Bushkill Went Dry Again.

[Zak]

Did anyone else see the pumps shut down yesterday evening during the storm on the BK above Easton?? I have no other details but I'm sure it was another stinkin' fish kill in the area. You can see on the USGS site where it drops to like 18 cfs for a short time. Bummer.......

 

[Smike]

Checking the gauge it sure looks like they had a short but significant drop yesterday.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

If true, that is effing BS. I grew up fishing there in the early 90's. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would be the fourth or fifth time this has happened? Good ole Hercules Cement. All I've ever heard is there "is no easy solution." The DEP has threatened to pull Hercules' permit, but to my knowledge, has never done so. I'm starting to think that the problems with Rockwood Pigments now Huntsman Pigments, pale in comparison to this. It's a damn shame how badly that stream is abused.

 

[Fredrick]

Can anyone explain to me how this cement company has control of all the water in the creek?

 

[mav1958]

Just a guess, but probably a deep mine or quarry that has disturbed the water table. Water now drains into the mine. The mine pumps out the water. That now acts as a "spring" to feed the stream.

I believe there is a similar situation at the Pleasant Gap hatchery.
If the mine ever plays out, it will become a huge underground lake.

 

[troutbert]

Fredrick wrote:
Can anyone explain to me how this cement company has control of all the water in the creek?

Are you looking for a physical, legal, or political explanation?

 

[Zak]

Apparently the power went out and the pumps stopped. I guess emergency generators aren't an option!? Bottom line is they couldn't give a crap and they wont give a crap until authorities make them give a crap. Those pics are the Tatamy Bridge. Water was already low before this event so there was no buffer. That's the second time in 6 months this has happened. They did it in December too.

 

[Zak]

Even my wife who, god love her, knows nothing about stuff like this says 'shouldn't there be emergency backup or something like that'. I guess millions of aquatic lives isn't worth it though lol.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Wow!

 

[Fredrick]

troutbert wrote:

Fredrick wrote:
Can anyone explain to me how this cement company has control of all the water in the creek?

Are you looking for a physical, legal, or political explanation?

All of the above Dwight

 

[jifigz]

Those pictures are shocking and that is horrible. I've never fished the Bushkill but that has to be very depressing to the ones that love that stream. There has to be a solution and that can't be permitted to happen.

What is this about Pleasant Gap now? I never realized there was a large mine there. So what you're implying is that if the mine ever "plays out" (not sure what that means) the Logan Branch is doomed?

 

[fritz]

Emergency gens...should have them and if you do they gotta be maintained, tested routinely and have the latest starter controls, make sure they are lined up correctly, good record keeping, etc. Laying await and dormant they can sometimes tend to be a forgotten piece of equipment in an operating system or replaced to match upgraded power usage.

 

[Jaybird]

This is complete Bull***T , I know that the Forks chapter is very active on the Bushkill , but where is TU national??? I mean over the last 10yrs the Bushkill and the Little Lehigh are shadows of theyer former selves . News Flash they aren't making anymore spring creeks .

 

[salmonoid]

jifigz wrote:
Those pictures are shocking and that is horrible. I've never fished the Bushkill but that has to be very depressing to the ones that love that stream. There has to be a solution and that can't be permitted to happen.

What is this about Pleasant Gap now? I never realized there was a large mine there. So what you're implying is that if the mine ever "plays out" (not sure what that means) the Logan Branch is doomed?

There are large quarries all along the valley wall facing Mount Nittany near Pleasant Gap. I'm not aware of any quarry that has water that directly interfaces with Logan branch, but water can move in weird ways in limestone areas. Probably the closest is an abandoned quarry behind the Pleasant Gap elementary school, which has J4 cave in it.

When a quarry plays out (or any mine plays out), it simply means that whatever resource is being extracted is no longer financially viable to extract.

Should be fairly obvious where the quarries are near Pleasant Gap from this map..

 

[Fredrick]

Jaybird wrote:
This is complete Bull***T , I know that the Forks chapter is very active on the Bushkill , but where is TU national??? I mean over the last 10yrs the Bushkill and the Little Lehigh are shadows of theyer former selves . News Flash they aren't making anymore spring creeks .

TU national is just a non profit business that wants your money .It amazes me how much of your membership money actually goes to the chapters its about ten cents a dollar. The Chapters are the ones that do all the work in TU .

 

[troutbert]

jifigz wrote:
Those pictures are shocking and that is horrible. I've never fished the Bushkill but that has to be very depressing to the ones that love that stream. There has to be a solution and that can't be permitted to happen.

What is this about Pleasant Gap now? I never realized there was a large mine there. So what you're implying is that if the mine ever "plays out" (not sure what that means) the Logan Branch is doomed?

No. When quarries that are pumping the groundwater down, so that they can quarry at levels far below the normal groundwater elevation, close down their operations, the water table gradually rises back up to its normal elevation.

You've probably seen old quarry pits that are filled with water. That's what happened there.

Then the normal base flow to the streams is restored.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Jaybird wrote:
This is complete Bull***T , I know that the Forks chapter is very active on the Bushkill , but where is TU national??? I mean over the last 10yrs the Bushkill and the Little Lehigh are shadows of theyer former selves . News Flash they aren't making anymore spring creeks .

I wonder how many situations just like this are happening nationwide? If it's fewer than I assume, then yes national should know about this. Fly Fisherman Magazine has been re-running half the chapters in the Keystone Book as stories this year too. How about one on this?

 

[Vaughn]

TU national has indeed provided support to the Forks of the Delaware chapter of TU in this matter.

Forks TU is in conversation with DEP regarding the quarry (and the permitting process). The petition that was circulated this spring gathered close to 3000 signatures, so thank you to all here who signed.

 

[mav1958]

I worked on a construction project at Graymont a number of years ago.

They have a lime plant and deep mine. I was told, the lowest level of the mine is 1000 feet below the valley floor. Part of their mine is actually under Hawbaker's quarry.

I was told that the water pumped out of the mine goes to the Pleasant Gap hatchery. I would think it passes through the hatchery then on to the Logan Branch.

I don't know what are all the water sources for the Logan Branch.

I would assume, as Troutbert says, if and when the mine closes, it would fill up with water and be a huge underground reservoir.

 

[Chaz]

Fred,
The simple answer is that the quarry sits less than 50 feet for the stream. That section of stream has a fault on the bottom, the water flows from the stream into the quarry. There are pumps that are used to pump the water back into the creek. These pumps pump sometimes more then 30 million gallons of water out of the quarry every day.When the pumps don't work the stream suffers.
To me the only logical solution is to shut down the quarry. Once the quarry is full the water will return to the creek. It's a DEP issue, they permit the quarry, but they also regulate the quarry, a big conflict of interest.
They are NOT pumping out of the water table as far as I know. I believe they have emergency pumps, but they have failed more than once.