catawissa creek

[jrflyfish]

newbie here, wondering if anyone knows whats going on with catawissa creek. I know they were supposed to be cleaning it up but haven't heard anything of late.
thanks
jr

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear jr,

In the summer of 2005 I met a contractor who was building a large scale limestone recirculating system similar to the one that Doc Fritchey TU built on the upper end of Stony Creek.

It was being built right at the outflow from the mine south of Sheppton but several miles to the east back in off a gravel road almost in West Hazleton.

I myself have wondered what ever happened? The contractor was a great guy who is still around, but I have no idea how the liming system worked?

The upper end of Catawissa Creek is some gorgeous water, mostly private, but it still shouldn't ought to be dead.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[franklin]

TimMurphy wrote:
Dear jr,

In the summer of 2005 I met a contractor who was building a large scale limestone recirculating system similar to the one that Doc Fritchey TU built on the upper end of Stony Creek.

It was being built right at the outflow from the mine south of Sheppton but several miles to the east back in off a gravel road almost in West Hazleton.

I myself have wondered what ever happened? The contractor was a great guy who is still around, but I have no idea how the liming system worked?

The upper end of Catawissa Creek is some gorgeous water, mostly private, but it still shouldn't ought to be dead.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

I remember driving along the creek in the 70s when I worked in the area. It had even worse mine acid back then but I had similar thoughts about how nice the stream was. I hope there is some efforts underway to clean it up.

 

[RLeep2]

There is a Catawissa Creek Watershed Association and they have a web site, but they don't appear to be very active if timely update of the web site is any indication.

I remember probably 11-12 years ago when I was doing some research on anthracite remediation that some of the same folks who were behind the project to remediate the Upper Swatara and some other Schuylkill County streams were also working to crank up a similar effort on the Catawissa. But like I say, that was 11-12 years ago.

Probably a good place to start investigating would be with an outfit that goes by the acronym EPCAMR (Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation). They were an amalgam of state and Federal agencies partnering with local volunteers to work on reclaiming streams. The guy who ran it back when I was researching it was Robert Hughes. Nice fellow and very dedicated. He still might be the main guy. If anybody has the current story on what is going on, it is likely to be him or whoever is running EPCAMR these days.

Here's EPCAMR web site: http://epcamr.org/home/

 

[jrflyfish]

rleep2, thanks for the info I live 5 mi. from the stream and pass it everyday on my way to work and just daydream about the day that I can catch some wild fish out of it. I have been going to a remote spot on the creek and looking under rocks and just watching the stream for any insect activity but haven't found any yet. Jr.

 

[KenU]

There is an extensive ongoing project to clean up Catawissa Creek. If you do a Google search for Catawissa Creek you will find a lot of information on this project.

 

[franklin]

http://files.dep.state.pa.us/Water/Watershed%20Management/lib/watershedmgmt/nonpoint_source/implementation/catawissa_creek_plan.pdf

Interesting document. Not five deep mine tunnels in the upper watershed. No wonder this creek has problems. Let's hope the work continues.