What killed the fish?

Pollution, algae, coal mines, gas drilling fingered in Western Pennsylvania fishkill

By FRITZ MAYER

PENNSYLVANIA & WEST VIRGINIA — There is no question that many fish have been killed in Dunkard Creek since September 1. But there is still a question of exactly what is responsible for the environmental carnage.

Dunkard Creek meanders back and forth between Pennsylvania and West Virginia and, according to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, 37 miles of the creek, nearly the entire distance, have been hit by a “pollution event” that has resulted in deaths of “at least 16 species of freshwater mussels and at least 18 species of fish,” and included sport fish such as muskellunge and small-mouth bass.

The PA Department of Environmental Preservation (PADEP) called the damage done to Dunkard Creek pollution devastating. The PADEP is working with the West Virginia DEP (WVDEP) and other agencies in trying to determine the precise cause of the spill.

A bloom of toxic alien algae is being blamed for killing many of the fish. One official at WVDEP said the algae were able to thrive because of high levels of substances such as chlorides and other dissolved solids.

So what caused those high levels of pollutants?

According to a news release from WVDEP, two coal mines, if involved in the activity at all, are not entirely to blame. The agency wrote in a release on September 26, “Because of heavy mining activity in the area, the industry was an early suspect. In fact, after conferring with the WVDEP, Consol Energy, the company which operates an active mine in Blacksville, WV, agreed to shut off its discharge into Dunkard Creek at its Blacksville No. 2 site. 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.”

Furthermore, gas-related activities were thought to be involved because “the agencies have 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.”

According to one official, some of the trucks were found to be withdrawing water from the creek rather than dumping wastewater. However, on September 18, staff members from WVDEP flew over the area in a helicopter to see if there was anything they could see from the air that they missed on the ground. The staff noted the stream was clouded with a rust color from the Pennsylvania border upstream to a beaver dam in the South Fork of the West Virginia Fork of Dunkard. As a result, additional staff was brought in to take samples along a 25-mile stretch of the river.

Still another cause of the pollution, according to news reports, could be leakage from a borehole that is being used as a conduit to inject wastewater from gas drilling operations into an old mine.

According to an article in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, the only injection well in the area with a permit is operated by CNX Gas Company, a subsidiary of Consol Energy.

The story says, “Because of violations at that injection facility from September 2007 to March 2009, CNX was fined $157,500 for violating provisions of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, including accepting at least 100 truckloads of wastewater with total dissolved solids levels ‘significantly higher’ than its federal permit allowed.”