Abandoned Mine Posts

By Andy McAllister, Watershed Coordinator

As most people who are involved in watershed work know, we watershed folks love acronyms. Even the invertebrates can’t escape our penchant for acronyms. In this edition of Abandoned Mine Posts, we continue our Life in Our Streams series and examine a group of aquatic invertebrates with a unique acronym.

Healthy streams unaffected by pollutants such as acid rain or AMD generally have a high diversity of macroinvertebrate species representing several orders. In these healthier streams, one group of macroinvertebrates is most often well-represented. That group of macroinvertebrates is known as the EPT.

The term EPT, refers to three orders of aquatic insects that are well
known to be indicators of good water quality: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera. These insects are more commonly known as Mayflies, Stoneflies, and Caddisflies. All have an aquatic phase in their life cycle and all of them emerge from their watery home and take to the air when they metamorphose into adults.

Mayflies (Order: Ephemeroptera)

Graceful and elegant, mayfly adults often emerge from the water in large numbers during the spring and spark feeding frenzies among resident trout.  As their order name would imply, their life is ephemeral, lasting a day or little longer.

While mayfly adults do not eat and only live long enough to ensure the survival of the species, mayfly nymphs live on the stream bottom for about a year, consuming anything from small bits of organic debris called detritus, to algae or other smaller invertebrates, depending on the individual tastes of that particular Genus. Several mayfly species are considered to be very sensitive to acidic conditions in a stream.

Stoneflies (Order: Plecoptera)

Often beautifully adorned with intricate color patterns, stonefly nymphs on the other hand, are generally carnivores, preying on anything that is smaller than they are. However as with anything, there are exceptions and while many stoneflies are predators, there are some stoneflies that do prefer to consume detritus and algae. Stonefly adults, once emerged from the stream, can and do eat plant material.

Their existence as adults, while longer than that of the mayflies, is very short. Stonefly adults can live for up to a few weeks. During that time, they mate and lay eggs to ensure the next generation of stoneflies. Many of the stoneflies had traditionally been considered to be fairly tolerant of acidic conditions in a stream compared to other macroinvertebrate groups. However, recent studies suggest that this order of aquatic insects may be more severely affected by acidification than previously believed.

Caddisflies (Order: Trichoptera)

Caddisfly larvae are the engineers of our aquatic world. Most caddisfly larvae live in cases that they construct out of sand, rock, twigs, leaf pieces, and any other kind of underwater debris. The beauty of these miniature constructions can be breathtaking. Some caddisflies generate their creations out of silk, create a net, or construct no case at all.

Caddisflies as a group can tolerate only a slight amount of acidity in
a stream however, there are a few species of caddisfly that are very
tolerant of acidic conditions.

by Andy McAllister, Watershed Coordinator and Bruce Golden, Regional Coordinator

The editors of Abandoned Mine Posts (AMP) recently caught up with Mark Killar, Director of Watershed Services with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and asked about the possibility of trout living in AMD-impacted streams.

AMP: Redstone Creek in Fayette County is a stream that runs orange for many miles from huge abandoned mine discharges, yet we’re aware of reports of rainbow trout being caught there. Could that be? Is it a fluke or are they fish that someone dumped into the creek?
Killar: This kind of scenario has been observed in other streams that receive net alkaline Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD) from abandoned deep mines. As you may be aware, these discharges often contain high amounts of alkalinity due to the limestone layer located above the flooded portion of the mine(s). Although the discharges look ugly because they contain lots of iron and turn the stream orange, they don’t contain acid or aluminum, the two deadly killers of fish and life in the stream. Because fish aren’t affected that much by iron, they can survive in these net alkaline iron polluted streams.

AMP: So, some discharges aren’t as toxic as others? Is it possible that some of these discharges could actually help fish populations?
Killar: Well, one thing that helps out trout in particular is the 50 degree water temperature of the mine water. Especially at low stream flows, the mine discharges have a positive effect on the stream by keeping the water temperature down because they often can make up a significant portion of the stream flow when the streams are usually flowing low. Cooler water means the stream can hold more oxygen, which the trout like and need. Besides that, people wouldn’t normally think there are trout in the orange water so they don’t fish there and the trout get a chance to grow.

AMP: You said that “fish aren’t affected that much by iron”. Does that mean we should simply not be concerned about water that’s just polluted by iron then?
Killar: A study was done on Sewickley Creek some years ago (which also has several large alkaline deep mine discharges on it) and to the surprise of the person doing the study several nice brown trout turned up in a little orange tributary to the stream. It was a very small stream that looked ugly as heck, but again, didn’t have acid or aluminum being dumped into it from the mine discharge. Upon further study, it turned out the fish only had minnows in their stomachs and no aquatic insects, which makes sense in that the heavy coating of iron on the bottom of the stream significantly reduces the number of aquatic insects because it smothers out their habitat. The big question is “What the heck are the minnows eating to keep them alive?” One theory is they come from the smaller unpolluted tributaries or are washed into the unpolluted sections from upstream. A similar situation happened on Loyalhanna Creek near Latrobe where again large net alkaline deep mine discharges polluted it and turned the stream orange. One local fisherman had a secret spot he would fish (in the orange portion of the stream) and would catch some pretty large fish. Again, it was likely that few fisherman would consider fishing in that portion of the stream so the fish had lots of time to grow big.

Visit the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s website for information about conservation activities in your area.

For a listing of watershed groups in Western Pennsylvania, visit http://amrclearinghouse.org/Sub/organizations/WesternPennsylvania.htm

by Andy McAllister, Watershed Coordinator

Acidity in our streams can come from a variety of sources; some natural and some not. The water in some streams, swamps and wetlands can be naturally acidic due in part, to the breakdown of plant material releasing Tannins or Tannic Acid. Tannins are responsible for the dark root beer-like appearance and slightly lower pH levels of some waterways.

However, very acidic conditions are most often the result of man’s influence on the environment. Two examples of this are Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) and Acid Rain.

Acid Mine Drainage forms principally from something called Iron Pyrite or “Fools Gold” that is associated with most coal deposits. Acid rain on the other hand, is caused by smoke from automobiles, manufacturing emissions, fossil fuel (oil, coal, and gas) combustion, forest fire smoke, and volcanic gases interacting with rain. When fossil fuels are burned they release sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. These substances, when not removed from the emissions, mix with water vapor in the atmosphere to form Sulfuric Acid and Nitric Acid. Generally, rain with a pH lower than 5.5 qualifies as Acid Rain.

Acid rain eventually flows into streams and lakes, and if those streams cannot buffer the increasing acidity with naturally occurring limestone, they become acidic. The acidity causes such toxins as aluminium and other metals to become dissolved in the stream water. Once dissolved in the water, these metals become poisonous to fish and birds. Acidity in also kills trees and slowly eats away at limestone buildings and stone statues.

The byproducts of combustion that contribute to our acid rain find their way to us from other areas of the country “downwind” of Pennsylvania. The clouds form due in part to our mountainous topography wringing out the water from the atmosphere. The moisture-laden air bumps into the ridgetops in Western and Central PA and forms clouds which then release their acid in the form of rainfall. As a result, the coal regions of Pennsylvania get a “double dose” of acid, both in the form of acid rain and in the form of AMD.

Acid rain has been a widely recognized environmental threat in Europe since the 1950s but has only been acknowledged to be an increasing problem in the US since the 1970s. Technological improvements in fossil fuel combusion for powerplants have resulted in significant reductions of Sulfur compounds over the years but similar success in reducing Nitrogen compounds has yet to be realized.

Acid Rain
from Environment Canada

by Vanessa Good (WPCAMR Intern) and Jeffrey Gerard (OSM/VISTA)

Brooks and branches, creeks and cricks: We use a plethora of terms to affectionately talk about the flowing water in our communities. But just what are we referring to?

In talking about watersheds, certain words have very precise meanings; for example, a tributary (also called a branch, a fork, or a prong) does not meet the sea, but always flows into another stream, river, or bay.

But other words that describe flowing water can be more ambiguous, often having only imprecise connotations; sometimes the dictionary notes these distinctions in usage. A channel, according to Merriam-Webster, is the narrow, deeper part of a riverbed where the water flows fastest. A strait is a channel that connects two large bodies of water. Waterways are usually (but not necessarily) navigable by boats. Brooks conjure images of being fed by bubbling springs. And a river is larger than a stream, which may in turn be larger than a creek—but exactly where the divisions are, no one can say. (The world’s shortest river, the D River in Oregon, is only 120 feet long.)

Some word choices are set apart not by nuances in meaning, but by their origins in regional dialect and history. Eastern Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, with their heavy Dutch influence, have kills (e.g. Schuylkill, Bushkill), from the Dutch word kil meaning “river bed, channel.” A swath of the United States that stretches from about Pittsburgh to Virginia’s southern border—and west towards Kansas City—often uses the word run to name streams (e.g. Glade Run in Fayette County). Or across ‘the pond,’ you might find a beck, bourne, brook, or burn in the United Kingdom; only Southern England uses the word stream.

Perhaps the most interesting distinction is the pronunciation of creek versus crick. Rather than following geographical boundaries, the word creek is used widely by city folk throughout the nation, whereas crick is the pronunciation of choice in rural areas—though many people, city or country, alternate between both.

Humor writer Patrick McManus describes where to draw the line between a creek and a crick in his essay “How to Fish a Crick”:

“A creek has none of the raucous, vulgar, freewheeling character of a crick. … Creeks tend to be pristine. They meander regally through high mountain meadows, cascade down dainty waterfalls, pause in placid pools, ripple over beds of gleaming gravel and polished rock. … Cricks, on the other hand, shuffle through cow pastures, slog through beaver dams, gurgle through culverts, ooze through barnyards, sprawl under sagging bridges, and when not otherwise occupied, thrash fitfully on their beds of quicksand and clay.”

For more information…

• Definitions of Lakes, Rivers, Seas, Oceans, Bays, Streams, and More by Matt Rosenberg, About.com
• Take Our Word For It
• “Stream” on Wikipedia
• How to Fish a Crick by Patrick McManus