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Walking the Wissahickon in This Issue: Article Contributed by Mike Edelman ~ Photos by Kevin Kelly

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Walking the Wissahickon in This Issue: Article Contributed by Mike Edelman ~ Photos by Kevin Kelly American Institute of Professional Geologists Pennsylvania Section www.aipg.org June 2019 Walking the Wissahickon In This Issue: Article contributed by Mike Edelman ~ Photos by Kevin Kelly Summary of PA AIPG’s The Pennsylvania Section of AIPG arranged a walking tour of a portion of Wissahickon Park Field Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia on May 18, 2019. The tour was Trip – pgs. 1-2 led by Temple University professor Dr. Natalie Flynn, who was assisted by Brownfields and PA DEP other faculty and staff from Temple. Approximately 40 people attended News Updates – pgs. 2-3 the tour – see group photo below. In Rememberance – The park is an oasis of quiet, just off of some of the busiest streets in Kevin Frysinger – pg. 3 Philadelphia. The land for the park was purchased in 1868 and demolition Broad Top Coalfield of mills and taverns within the boundaries occurred during the 1920s. The Study – pgs. 4-6 tour started at Valley Green Inn, the only remaining example of the types Summary of 2nd Private of taverns that were present at one time. Well Conference National Stakeholder Meeting – Not only is the park a treasure for city people seeking refuge in the park pg. 7 setting, it is a geological treasure as well. The geology consists of schist and gneiss of the Wissahickon Formation. According to information Your Help Needed, other PA geo societies etc. – provided during the trip, the geologic history of the Wissahickon Formation pg. 8 began around 1.1 billion years ago, when the supercontinent Rodinia broke apart to form the Iapetus Ocean, which covered the area during the Cambrian Period. The basement rock of Rodina consisted of gneiss. The Iapetus ocean closed during the Taconic Orogeny of the Ordovician Period. Sediments associated with the Iapetus Ocean are believed to have been formed into siltstones and mudstones, which were metamorphosed into the schist that we see today during two subsequent orogenic events known as the Acadian and Alleghanian orogenies. For those of us who grew up in Philadelphia – even though Allegheny is how we spell the street - Alleghanian is how we spell the orogeny. Hence, the mixture of schist and gneiss, as well as other metamorphic rocks (amphibolite and serpentinite, for example), are the result of the Contact Us: three mountain-building (or orogenic) events. The mineralogy of the Wissahickon Formation Dennis Pennington, is incredible as you walk through the transition President from isograd to isograd, with garnets being a [email protected] favorite indicator mineral for temperature and pressure conditions. Michael Edelman, Vice-President So, where is the huge mountain range that once existed throughout North [email protected] America? The simple answer is time and weather, resulting in eroding the Joe Kraycik, Secretary mountains down to the very core, leaving the Wissahickon Valley in place [email protected] of the mountains. The tour was fantastic and the survey response provided by attendees was very favorable. Kevin Kelly, Treasurer [email protected] th Cliff Dodge Plan now for AIPG’s 56 National Meeting in Screening Chair Burlington, Vermont [email protected] http://www.aipg.org/2019Conference Brownfields and PA DEP News Updates: Information compiled by Joe Kraycik EPA Announces 2019 Brownfields Grant Winners PA AIPG Section Newsletter On June 5, 2019, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator June 2019 Andrew Wheeler, joined by the White House Executive Director for the Opportunity and Revitalization Council Scott Turner, announced that 149 Page 2 communities were selected to receive 151 grant awards totaling $64,623,553 in EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Programs. Administrator Wheeler made the announcement in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The grant funds are intended to aid under-served and economically disadvantaged communities in Opportunity Zones and other parts of the country in assessing and cleaning up abandoned or under-used industrial and commercial properties. Forty percent of the communities selected for funding will be receiving assistance for the first time. Dauphin County was awarded $300,000 in grant funding. Region 3 fared particularly well during this year’s competition with 24 communities receiving a grant award. Nearly half of the 2019 Region 3 grants “One of the most were awarded to communities that have not previously received EPA Brownfields assistance. This year, the regional success rate for awarded proposals was 77% important things about (24 out of 31 proposals), which is an increase from last year’s 68% and well the geology on the above the national average of 35%. Grant awards to Region 3 states included: moon is your descriptions of what Pennsylvania - $3.9 million to 9 communities you see, comparing Virginia - $3.3 million to 7 communities them to things that West Virginia - $2.4 million to 7 communities you've seen on Earth so Delaware - $300,000 to Wilmington that the geologists and Additional information regarding the 2019 EPA Brownfields grant program and the scientists on the recipients is available at: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-announces- ground would know selection-149-communities-receive-646-million-funding-brownfields. what you're talking about; and then take pictures of them.” Remembering Kevin Frysinger ~Gene Cernan (1934- It is with great sadness that we share the news that PA Section member Kevin 2017) – Naval aviator & Frysinger passed away unexpectedly on Friday February 8, 2019. Kevin was a fighter pilot, Astronaut longtime employee of Environmental Standards in Valley Forge, and was involved in many complex on Apollo missions 10 & and highly technical projects. His specialty was 17, and last man to groundwater fate and transport, and he managed walk on the moon. the firm’s modeling and graphics programs. Kevin was an active member of AIPG and especially looked forward to attending the field trips offered each year at the annual conference. The Grand Canyon and Glen Canyon Dam field trips during the 2014 conference were among his favorites. Kevin also enjoyed traveling - typically planning one big trip every year. In November 2018, he made a trip to Israel and Jordan. Kevin had a goal of visiting every U.S. state capital and he was very close to achieving that goal. Kevin was born on June 12, 1971, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Roy Donald Frysinger and the late Doris J. (Fluke) Frysinger. Kevin is PA AIPG Section Newsletter June 2019 survived by his father, Roy, of Palmyra; a brother, Todd M. Frysinger, of Pittsburgh; a nephew, Quinn M. Frysinger, of Pittsburgh; as well as extended Page 3 family and many caring friends. We miss our friend and colleague. Rest in peace, Kevin. Geological Survey Initiates New Study of Broad Top Coalfield, contributed by Clifford H. Dodge, Pennsylvania Geological Survey Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Broad Top coalfield of Bedford, Fulton, and Huntingdon Counties, south-central Pennsylvania (Figure 1), has been of considerable interest to geologists and mining companies alike, owing to its complex stratigraphy (e.g., coal correlations and discontinuities) and structure (e.g., steeply dipping beds, small-scale folding, and faulting), and because of its high- quality metallurgical- grade bituminous coal. The isolated Broad Top field is located about 25 miles east of the eastern edge of the Main Bituminous coalfield of western Pennsylvania and covers an area of about 75 square miles. Figure 1 It lies in the center of a wide, deep structural basin (Broad Top synclinorium) that is surrounded on all sides by intensely folded, steeply dipping rocks of the Ridge and Valley Physiographic Province. Within the Broad Top are many secondary anticlines and synclines that trend roughly N30oE. Dips are often as high as 35 degrees but may be much steeper in places toward the western terminus of the field where rocks are more intensely deformed. The Broad Top field has been extensively mined in the past in both underground and surface coal operations. Some surface mining still occurs today. Several years ago, the Bureau of District Mining Operations (BDMO), Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP), asked the Pennsylvania Geological Survey (PAGS), Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (PADCNR), to consider undertaking a comprehensive new geologic study of the Broad Top coalfield in order to provide sound science and assist the PADEP in its analysis and decision- making of future coal mine-permit and mine-reclamation activities for the region. Former mining practices had led to environmental degradation, largely as a result of acid mine drainage, and the impact of new mining or remining on water quality is difficult to determine at present, owing in large PA AIPG Section Newsletter part to the lack of information on the detailed stratigraphy, structural June 2019 geology, and mining history of the coalfield. Recognizing the value and Page 4 importance of such a study both for the PADEP and the coal industry (i.e., by providing the latter with information that aids in coal exploration, mine permitting, and mine development), the PAGS strongly endorsed the request. No modern-day, detailed geologic investigations and mapping of the Broad Top field have ever been undertaken—indeed, the Broad Top is probably the least studied bituminous coalfield in Pennsylvania. The most recent comprehensive study of the coalfield was published by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey in 1913 (Gardner, 1913), which covered the known coal stratigraphy and mining. Since that time, the coalfield has been much more extensively developed by numerous operators, rendering Gardner’s (1913) work as woefully inadequate and out of date. The growth of mining resulted in the generation of much additional geologic information about the field through the surveying and mapping of many underground and surface operations (mine maps) and by considerable exploratory drilling of coal lands.
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