June 6, 2004
Tribune-Review
Sudden pollution in Bute Run puzzles coalition
Tour shows group source of polltuion
Tribune-Review
The Greater Redstone Clearwater Initiative is a grassroots effort that is trying to clean up Fayette County watersheds degraded by decades of mine drainage and other pollution.
John Piwowar, chairman of the Clearwater Initiative, informed the group last week that its job has just gotten bigger. Bute Run, which had been running relatively clean, suddenly has turned acidic.
The pollution appears to continue for about two miles back from where Bute Run enters Redstone Creek, northeast toward the village of Bitner, in Franklin Township.
"A year ago if you looked at Bute Run, there wasn't any orange in it," Piwowar said. "Now it's as orange as Rankin Run."
Cleaning up Rankin Run has been one of the group's goals in its overall mission to clean up the entire Greater Redstone watershed.
To make matters worse, the sudden discharge in Bute Run is highly acidic, as compared to the more alkaline discharge in Rankin Run, which is easier to treat.
One explanation for the sudden discharge, according to the group's consultant, Terry Schmidt, of Skelly and Loy Environmental Engineers, may be recent heavy rains that followed several years of drought.
There is no way of knowing yet whether the high water stirred up pollution in the mine-drainage pool, fed by the flow of scores of abandoned mines in the area.
Bruce Golden, the regional coordinator for the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, said it is a likely explanation. But he said there could be other causes, such as a collapse in a mine void.
A local landowner brought the problem to the attention of the federal Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation when he noticed something was wrong with Bute Run.
Mark Killar, watershed specialist with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and a member of the Clearwater Initiative, also examined the discharge and said the federal agency seems to have a keen interest in it.
In the meantime, the Clearwater Initiative is forging ahead with its efforts to reclaim Fayette County waterways.
Schmidt last week delivered to the group a draft report assessing threats to water quality to the Redstone Creek, Little Redstone Creek and Downers Run watersheds. In addition to mine drainage, there long have been concerns about sewage discharge.
The final version of the report, funded by a $66,000 grant to the Clearwater Initiative from the state's Growing Greener program, could be ready by the end of the month.
