culprit.
Algae is an after effect of the true culprit.
When water is being pumped out of a stream 24/7,there is no rain ,and waste water is being dumped down a bore hole in the same vacinity of the stream,something is going to happen.The Post-Gazette story was done on my 1/2 mile of the once beautiful stream. Hundreds of thousands of dollars was to be spent taking out the dams and restoring the stream to its original flow. The US Agriculture Dept. and American Rivers have been working with us to develop this area into a habitat for an outdoor classroom to be used by any educational group. No amount of money, will bring back my dream, in my life time. Until you have seen a complete kill of every living creature in an area you cannot comprehend the absolute feeling of dread for our earth. It is a death that will grow and grow until nothing is left.My heart aches for the creatures I saw on that day. I see them in my dreams and wonder are we next.
October 5, 2009. Yesterday’s Post-Gazette article was very informative about the golden algae that has pretty much been targeted as the culprit in the Dunkard Creek Kill. And US EPA rep makes it clear that the algae could not have thrived without the altered stream conditions: salty as the ocean. The major factor is chloride discharged by Consol, well documented for many years, continued by compliance orders issued by WVDEP, in violation of the Clean Water Act, and only now does the USEPA know about it. Dewatering, possible dumping of drilling wastewater, and other dissolved solids added to the chloride, many pieces to the puzzle, all in deliberate disregard of the ecology of the stream, so delicately balanced for thousands of years, brings us to the irrevocable reality of a dead ecosystem. Dunkard Creek’s creatures cannot die in vain. This is just the beginning, change must come from this. We can start with the Dept. of Expedited Permits, some of them are good guys, but the DEP works for Consol and everybody knows it.
Betty;
You have stated it exactly right. The West Virginia DEP, as it is presently constituted, does not and can not function to protect the environment. The department should be dissolved and reconstituted as an agency whose sole function is protecting the environment. Another agency or agencies can issue permits with the reconstituted WVDEP acting as watchdog with ultimate control over approving permits. I bet many DEP employees now working at the technical levels would welcome the change.
I have known and fished Dunkard Creek since I was a child. Needless to say, I am disgusted by what has happened. I think that many people are missing the point here. The bottom line is Golden Brown Algae cannot survive without brackish or ocean like water conditons. I reject any idea that dumping one truckload of wastewater directly into the creek could have created this environment. A few thousand gallons of brine water would have been diluted and washed away by the creek in a short period of time. Not enough time for the Algae to take hold in my opinion.
More likely, I believe that this wastewater is being dumped regularly either into an illegal dumping site or directly into the creek. It is in my opinion being dumped as part of a midnight, backdoor, money saving company policy by whatever company that did it. The type that only a few workers know about out of thousands. Another thing that disturbs me is this “Oh they wouldn’t do that ” thought process so many people here believe in. For those of you who think this way I have one thing to say, You better D@*n well believe they would. Whatever corporation or company that released the toxins, you better believe that they absolutely care nothing for you and your well being or your interests. This is not to say that the general working population in the company doesn’t care, they most likely know nothing about it. It’s the corporate boys and the management staff. The only thing that they care about is their bottom line profits. They are more than happy to wipe out your creek to save themselves a few hundred thousand dollars.
One example I can think of comes from when I was hiking once as a child. There was a new Gas Well drilled on a high ridge beside a hollow that I frequently hunted and hiked through. One day, while riding home on the school bus and crossing a bridge, I noticed that the water that flows in the big creek through this hollow was a chalky whitish grey color. Baffled, I threw on my boots and took off into the woods to investigate. The water looked awful, it was flowing grey, and the old water supply reservoir that was fed by the creek was quickly turning grey as well. I pressed on deeper and deeper into the woods to find out what was going on. I came to the source. Right at the bottom of the ridge, nestled up against the side of the hollow, there was a large pipe sticking up out of the ground. It was about 6-8 inches in diameter and out of it was spouting the grey water. It was directly in line with the gas well head on the ridge. Being a naive kid I thought, “no way this is anything toxic to the environment, the EPA wouldn’t let that happen”. Now it occurs to me that the only reason they would be drilling water wells in line with a gas well is to release some sort of waste water. Especially since the chalky water stopped flowing out of the pipe shortly afterwards. It was emptying into a pristine creek that was full of life. Crayfish, helgramites, salamanders, even small native brook trout.
I wish I could get back to that location to look around some more and to see if there are any native brook trout left, but the property is now leased and posted. But, come to think of it, the water supply I mentioned had a healthy population of rainbow and brown trout as well. I cannot remember catching anything in the old reservoir after that happened.
Another thing to think about is that many of these companies work in southern states as well. Who says they aren’t storing the waste water in hotter climates claiming it is waiting for treatment, which allows the algae to grow in the water, and then transporting it to West Virginia since West Virginia allows them to dump it into the ground without treatment. Since I heard about the report of Consol Energy incorrectly disposing of fly ash as fill dirt in Virginia causing many people to get sick, I would believe anything. Especially since I’ve heard many stories directly from some people in WV about trucks that come at midnight and dump toxic waste into bore holes in the ground. I’m sure that some of the stories have some merit. Especially in that particular area of WV.
If you look at past occurences in that particular area you will notice that this is nothing new. A gas well drilling company that is somehow related to Consol was caught dumping over 100 truck loads of waste water into a mine that far exceeded the TDS limit set by the EPA, and the total discharge into the creek was higher than the EPA allowed as outlined in an earlier story by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Over 100 truck loads!!!! If they did it once, don’t you think they would do it again? Especially since the fines were only just over $157,000.00. That is pretty much like you or me losing a $1 bill out the window while driving down the road. Bottom line is that the responsible party, if found, should have two choices in my opinion. Either clean up your waste water dumping policies and be totally responsible for bringing the creek back, including reintroducing all species, or be shut down permanently. That is right, permanently. The company should be dissolved and the profits and estate divided up among the employees. Enforced laws like this would protect our waterways, but it will never happen.
I hope people can get their heads out of their A**es and realize that there are more important things going on under your noses besides “The Biggest Loser”, “American Idol”, or “Dancing with the Stars”. If not, this will continue to happen, and pretty soon the Mononghaela River Watershed will be nothing more than an acquatic wasteland. Algae can be some of the most toxic forms of life on the planet, in fact, there is an algae found primarily in Australia that actually stings, then numbs the skin when touched. If you happen to eat one of the small crabs that have adapted to be able to feed on the algae, you have ingested approximately enough toxin to kill 30 men! So, this is nothing to be taken lightly.
Take care
Dunkard Creek is dead. Too late. What is next? This does not stop with Dunkard. It is a continuous process. The “frac wells” are popping up all over North Central WV. White Day Creek is next on the list. There are three wells coming soon. So few trout streams left. Must we kill them all? It is a helpless feeling knowing that we are powerless to stop this. “Frac fluid” is not listed as a pollutant under the clean water act. They can do just about anything they want with Mercury, Lead, Cadmium, Radon, 24% Salinity, Unknown. Last winter WV used it to melt ice on the roads. It can be pumped back into the ground, etc. No more fishing, no more well water. Pennsylvania and New York have started regulating, so there is a mad rush to drill as many holes in WV as possible as quickly as possible. I know we need the energy, but lets not leave our beautiful state a wasteland when we are done.