Are we really still doing this!!???

[HopBack]

I can’t believe this day in age we are still destroying brook trout streams for the sake of coal!!! The damage done here was horrific. Just a year ago there were riparian buffers on the mining site and the stream was untouched. They have clearly mined into the stream and change the channel in many spots for about a half mile. I have a video but I guess you can’t post it on here.

 

[troutbert]

Where is this? And have you reported it?

I can't imagine that anyone would get a permit to mine right into a stream channel.

It may be a part of a remediation project. Some years ago I saw and photographed areas that were all dug up along Babb Creek. People familiar with projects there said it was done to remove old spoil piles that had been dumped right along the stream. A short term disturbance that hopefully would improve water quality long term.

 

[HopBack]

I’m sure it’s just that but they stripped about 300 acres all the way up to the stream. There is about a half mile stretch like this that’s exposed with runoff just pouring into the stream. It’s an important main tributary to another recovering stream.

 

[HopBack]

 

[Fish Sticks]

Wha

I can’t believe this day in age we are still destroying brook trout streams for the sake of coal!!! The damage done here was horrific. Just a year ago there were riparian buffers on the mining site and the stream was untouched. They have clearly mined into the stream and change the channel in many spots for about a half mile. I have a video but I guess you can’t post it on here. View attachment 1641225607

What the actual ****

 

[Fish Sticks]

I’m sure it’s just that but they stripped about 300 acres all the way up to the stream. There is about a half mile stretch like this that’s exposed with runoff just pouring into the stream. It’s an important main tributary to another recovering stream.

Where is this happening??? If this is not part of an AMD remediation we have to do something about this. Make DEP aware. If they are get statements and go from there.

 

[Fish Sticks]

View attachment 1641225612View attachment 1641225613

I am very willing to hell navigate as I have handled things much less egregious through a similar method before.

 

[HopBack]

Pm sent

 

[lycoflyfisher]

If this is in Schuylkill Co, it is likely part of a huge restoration project. If it is the stream I think it may be there wasn't much of a riparian buffer, it was a vertical pile of culm (coal waste) that was actively eroding into the stream. The project also entailed improving floodplain connectivity as opposed to a narrow incised stream channel confined by a natural hillside and a giant pile of coal waste. There was a small population of brookies before this work occurred and I believe the habitat and water quality will greatly improve. Feel free to PM me if you want to compare notes and see if it is in fact the same site.

 

[Mike]

Were it not for the RR tracks in the one pic I could have been convinced that it might a particular trib to the Schuylkill. Major restoration and coal fines stabilization or removal are planned or, preferably, have been completed at a former mining site. I can easily picture that being the appearance of that site as well sometime during the height of a restoration project. You have to crack a few eggs in order to make an omelet.

The site I’ve mentioned, for example, if left as is, pushes sediment down a wild ST stream and the recovering ST portion of the Schuylkill. I’d wait to judge the op’s pics before it is learned what kind of activity this represents. The stake and pink flagging along the stream and by the rocks are suggestive of a possible restoration project.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Mike, we may be thinking of the same trib... the railroad tracks with rock armoring caused uncertainty for me as well as the pavement that close to the stream.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Mike, we may be thinking of the same trib... the railroad tracks with rock armoring caused uncertainty for me as well as the pavement that close to the stream.

i know who’s doing the project i think i’ll have an answer by Tuesday if he picks up and i’ll post what kind of project it is. There is a video online with a firm talking about the type of restoration and i believe it was flood plain connection as a technique. A similar flood plane connection project was done downstream in a neighboring town in schuyllkill county. I think this may be same kind.

 

[Fish Sticks]

Like almost every single major stream in schuyllkill county local sportsman’s clubs are putting fingerling brook trout in streams. In smaller systems there can be higher concerns for introgresson(stocked brook trout mating with wild native brook trout and loosing valuable local genetic adaptations to one spawning event with stocked not locally adapted brook trout). We need to talk to these sportsman’s clubs and Schuylkill county headwaters and help educate them how harmful this is to stock brook trout. Even a small amount of introgression and can result in outbreeding depression(loss of locally adapted genes that are valuable for continued survival in that stream).


Despite good brook trout in the SKOOK. One of worst places in PA. Local sportsman’s clubs and, very ironically , conservation organizations are placing
Vibert egg boxes with brown trout in Skook streams!!!!. That county is one of our best chances to keep native brook trout around due to mine shaft effect on water temp in some places/acidity favoring them and keeping browns out(Amd should still be remediated obviously).

Look what happens when you remediate AMD and don’t deal with invasive species. Kratzer run Pa tom clark of SRBC documents browns coming in and eating the brook trout population around minute 10 or 11 after the AMD was remediated and browns found stream more favorable.

 

[HopBack]

Thanks everyone for all of the well informed responses. I will just put out there everything I know as to avoid any further confusion.

The stream in question is called “good spring run” near Tremont. It has a sustaining population of native brook trout and is a major trib of the swatara, at least in the headwaters.

I first fished this stream 2 years ago right after the coal company stripped about 300 acres or so I’m guessing. Not a tree or shrub left in sight. There were tailings from the operation covering everything all the way up to the stream bank. When it rained there was a lot orange water flowing into the stream from the hill. Good spring is not an AMD stream.


Fast forward 2 years and there is an active construction crew on site and all of the tailings had been removed. There are piles of boulders everywhere which suggest some remediation. I thought this was maybe the coal company but it sounds like they may have been fined and a major project is under way.

I really hope this is the case although it will take 100 years before it gets back to its former self. Hopefully the remediation minimizes the downstream impact.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

I think you will find this to be a highly beneficial project to this stream. The amount of polluted water runoff coming off those culm banks is staggering... similar work elsewhere in the state and in Schuylkill Co has resulted in better wq and better wt populations. There should be a significant tree planting taking place, likely this fall.

 

[troutbert]

Good spring is not an AMD stream.

I first fished this stream in the 1990s, and it was an AMD stream at that time. I fished it after hearing about it in a presentation about AMD remediation in Schuylkill County.

We fished it upstream from Tremont. We walked down a powerline. The stream was as bright orange as any stream I've ever seen. My fishing buddy said there can't be trout in there, but I said you gotta listen to the locals. We caught only a very few brookies, and those were very small. But I was amazed that they were living in there.

 

[troutbert]

N 40.63192 W 76.41674 That's the location of the stream.

If you copy and paste that into Acmemapper, then switch to the Topo view, which is scanned old USGS maps, you can see areas that were mined years ago.

 

[HopBack]

N 40.63192 W 76.41674 That's the location of the stream.

If you copy and paste that into Acmemapper, then switch to the Topo view, which is scanned old USGS maps, you can see areas that were mined years ago.

It definitely runs clear now. I know it doesn’t mean it’s not polluted, there is just no iron precipitate present.

 

[troutbert]

It definitely runs clear now. I know it doesn’t mean it’s not polluted, there is just no iron precipitate present.

That's good. Back in the 1990s the rocks were covered with a Day-Glo orange precipitate. I flipped some rocks back then and saw a few midge larvae, but no other aquatic insects.

 

[Fish Sticks]

https://m.facebook.com/ClauserEnvironmental/videos/good-spring-creek-watershed-restoration-plan-roll-out/2705371186384415/

I have not gotten to watch this yet but its on my list may hold some information. Will talk to contact at SCCD soon.