Bushkill Dewatered

[whheff]

Hercules cement shut their quarry pumps off for about 4 hours yesterday and this is what happened.


Our TU chapter is going to contact our WCO and others to see what actions can be taken.

 

[gfen]

They're easier to catch that way.

 

[InTheMend]

Are they just suckers or browns too? Still atrocious either way...

 

[Chooch]

They all look like suckers but the one fish at the very top, with its head pointing into the rocks looks like it may be a trout. It appears to have a regular looking jaw at least. The thing that caught my eye is that snake looking shape toward the bottom of the fish pile. Is that an eel?

 

[JeffK]

This is a shame. I was going to try the Bushkill for the first time this season next week. Not sure about it now. The Bushkill can be such a good stream.

 

[sandfly]

yep that's a eel and a trout with all those suckers.

 

[caveman]

What will happen to the water supply for this creek when Hercules cement closes it doors forever?

 

[whheff]

I received another picture with 15 brown trout that were between 15 and 16 inches long. These pictures and other info were forwarded to our WCO today.

More info to follow as I get it.

Bill

 

[troutbert]

How far downstream did the de-watering extend?

 

[JeffK]

When the quarry shuts down it will fill up with water and the water table will recover. But I'm guessing not to the levels of decades ago because of all the development in the area.


The water comes from the Bushkill into the quarry and is then pumped back into the Bushkill. As I understand it, the quarry has to be pumped to keep it dry so it can be worked, so the water table is dropped around the quarry. Water then seeps from the creek to the quarry. Over the years the little channels in the limestone bedrock have been cleared by the water flow so that now there is a fairly direct connection between the creek and the quarry and if the pump stops all the creek water will flow to the quarry. When the quarry fills completely there will be no head difference and the flow will to the quarry will stop. Of course fish can't tolerate a temporary dry spell.

 

[whheff]

troutbert wrote:
How far downstream did the de-watering extend?

Down as far as the Spring house. I walked the lower section, below Newlins Mill Rd., the stream is very low but I did see fish.

Most of the dewatering was from RT191 to Tatamy.

JeffK is correct with everything he said. But when they do shut down, it will take years to fill the quarry to the level required to provide a neutral head pressure. I don't think that will be happening soon. They want to extend the quarry and move RT191 to do it.

Our TU President sent the plant manager an email requesting a meeting and he agreed to do that. We just have to set the meeting up.

Bill

 

[Chaz]

DEP is who issues permits for the pumps, but the WCO will know that. Anyway I'd contact DEP for sure. This is the second time in the last few years this has happened. The plant should be shut down.

 

[Zak]

When you say dewater you mean COMPLETELY DRY? I recall the last time they did it but I dont think it was a 100% kill of the entire 1.5 mile stretch to the Spring house. As a contractor at the time I spoke to the site contractor that shut the pumps off several years ago. He was on a project of mine. He just laughed about it as if it was no big deal. I wanted to strangle him for his ignorance to the resource.

Please do keep us informed. This meeting reminds me of talks with ACE about FEW on the Lehigh. Those pumps are the life blood of the whole creek down to Easton really. It would be awesome if they would flow constant instead of fluctuation 80 cfs every 3 hours. Just look at the USGS or fish it. Water levels go nuts all the time and that can't be good for the ecosystem.

 

[Lonewolve]

for the record, the only development that affects this part of the Bushkill is any house that has had a well drilled. Most of the development is on American water distribution or city water depending on where the folks live. This section has also suffered from Storm water discharge from all the water dumping into the creek. One of the reasons this sections hatches are or have become so bad over the years, development and dried up creek bed syndrome.

This section has suffered from dewatering several times in the past since the 70's. Pump failure caused one episode, A Lightening strike did another, the other one if memory serves me correctly was during a drought several years ago . Every time DEP issues a permit this stream suffers.

To get a matter of perspective , that quarry alone is enormous, and also very, deep. Like has been said it will literally take years for that quarry to fill up to even start to make back pressure. This is what happens when man gets greedy for money and cares nothing for his natural world. Even when the creek goes under in this section it still comes out near Upstream Farms/ section.
Is it bad? You damn right it is. Can it be fixed? The pumps either have to run, or don't run the pumps any longer and let the hole fill up then wait for years. The other trouble is that fines are definitely way too lenient towards the Quarry when this happens , they just drag it out an pay the fine .
All for the grace of money. Most of the limestone from that quarry is used for cement and some crushed stone ect.

 

[Chaz]

When I was last at the quarry, I'd say around 2000, they were pumping 30,000,000 galons of water a day from the quarry. The issue then was turbidity, which varies from day to day if the water isn't treated. If they stop pumping altogether everything would be fine, except the quarry would stop operating.

 

[NickR]

I fished this stream a handful of times over the past couple of years... I have always done poorly and saw very few bugs/fish... my last visit I told myself I would not return unless I was forced. I hear so many folks talking about this stream and how well it fishesd and it seems hard for me to imagine that in it's present state. Anybody fished there long enough to share what the stream used to fish like?

 

[NickR]

I heard there used to be some aquatic vegetation... seems hard to imagine.

 

[Lonewolve]

Chaz,
It wouldn't be so bad for the quarry to shut down aside from the jobs. Moving 191 to make more room for quarry enlargement? Drill through more water tables to go deeper? Maybe if folks would learn to recycle concrete and materials they could stop gouging the earth all the time.
There is a Cement plant that does make cement from recycled concrete its right by the Saucon, they literally deliver busted up concrete an they break down further and make new concrete out of it as well as screen out and grade the aggregates. This country needs to do more or learn more about recycling resources. I remember when I was in Germany seeing and being told as well as having been told by my grandfather about how the germans recycled everything after WW2 to rebuild buildings .
I also saw a machine on the Autobahn that literally was like a train that dug up or ground up the macadam then it went along a conveyor there was magnets with bins of to one side when the magnet got loaded it went to the side an released the steel or metal into a bin to be recycled . the aggregate when along an was introduced into a mixing chamber with tar and then was transferred via conveyor to a macadam spreader/layer, after that rollers were flattening the macadam. they had a slot where a Dump truck could pull up along side an dump extra stone to the mix and a hose that coupled to a tar truck .

 

[Lonewolve]

Nick,
this stream used to have Green Drakes before WW2 as well as very good hatches. Used to have a great Sulpher Hatch , kinda hard when there are so many roads near the creek an the Sulphers do their spinner fall over them instead of the creek.This happens all along the creek where a road is within a few hundred yards, I know this because I have witnessed this on Pine Grove Drive.
Its more a shadow of itself from Siltation and Storm Drain excess than from the quarry. Nice thing about the stream is it is a Freestone on either of its two branches an the upper tribs and becomes a limestone influenced stream from 191 downstream. The bad thing is that the storm drains an lack of a better riparian buffer are hurting it. The section of the stream that dries up due to Quarry issues is also bad but the whole stream does not suffer. It would be great if this stream could get more love in the form of Riparian buffers instream work, a good sand wand program with the instream devices bringing back a thalweg that would keep siltation at a minimum or non existent level.

 

[sapper6]

Lonewolve,
Just to clear up a misconception, cement is an ingredient in concrete, just like flour is an ingredient in bread. Cement + sand + aggregate (gravel) makes concrete in an irreversible chemical reaction. It is not possible to make cement from concrete, or concrete from broken up concrete, unless you are just using it as a substitute for regular aggregate.

I have enjoyed the sulfur hatch on the Bushkill, but it gets a little crowded for me.