Well, thanks to the checkerboard nature of the ownership of mineral rights to lands within the ANF, degradation of cold water streams from extractive industries like oil/gas and timber have been a chronic problem for as long as I can remember (which is getting to be a frighteningly long time...). The good news, if there is any, is that in most cases the damage is transitory and not lethal and the streams can and do recover. Until the next time somebody comes in and starts throwing dirt around, that is.. Then it starts all over. Most of these watersheds have been through it many times. All this is true at any rate of the older style surface gas wells. I can't speak to the impacts of the Marcellus wells.
But here's the thing about the main stem of Kinzua Creek in specific. It has always been one of the more troubled and degraded streams in the ANF. In addition to the episodic insults from energy extraction common to the entire region, most of the first order tribs are or have been pretty acidic, even by ANF standards. On top of that, the upper third of the stream. roughly from a couple of miles above the US 219 bridge up to the PA 59 bridge was all screwed up for many, many years by a number of wood alcohol manufacturing sites (all long gone now) that basically coated the stream bottom with a layer of an asphalt-like residue. I guess this problem was slowly beginning to naturally (via floods and scour) resolve itself as of a decade ago and I don't know how it stands now. But I guess the overarching point of all this gas I’m passing here is that the main stem of Kinzua Creek has had it pretty rough (even by ANF standards) for a long time and in some ways, it is a wonder there are any fish there at all.
