November 21, 1999
Tribune-Review
Group organizing to combat high sewage levels in Redstone Creek
By Jerry Storey
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
The emerging Redstone Creek Watershed Association presented the results of its "snapshot" sampling of the watershed at a meeting last week and it wasn't a pretty picture.
Chris Beam, a hydro-geologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Abandoned Mines, presented a study that showed some mine drainage in the creek with a far more serious problem of sewage pollution.
Redstone Creek and its drainage area covers all or parts of the townships of Brownsville, Dunbar, Franklin, Jefferson, Menallen, North Union, Redstone, South Union and Washington, as well as Uniontown.
The watershed group, made up of state and local officials, environmentalists and residents, is in the process of forming an association.
The study was based on water samples taken on Aug. 26 at multiple locations along Redstone Creek and its tributaries.
Among the pollutants measured was fecal coliform, a bacteria associated with human and animal waste.
While the state mandates the bacteria colonies not exceed 200 per 100 milliliters of water during summer months (versus an allowable 2,000 units in the winter), some portions of Redstone Creek had counts as high as 61,000.
The DEP limit is set low during the summer to protect swimmers.
Franklin Township Supervisor George Bozek noted the spike in the count from 11,000 to 61,000 between Oliver (near where the Uniontown sewage plant is located) to Phillips indicates a problem with the plant's discharge.
"I really don't believe there is a great problem with the Uniontown sewage plant," insisted Terry Mattis, a DEP sewage planning specialist based in Uniontown.
Mattis pointed out that much of the pollution in the watershed may be caused by poor maintenance of septic systems. He and other environmental officials at the meeting emphasized that communities without sewers were a big part of the problem.
Counts on a Redstone Creek tributary designated by the group as Keister Hollow, near the community of Little Peanut, soared at one test point to 200,000. A sampling of a tributary to the separate Little Redstone Creek, near Fayette City, also came out at 200,000.
Mark Killar, regional coordinator of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, noted that there was a raw sewage discharge near the Keister Hollow site.
But the fecal coliform count far exceeded state limits all along the "entire main stem" of the watershed, except near the mouth at the Monongahela River where it drops to an acceptable 190.
"There is definitely a major sewage problem in Redstone Creek," Killar said.
He said "the water didn't look right" when he collected samples, but he was nonetheless surprised by how high the numbers were.
The findings on mine drainage pollution in the watershed are a little better. A major abandoned mine discharge at Phillips does pollute the creek with iron pyrite. However, environmental officials at the meeting expressed confidence the discharge is manageable, largely because it is an alkaline rather than acidic base.
"Acid drainage is infinitely more difficult to treat," Beam said.
Beam pointed to a project at Monastery Run near Latrobe, Westmoreland County, that filters the flow through settling ponds and wetlands as a possible model for a treatment at Phillips.
Killar said the amount of acreage needed for the treatment could be cut down through such innovative methods as using an aerator that helps pyrite to fall out of the flow. He said the group might even be able to recover and sell iron oxides as a product to help with expenses.
Beam also noted that a decrease in the flow between Oliver and Philips may indicate that water is draining into the abandoned mine. He said that there may be a way to remove "good flow" from the discharge, possibly by grouting portions of the creek bed.
Killar and Rita Coleman, watershed coordinator for the DEP's Pittsburgh office, are helping to organize the local watershed association. Once it is incorporated, the association can start applying for grants to deal with the pollution.
Nevin Ulrey of the federal Penns Corner Resource Conservation Development Council, offered his agency's help. He noted that Penns Corner, based in Greensburg, was already working with a number of small communities on sewage problems.
Stacy Cromer, who works for the West Virginia-based Canaan Valley Institute, also offered her organization's help.
The local group formed a steering committee and will hold its next meeting Dec. 7.
