Reported fish kill on FB > Frankstown Branch LJ

[afishinado]

Reported fish kill on the Frankstown Branch reported on FB >

Major fish kill being reported on the Frankstown Branch.
Roaring Spring Paper Mill apparently had a chemical spill.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/103876936714997/

No further details forthcoming.

Please post more info as it becomes available.

 

[Swattie87]

Ugh. That's pretty far upstream too. And flows are very low right now. Not good. Could impact a lot of mileage.

That river has really intrigued me as of late, and was one of the spots I was most interested in spending some timing exploring this Fall.

 

[jifigz]

That is lousy news. The Frankstown Branch is a cool place. Let's hope this rainfall helps dilute the strength and damage of this fish kill.

 

[dryflyguy]

A quick check on USGS shows that the Frankie did spike up on monday.
And has kinda stayed about 6 inches higher than it had been running before that.
Looks like it might have got some dilution help anyway.

 

[evw659]

Was planning on throwing streamers somewhere down that way tomorrow, I'll definitely investigate a bit on the way if I go.
Pretty sure I've driven by that paper mill before, its right next to Halter Creek, a high density class A bt trib to the FB. If that is where the supposed spill occured, and it resulted in a fish kill in the frankie, then Halter had to have been more severely impacted.
Hopefully we learn more in the coming days.

 

[jifigz]

I spoke to the person that made the report. No reported brown trout found dead and only warmwater species..I'm not saying this makes it any better, but just noting it was misreported with no wild trout OBSERVED to be affected.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

not surprised by lack of BT. The trout in the frankie probably found their way up cooler tribs- at least that's my hope.

 

[FrankTroutAngler]

evw659 wrote:
Was planning on throwing streamers somewhere down that way tomorrow, I'll definitely investigate a bit on the way if I go.
Pretty sure I've driven by that paper mill before, its right next to Halter Creek, a high density class A bt trib to the FB. If that is where the supposed spill occured, and it resulted in a fish kill in the frankie, then Halter had to have been more severely impacted.
Hopefully we learn more in the coming days.

The effluent from the Appvion paper mill in Roaring Spring runs through a pipeline down to the Frankstown Branch and enters the FB a little ways below the Route 36 bridge over the FB at Brooks Mills. This chemical spill should have no effect on Halter Creek.

By the way, this pipeline was built around 1980 mainly because of the effort by my brother Paul Nale, who relentlessly spearheaded the project, and the Blair County Chapter of Trout Unlimited (now called the John Kennedy Chapter). The chapter won the national Gold Trout Award mainly because of this project. This was no easy task. Paul even had his life threatened because employees at the mill thought the mill might close down.

 

[DaveS]

Thanks for the update Frank. I was kinda sicken thinking this went into Halter. Hoping the damage was minimal.
And Hats off to Paul and all those who work for better Cold water protection.

 

[martinlf]

Glad to hear Halter was not affected. Please give Paul our heartfelt thanks for his work. It likely saved Halter this time.

 

[rrt]

As fta noted, his brother Paul worked relentlessly to facilitate the clean-up at the Appvion mill. Another "mover and shaker" in the TU chapter at that time was a man named Jim Gregory. He also deserves some credit for the clean-up.

Interestingly, after the dust had settled and the pipe from the mill bypassed Halter Creek, Appvion became a fine corporate partner in pollution abatement in the area. It established additional clarifiers after 1979 , and it spent many millions of dollars working to clean the air coming from its stack. If there was a recent chemical spill from the mill, I feel badly for the mill owners and workers who have done so much work to abate the mill's pollution problems while continuing to employ nearly 500 workers, which is the most employees of any entity in our county. I hope the damage from the spill was minimal.

The FB suffers from many other indignities. The fly hatches, which had improved over many years, are pretty much gone. Though I cannot prove it, I believe s bridge project in Frankstown killed off the hatches of sulphurs, which were nearly as good as those on the LJR. Now, there is not even a fishable remnant population in most places. I tried to get DEP to take a look, they said they would, but they have never gotten back to me. The grannoms vanished about six years ago, a year after a five-day slug of red clay-like material flushed through the river. No one seems to know where that originated. There is a remnant population of these in a few places, but not many. Liquid manure continues to pollute the water.
Only last year manure was applied to a field near Canoe Creek just before a downpour. The manure flowed to a plugged culvert, pooled on Route 22 (making quite a mess), and then plunged into the FB.
Liquid manure spills on tributaries have also done damage to the tribs and to the FB. In addition, an industrial hog farm has permits to apply liquid pig manure to fields along the FB above Canoe Creek on the FB's flood plain. Despite protests, DEP approved this.

Landowners have become tired of disrespect of their properties and have posted a number of spots, making access difficult, even if the FB is navigable.

I hope the chemical spill does not amount to much: The FB has enough serious problems.

 

[RLeep2]

Just as a postscript or addendum to what Frank and Rich offered, the entire Appleton/Appvion story also impacted me as well even though I've never laid eyes on either Halter Creek or the mill at Roaring Spring.

In 1986, I succeeded Paul Nale as the editor of the State TU publication, Pennsylvania TROUT. Our production costs were significantly reduced by a generous gift of HQ coated stock from (at the time) Appleton Papers for use in printing our publication. This arrangement was one of the things Paul engineered in cooperation with Appleton during the entire Halter Creek situation. Appleton continued to supply this paper well into the early 1990's. almost certainly saving the PA Council upwards of $10,000 in production/printing costs over the life of the paper donation period.

 

[evw659]

Thanks for passing that info along, Frank. Much respect for your brothers persistence and hard work.

 

[DGC]

Newspaper article relevant to this spill published today

Altoona Mirror Article Frankstown Branch Fish Kill

 

[rrt]

1. The article from today's Altoona Mirror suggests that the fish kill extended for about three miles. Carp and bluegills were the fish that were discussed in the article as having been killed. The article mentioned that crayfish seemed to have survived. Hopefully, this will not be a recurring situation.

2. After looking for a couple of days through stacks of "valuable materials" that I hoard, I finally found Paul Nale's article, "Trout Versus Jobs"from the Summer 1980 TROUT magazine. He details the long, contentious struggle that he and the Blair County TU Chapter (now John Kennedy Chapter) went through to clean up Halter Creek that feeds the FB. He notes at the end of the piece the cooperation TU and Appleton Papers (the name of the paper company at the time) had developed -- especially in stream restoration above the mill. Paul Nale also noted there were other problems affecting Halter Creek, including some from a huge limestone quarry below the mill. I suspect the quarry continues to cause problems.

Other name Paul Nale mentioned as being helpful were Harry Chittester, the chapter's first president; Tom Wolfe, the president of the chapter at the time; Walt Rosser, who was the county's WCO; and Bob McCollough of the state chapter of TU and who figured prominently in a thread on another sub-forum on PaFlyFish recently.

3. Anyhow, it is a shame that the FB is back in the news because of a fish kill and that it continues to suffer from many additional pollution problems throughout its length.

 

[PennKev]

rrt wrote:
3. Anyhow, it is a shame that the FB is back in the news because of a fish kill and that it continues to suffer from many additional pollution problems throughout its length.

...in the news and quickly being forgotten.

If it was Penns or LJR this would still be on the main forum and have 200+ posts to the thread..

 

[dryflyguy]

PennKev wrote:

rrt wrote:
3. Anyhow, it is a shame that the FB is back in the news because of a fish kill and that it continues to suffer from many additional pollution problems throughout its length.

...in the news and quickly being forgotten.

If it was Penns or LJR this would still be on the main forum and have 200+ posts to the thread..

Good point.
However, that's exactly why it's such a nice place to fish.
Or should I say WAS - depending on how severe this spill turns out to be

 

[troutbert]

I don't think those warmwater fish were killed by warm water.

I once took a water temp of 90F on the Susquehanna River and there weren't dead fish rolling up.

 

[Swattie87]

troutbert wrote:
I don't think those warmwater fish were killed by warm water.

I once took a water temp of 90F on the Susquehanna River and there weren't dead fish rolling up.

Agree. And temps had actually moderated slightly since the peaks a few weeks ago. I also doubt there weren't wild Brown Trout killed. I don't pretend to have a tremendous understanding of that river, but (I believe) there were wild Brown Trout documented in that section of river correct? Find it hard to believe that a relatively pollution/low DO level tolerant species like Carp were affected, but Trout were not. Unless of course there were not any Trout in that section to start with. Maybe, fortunately for the Trout, they had moved due to the thermal pressures of earlier this Summer?

Still, the loss of WW species is no better. I highly suspect that the "Bluegills" were actually more likely Redbreast Sunfish, a native species to the watershed.

You hear about natural algae blooms coupled with low warm water causing low DO levels, and possibly having this effect. Probably a possibility that needs to be ruled out. Sounds like the PFBC hinted at that as a possibility too.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

I have no first hand knowledge of the situation, but in general with pollution events it is easy to forget the burden of proof is on the investigator. Just in the Facebook posts floating around there is a lot of conflicting information, ie was the spill on Aug 23/24 or was it later in the week. Were there 10-20 dead fish or 100s of dead fish? Is water quality vastly different upstream of the accused discharged point, etc? In pollution cases even at low flows, if the needed water samples can't be collected in a relatively quick manner, it can be almost impossible to conclusively identify the exact pollutant responsible for the kill and its source that would hold up in court. In the world of social media, word can travel fast with little to know substantive supporting evidence (not saying this is the case with the discussed situation). I think the ultimate takeaway is that if you observe a pollution event that is causing a fish kill you need to call the PFBC pollution hotline and the PA DEP immediately as well as your local WCO if you have their contact information. Take pictures, and if possible try to identify the source of the contaminant. In cases of chemical or industrial spills it is important to remember that the pollutant could be harmful to human health as well, so do not go in the water without the appropriate safety gear.