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June 2, 2004
Herald-Standard

Officials inspect Redstone pollution

State environmental officials got a first-hand look Tuesday at the pollution that local residents say has rendered Redstone Creek useless for many recreational purposes.

John Piwowar and board members of the Greater Redstone Clearwater Initiative (GRCI) played host to officials on two levels of government on a hay wagon tour to view the creek.

The creek has turned orange from abandoned mine drainage that has made the stream inhabitable.

"Nothing can live in the streams," GRCI board member Jim Tobal said.  "People have take this for granted.  That's the way it is."

Local watershed and state Department of Environmental Protection officials, two of the three North Union Township supervisors and GRCI board members traversed a path to a site where 4,500 to 6,000 gallons of abandoned mine drainage rushed over an embankment into the grayish depths of Redstone Creek, creating a spreading stain of rust-colored orange as the force of water hit below.

The waterfall of mine drainage is a tributary into Redstone Creek that heads from the direction of Route 51.

GRCI President John Piwowar deemed the creek uninhabitable and unusable for any type of recreation.  His point was reinforced by the smell of rotten eggs, said to be sulfur coming from the waters below.

But, to Piwowar's surprise, he witnessed a school of carp swimming underneath the foilage-covered embankment on which he stood.

But even the carp know their boundaries, Piwowar said, pointing to the fish and noting they kept to an area of the stream where the drainage did not directly fall.

The drainage, as it passed in the stream, painted the creek's embankments, rock ledges and shorelines with a rusty orange.  Each leaf on the tail end of twigs, bent at the stalk and dangling in the water, were colored that same rusty orange when the leaves used to be green.

Piwowar said the mine drainage has flowed into Redstone Creek from a network of mines since 1965.

Recently, with the deluge of storm water that has pounded the area, mine pools have risen, causing drainage to flow heavily at a few locations, he added.

Terry Schmidt of Skelly and Loy, an engineering firm that GRCI hired to identify the creek's trouble areas and report on possible treatment methods, said that for three years before the recent flood of storms, the area was under drought-like conditions.  Over the last year, the mine pools have risen, releasing an influx of mine drainage, Schmidt said.

Concerning another problem area within the watershed, the GRCI recently received a grant for design and permitting to fix the discharges into the streams of Rankin Run through West Leisenring and Bute Run through Bitner, all located within the Redstone Creek watershed.

"Bute Run was not orange a year ago," Piwowar said after the tour.  Now, he said, since the mine pool elevated, the stream runs a rusty orange.  "That's something new and something we'll have to deal with."

The GRCI is reviewing the draft of a Skelly and Loy study that addresses a number of concerns, including abandoned mine drainage, illegal dumping, sewage issues, residential and urban development, agricultural effects, dirt and gravel road effects and drinking water sources.  The final report is expected sometime this summer, and the study will serve as a roadmap to guide GRCI and others to help restore the watershed.

Piwowar said the trip with the local and state officials was part of one of the group's goals: to educate and make the public aware of the issues.

"A lot of people have given up on Redstone Creek.  They think it's a sewer," Piwowar said, standing on the plaza of a Route 51 ice cream shop after the tour was cut short by rain.

"If I had to state a vision, mine would be to come down here and enjoy an ice cream while I'm fishing down there," he added, motioning to the part of Redstone Creek that could be seen flowing alongside the business' parking lot.  "Now all I see is a few carp."