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February 26, 2001
Herald-Standard

Watershed group wants to increase membership, awareness and support

Two things are needed in the immediate future for the Greater Redstone Clearwater Initiative watershed group to be successful:  it needs more volunteers and it needs public awareness and support of its projects.

About 50 people attended a meeting of the watershed organization at Laurel Highlands High School the past week.  John Piwowar, chairman of the watershed organization, guaranteed that anyone who signed up to volunteer would be contacted and put to work.

Mark Killar, a board member for the watershed group, said water sampling done last year shows that the stream is doing remarkably well at cleaning itself up as it travels toward the Monongahela River at Brownsville.

"By the time you get down to Brownsville, the stream has cleaned itself up pretty nicely.  Most of the iron has settled out," Killar said.

The water quality was also good in the mountain areas of the watershed, but the center section has significant pollution problems, Killar said.  The watershed includes South Union, North Union, Georges, Menallen, Dunbar, Franklin, Redstone, Jefferson, Brownsville and Washington townships and Brownsville Borough in Fayette County and part of Rostraver Township in Westmoreland County.  According to Jason Harkom of Skelly and Loy, an environmental consulting and engineering firm, the Greater Redstone Watershed covers 123 square miles.

"We want to be proactive rather than reactive.  We aren't reacting to something that someone is doing or is going to do.  The damage to the watershed was done 100 years ago," Piwowar said.

Piwowar said the characteristc orange-red color of much of Redstone Creek comes from iron sediment from abandoned mine drainage.  One of the worst areas is the Phillips mine discharge near Route 51.

"The Phillips discharge is a doable discharge," said C.R. Greene of the state Department of Environmental Resources District Mining Office.

Greene said the watershed group needs to find out who owns the property around the discharge and whether the owners are willing to cooperate in the cleanup efforts.

"The iron from that discharge is turning the stream red for miles and miles and miles," Greene said.

Greene said a passive treatment system, utilizing a settlement pond and aquatic plants that help clean the water, could be used with the Phillips discharge.

"It's very, very important to get the people in your community behind you if you're going to get the grant money," Greene said.

Bob Hedin, who is working with a watershed project in Westmoreland County as well, said the Phillips discharge is producting about two million pounds of iron a year that could be recovered and sold to the pigment industry.  Hedin said the project on Sewickley Creek at Lowber shipped 160 tons of iron last year.

"Our next step is to make it profitable," Hedin said.

The goal is to have the iron reclamation project pay part of the cost of the watershed projects, Hedin said.

David Leone of the watershed group said other pollution in the stream comes from sewage discharges and farm run-off, as well as from garbage being dumped in the streambeds.  The watershed includes Little Redstone Creek and Downers Run, as well as Redstone Creek and several smaller tributaries of those bodies of water.

The watershed class at Laurel Highlands High School, taught by Kelly Kruper, cleaned garbage from a 300-yeard section of Redstone Creek last fall and will undertake another project this spring.

"They removed two tons of garbage, including 37 shopping carts in a 300-yard area.  There were living room rugs.  You have to wonder how does that stuff get in there?" Piwowar said.

"It was a visual example of what can be done with volunteer support.  The students were an inspiration to me."

Piwowar said the Greater Redstone Clearwater Initiative has landed two grants so far and has an application out for more funding.  Part of the money received so far has gone for water testing and other project expenses.  The group has also received funds for community outreach.

That money has gone to produce a brochure explaining the goals of the group and a computerized slide show that can be taken around to community groups.  Programs can be booked by contacting the group at P.O. Box 632, Uniontown, Pa., 15401.

Piwowar said a third grant is being sought for the group to remedy an abandoned mine drainage problem on Rankin Run.