More liquid manure

[rrt]

Yesterday evening during the heavy rain, traffic was being regulated to one lane along Route 22 near Canoe Creek as a heavy stream of water carrying heavy amounts of liquid manure flooded the highway. The foam from the manure was several feet high and extended for about a hundred yards. This miasma then flowed into the Frankstown Branch, which until about 3 years ago was becoming a destination stream. However, only two years ago, possibly because of bridge building west of Geeseytown, the last of the FB's hatches, sulphur mayflies, disappeared. Fishermen coming to the FB during the past two years looking for fly hatches have discovered that they are all gone. With incidents such as the one last evening, no wonder.

Perhaps some flies will re-establish themselves on the beleaguered FB, but at nearly 70, I doubt this will happen in my lifetime. And, with more incidents such as the one that occurred yesterday evening, it is unlikely that flies will have an opportunity to recover.

The Geeseytown Fire Company had to direct traffic around the mess, and I imagine they were required to contact DEP. I called the local PFBC representative and left a phone message for him. His answering machine noted that he would attend to my call when his work schedule permitted him to be back on duty.

 

[Maurice]

Rich, take pictures and call DEP yourself. Fire depts are there to provide public safety; diverting traffic, etc. they are not required to report environmental hazards. “I am sure someone reported it” is the first step in the journey toward apathy.

It’s not too late to pile on your complaint. Thanks for calling the FBC.

 

[CRB]

your submission also carries more weight than a first responder call and will be acted on more rapidly.

 

[rrt]

Will do.

 

[troutbert]

How did this spill happen?

 

[jifigz]

troutbert wrote:
How did this spill happen?

It probably wasn't a spill. It is the time of the year for fertilizing and planting. It was probably just applied to the fields and the the torrents carried it off and away into the water.

 

[Mike]

Could have been either.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Oh Crap! GG

 

[DaveS]

If there is a silver lining to this, it’s by nitefall the Frankie was rocketing to 3000 CFS.
Will be interested in hearing more about this. Hopefully the impact is minimal.

 

[timbow]

Imagine if this had been related to natural gas development. I’m sure DEP would have been on site immediately and every news station in PA would be reporting on how the evil oil companies are destroying the environment

 

[rrt]

jfigz is correct about how it happened.

Dave S. is, hopefully, correct that its impact on the already stress FB will be minimal. (It can't hurt the mayflies and caddisses; they have already been killed off in the past.)

I had to leave a message with DEP, since no one was on duty. I understand that the Geeseytown FD did contact DEP as the incident occurred.

I had contacted DEP a couple years ago about the destruction of the sulphur mayflies. They were to send a team to examine the FB at that time, though it was too late for the flies. Anyhow, I never heard another thing from DEP about that.

It is ironic that after one paper mill closed on the FB and another made major environmental improvements and the river now flows much clearer that all the flies that used to appear have vanished one by one: White Flies went in the early 1990's, the grannoms about 5 years ago after a slug of orange/brown mud flowed down the river for several days the summer before, and ths sulphurs and the dancing caddisses only a couple of years ago now, probably due to bridge building west of Geeseytown.

The FB was becoming a destination stream, having been written up by several destination writers. There was fine fly-fishing to nice hatches. Not any more. As I noted earlier, at 70, I doubt that I'll live to see any recovery of these once-wonderful hatches. So sad.

 

[fishbaithohaha]

Appropriately.

 

[fishbaithohaha]

Appropriately.

 

[rrt]

BTW -- Neither the PFBC nor DEP has contacted me about the manure flowing into the FB. It appears that the high water prevented any killing of fish, as there are none along the banks downstream of the incident.

But, you'd think one of the agencies would have at least had the courtesy to reply. Perhaps this is part of the dream world I'm living in to expect a response.

 

[FarmerDave]

rrt wrote:
BTW -- Neither the PFBC nor DEP has contacted me about the manure flowing into the FB. It appears that the high water prevented any killing of fish, as there are none along the banks downstream of the incident.

But, you'd think one of the agencies would have at least had the courtesy to reply. Perhaps this is part of the dream world I'm living in to expect a response.

Naa, you're just old. It's a pet peeve of mine, too.

 

[salmonoid]

rrt wrote:
BTW -- Neither the PFBC nor DEP has contacted me about the manure flowing into the FB. It appears that the high water prevented any killing of fish, as there are none along the banks downstream of the incident.

But, you'd think one of the agencies would have at least had the courtesy to reply. Perhaps this is part of the dream world I'm living in to expect a response.

I reported a leak of natural gas in a stream in the ANF many years ago to DEP. There was gas bubbling up in the stream bed, with a white precipitate surrounding the exit site. I received a letter a month or more later, confirming they had investigated, and confirming the presence of a gas leak. My complaint about the loads of sediment in the stream, as a result of all of the new roads being built for gas and oil development, fell on deaf ears. They blamed it on the "steep hillsides".

So hold tight, you may hear something yet. Maybe they're trying to fingerprint a manure sample in the Chesapeake and match it to a local cow?

 

[troutbert]

rrt wrote:
BTW -- Neither the PFBC nor DEP has contacted me about the manure flowing into the FB. It appears that the high water prevented any killing of fish, as there are none along the banks downstream of the incident.

But, you'd think one of the agencies would have at least had the courtesy to reply. Perhaps this is part of the dream world I'm living in to expect a response.

The times I have "made the call" I sometimes got a response, sometimes not. They should call back. It should be part of their protocol and training to make sure that the calls are responded to.

Because if they don't, it sends the message that it was ignored.

 

[wildtrout2]

rrt wrote:
But, you'd think one of the agencies would have at least had the courtesy to reply. Perhaps this is part of the dream world I'm living in to expect a response.

Yes, you would think they would have the common courtesy to return the call that you took the time to make. Sadly, common courtesy isn't so common anymore.

 

[Mike]

What would you like them to say when they call back? That it's under investigation? Think about it and be honest with yourself. Would that satisfy you? Because that is about all that you are going to get since it would be unwise to give you details from a legal standpoint, plus the investigation may be ongoing so details would not be available in some cases.

I think it was stated that the spill took place late last week. The investigation could easily be ongoing yet.

 

[Maurice]

I think it would be common courtesy to respond with a confirmation that the complaint had been logged and the reporting party interviewed as to the scope of the observation.

But as with any/many reports to government agencies, you get ghosted. This is one reason they don’t get respect for their efforts. Because it is felt that there is no effort.