October 31, 2004
Tribune-Review
Seniors testing the waters for pollution
Tribune-Review
The group monitoring pollution in the Redstone Creek Watershed hopes to enlist some senior expertise to supplement its engineering consultants.
The Greater Redstone Clearwater Initiative, in conjunction with the Southwest Pennsylvania Area Agency on Aging, is recruiting more volunteers for the Mon River Pennsylvania Senior Environmental Corps.
The Mon River volunteer group is part of a national movement called the Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement, or EASI for short.
A chapter has been monitoring tributaries of the Monongahela River in Washington County for four years. There is also a group monitoring Whitely Creek in Greene County.
The grassroots Greater Redstone Clearwater Initiative was also founded in Fayette County four years ago to clean up the watershed of Redstone Creek, Little Redstone Creek and Downers Run, which has been degraded by decades of abandoned mine drainage and other pollution.
The nonprofit group, made up of a cross-section of environmental professionals, local officials and those who live along the watershed, has sampled the polluted waters with periodic tests. John Piwowar, a local farmer, is chairman.
It was awarded a $66,000 grant from the state's Growing Greener program to conduct a three-year study of the watershed, hiring Harrisburg-based Skelly and Loy Engineering and Environmental Associates as consultants.
The data the seniors collect will build upon that base.
The Clearwater Initiative also has the services of full-time AmeriCorps worker Brian Chalfant for a year and one of Chalfant's missions has been to develop volunteer initiatives.
"A major goal is public education and awareness," he said.
The senior volunteers in Washington County are divided into two teams that have concentrated on the Pigeon and Maple creek tributaries to the Monongahela River. Although they are based in the Mon Valley, half of the chapter's members are from the Perryopolis area, according to Roy Giovannelli, the leader of the "A-Team."
Giovannelli signed up for the program after he retired from Westinghouse because he was concerned about the quality of area waterways.
"I'm a fisherman," he said.
He also said that, like most senior citizens, he wanted to give something back.
Giovannelli said the teams follow the procedures laid out by EASI.
He said they have tested the quality of water once every month for a long period time to develop a baseline. In addition, they monitor macro-invertebrate life in the streams.
Working with the Pennsylvania Home Guard, the volunteers also keep an eye out for suspicious activity. "We can't say we've seen anything yet," Grenfell said.
Chalfant said the experienced senior volunteers from the Washington and Greene county groups would train the new Redstone Creek corps. He estimated it will take until late spring to organize and train the new group.
In the meantime, Chalfant is organizing more volunteers, including a group from California University of Pennsylvania in a stream cleanup
Chalfant said he plans to take a chainsaw and "cut a path" through the dead trees and dense underbrush leading to the Philip's Mine discharge in South Union Township to make it easier to monitor and clean up the area.
The EASI program recruits volunteers age 55 and up. "Some are as old as their mid 70s," Giovannelli said.
But, with all the other groups the seniors work with, the initiative is an inter-generational affair. Giovannelli sites a recent project with his team did with Bentleyville High School students.
Both Giovanneli and Grenfell said the seniors are critical for monitoring the state's waterways, pointing out that there are not enough environmental officials to do the job.
Seniors interested in volunteering for the program can call Chris Homer, Fayette County Area Agency on Aging director, at 724- 430-4603; or Chalfant at 724-984-7758.
