A Publication of Rural Action UP THE CREEK THE MONDAY CREEK NEWSLETTER Monday Creek Restoration Project Volume 11 • Number 2 • Winter 2005-2006 Lost Run: Not lost anymore! by Mitch Farley, Project Field Officer, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Water impounded by a beaver dam The partners in the Monday Creek at Lost Run. Restoration Project (MCRP) are un- A concrete dam dertaking a large reclamation and water will be constructed quality improvement project in Lost to increase the size Run, a tributary that enters Monday of the pond, and a Creek on State Route 595 between steel slag leach bed New Straitsville and Carbon Hill. installed to The multiple project sites are located neutralize acid mind in Coal Township, Perry County and drainage. Photo by Ward Township, Hocking County. The Douglas Leed, drainage area encompasses 1919 acres ODNR and has a stream length of approxi- mately eight miles. There are 5 mapped, and perhaps many more unmapped underground present. Investigators in Lost Run eight separate features to address mine coal mines in the watershed. The last found over twenty acid seeps and more drainage pollution are estimated to mine closed in 1925. The underground than thirty locations where surface wa- cost $786,000.00 in construction mon- mines generate and discharge strongly ter is thought to enter the underground ies. The Wayne National Forest, the polluted acid mine drainage. Subse- mines. principal landowner in Lost Run, is quently, the remaining coal reserves The Jobs Hollow lime-dosing ma- currently planning other work in the were stripmined by multiple mining chine installed by the MCRP partners watershed. companies. This strip mining inter- in 2004 is presently treating the seven The ODMRM has completed rupted natural drainage patterns and miles of Monday Creek above Lost design of the first of two phases of has diverted fresh water into the under- Run. Selection of Lost Run as a proj- construction to be built. The work will ground mines, where it then becomes ect is logical, as it is the next large acid consist of constructing limestone leach polluted mine drainage. source downstream of Jobs Hollow. In beds and channels at five locations. A study by MCRP in 2002 showed 2004, partners applied for a Section These structures will neutralize acid that Lost Run discharges up to 3000 319(h) Nonpoint Source Pollution from mine seeps. The Wayne National pounds of acid per day into Monday grant from the Ohio Environmental Forest is completing the required envi- Creek. This is about 9% of the total Protection Agency. The Ohio Division ronmental assessment of the area and acid problem in the watershed. High of Mineral Resources Management work will be bid out in February 2006. levels of heavy metals, including iron, (ODMRM) provided match monies A second phase of construction is in aluminum and manganese are also for the grant. Construction of twenty- design at this time. It will include al- kaline leach beds, rock dams, channels and removing mine spoil that is block- IN THIS EDITION OF UP THE CREEK ing a small stream. Lost Run: Not lost anymore.........................1 Snake Hollow restoration ............................5 Lost Run has been now been found From the Coordinator's desk.......................2 VISTAs Tim Braun and Matt Miller .............6 and completion of the planned projects Monday Creek project updates..................3 Announcements/Events ...............................6 will go a long way insuring improved Jobs Hollow Doser .........................................4 Looking Back....................................................8 water quality in Monday Creek. Preventing AMD at its source .....................4 Mitch Farley can be reached at: [email protected] 2 Up The Creek Partners From the Athens, Hocking, and Perry Soil & Water Conservation Districts Coordinator’s Desk Athens, Hocking, and Perry County by Mike Steinmaus, Commissioners Hocking College: National Environmental Monday Creek Watershed Coordinator Training Cooperative Buckingham Coal Company Monday Creek Residents USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service ODNR Div. of Mineral Resources Management ODNR Division of Soil & Water Conservation ODNR Division of Wildlife Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Ohio University - Geography & Geology Dept. Ohio University - The Institute of Local Government Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD) Rural Action, Inc. US Army Corps of Engineers US EPA During the past year, Monday Creek Restoration Project has US Forest Service experienced successes that will affect the watershed for many US Geological Survey years. Among the accomplishments were: US Office of Surface Mining • Approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Editors: Matt Miller, Mike Steinmaus Page Design & type: Mary Lautzenheiser Works Review Board of the Monday Creek Watershed Photos: Colorado Geological Survey, Douglas Feasibility Report and Environmental Assessment Leed, Jack Shuttleworth, Mike Steinmaus • Completion of the Draft Monday Creek Watershed Contributors: Management Plan Mitch Farley • Completion of our third edition of an Acid Mine Dan Imhoff Drainage Abatement and Treatment (AMDAT) Plan Mark Kessinger Max Luehrs • Approval by the USEPA of the Monday Creek Total Matt Miller Maximum Daily Load Report Mildred Shuttleworth Mike Steinmaus • Holding our first three-day Summer Day Camp for Gary Willison area youth • Continuously treating 6.5 miles of the upper reaches of Monday Creek with alkalinity from a doser The Monday Creek Restoration Project is a collaborative venture dedicated to reclaiming The staff partners of Monday Creek continue to pursue the Monday Creek watershed. For more infor- the dream of a clean stream that will add recreational value mation contact: MCRP, PO Box 129, New Straitsville, OH 43766 to the area and stimulate the local economy. As always, we Phone: 740-394-2047 need your financial assistance through memberships and do- Rural Action, PO Box 157, Trimble, OH 45782 nations. We also like to see you join us for activities such as Phone: 740-767-4938 tree plantings the litter cleanups. We welcome you to visit us MCRP website: www.mondaycreek.org in our office. Listserv: [email protected] Email: [email protected]. I look forward to our meeting goals together in 2006. This publication was financed through a grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, under the provisions of Section 319(h) of the Clean Water Act. It is published bian- nually by Rural Action, our sponsoring agency (www.ruralaction.org). Printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper with soy inks. Winter 2005-2006 3 Jobs Hollow Doser by Dan Imhoff, Doser discharging Non-Point Source Pollution Specialist, its alkaline slurry of Ohio EPA water and quicklime (calcium oxide). In the past, coal was mined in the The doser has a Monday Creek watershed. Cities were capacity of 75 tons, built and fortunes were made. Waste and uses around a ton coal was left in heaps, killing the land, of quicklime each day. and deep mines were left to collect water and poison our streams for gen- erations to come. Today we are taking actions to reduce the poisonous effects of coal mining. Jobs Hollow, at the headwaters of alkaline material. of Monday Creek, is contaminated The bottom portion from both deep mine discharges and contains the feed- spoil piles on the surface. These are ing mechanism. A the primary sources of the acid killing small dam was built about eight miles of Monday Creek. It upstream with a col- was speculated that if enough alkalin- lection pipe running ity (which neutralizes the acid water) to the doser. The could be added in Jobs Hollow, those flow of water causes a eight miles of stream could once again tipping bucket to go have some fish, frogs, turtles and cray- back and forth feed- fish. Perhaps people would once again ing the alkaline ma- fish and play in the stream. terial into the flow of MCRP determined that a device water. No electricity to add alkaline material directly to the needed. This slurry stream might be the best approach. installed on Wayne National Forest flows directly to the stream where it MCRP found that dosers were operat- land in Jobs Hollow. From the outside, neutralizes the acid. ing successfully throughout the world the doser looks like a upright green cyl- Rebecca Black of MCRP worked but one had never been installed and inder about 10 feet round by 60 feet for about six months getting the doser operated in Ohio for abandoned mine high sitting next to the stream, with a to work correctly. She can now hap- treatment. pipe coming out of the side of the bank pily report that the acidity is mostly Grants were applied for, studies depositing white slurry into the stream. neutralized for those eight miles…. completed, and finally the doser was The bulk of the cylinder contains tons As long as the doser is operating. Monday Creek project updates On September 22, 2005, the Monday Creek Feasibility and federal funding for the Monday Creek project. Report was unanimously approved by the U.S. Army Corps Courtesy of Mark Kessinger, a Project Manager for the Corps of Engineers Civil Works Review Board in Washington, of Engineers in Huntington, West Virginia. Contact him at 866- D.C. On the same day, the United States Environmental 502-2570 (ext. 5083) or at [email protected]. Protection Agency (USEPA) approved the same study as a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report pursuant to A second doser is under construction at site of the Essex the Clean Water Act. Mine, located on Route 216 approximately 2 miles east of With the board’s approval, the Monday Creek Project New Straitsville. The new doser is expected to begin opera- is eligible for inclusion in the Chief of Engineers’ Report tion in April 2006, and will treat acid mine drainage on snow and the next Water Resources Development Act.