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12th Annual Symposium Monastery Run
Improvement Project
Tuesday,
November 9, 2004
 The System
Showdown
Over
75 people attended the 12 Annual Monastery Run Project Symposium on Tuesday,
November 9, 2004 at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. The symposium
was an old fashioned show down, watershed groups "showed-off" their
watershed and the things that they have accomplished.
Robert
Hedin presented the Sewickley
Creek Watershed Association and
all of the grants, recreation and clean ups they have completed over the
years. He discussed the problems and progress that the watershed had faced
and challenges he has faced to provide a commercial grade, competitive
iron oxide product.
Malcolm
Crittenden from the PA DEP and Wells Creek Watershed Association
showcased how the Wells Creek Watershed, established in 1999 to address
the deep mine discharges, and restore the
cold-water fishery. The WCWA has
secured three Growing Greener grants and constructed treatment facilities for
these discharges. In partnership
with the PA DEP, WCWA has prioritized the three mine discharges that degrade
Wells Creek and has constructed “bog ponds” to treat these discharges.
Jonathan
M. Dietz presented some of his
experiences in Anaerobic Vertical Flow Wetlands. Jon showed the audience
numerous results from different studies to provide the basis for acid loading
approach to determining the limestone layer detention time.
Richard
Shaffer & Jack Egley from the Scrubgrass GoGen Plant in Kennerdale PA,
presented the 160-acre Leechburg Fly Ash Remediation site located in North
Apollo, PA. The Scrubgrass
Generating Plant has removed approximately 1.6 million tons of bituminous waste
coal from the Leechburg site and used it as fuel to power the 87 MW facility to
generate electricity. During
the combustion process alkaline ash is produced, which the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection has approved for use in, active and
abandoned mine reclamation. Scrubgrass shipped this ash back to the Leechburg
site, where it neutralized other acid-bearing materials that could not be used
as fuel and supplemented the native soil to promote site re-vegetation.
The
removal of waste coal from the Leechburg site eliminated a source of acid mine
drainage, which posed a serious threat to water quality and public safety. When
this reclamation project commenced, the average pH level of the ground and
surface water at the site measured 1.7 - 2.0, one of the lowest in the country.
This created a highly acidic and inhospitable environment for plant and
animals. The average pH level of
the ground and surface water at the Leechburg has significantly improved to 4.0
- 6.5.
Dan
Helfrich, Project Engineer, PA DEP- BAMR, presented the Keystone State Park
AMD Treatment System being
constructed by PA DEP to treat the water from the Salem No. 2 Mine.
The facility utilizes a newer
type of treatment technology called a limestone upflow pond, a large open pond
with limestone. The discharge is piped into the bottom of the pond and up
through the limestone. A siphon then automatically feeds the discharge into a
settling pond and wetland to facilitate the metals in the discharge to drop out.
The
treated water will be discharged into McCune Run, a tributary to Loyalhanna
Creek. Staff from the park plan on placing an informational kiosk near the
treatment facility to educate park visitors about acid mine drainage and
drainage treatment.
Carole
Wright & Ben Wright have been completing the Loyalhanna
Creek Watershed
Assessment since 2002. With the help of the Western PA
Conservancy’s Watershed Assistance Center, numerous volunteers were
trained to assist with the watershed assessment. WPC and LWA has
completed the visual, biologic and chemical assessment and are in the
process of writing a comprehensive restoration plan that will identify and
prioritize restoration efforts. This presentation will include specific
measures taken at the beginning of the project that have worked to ensure that
all 2,500 miles of stream was evaluated for potential impacts and their effects
on the stream have been accurately noted and recorded.
An
update on Activated
Iron Sludge Sequencing Batch Reactor at Saxman Run
was provided by Daryle Fish & Jon Dietz. The Activated
Iron Sludge Sequencing Batch Reactor (AIS-SBR) has been full operational for
about a year treating AMD from the lower Saxman Discharge.
To date the reactor has gone through over 2,200 cycles and has treated
8.8 million gallons of AMD. Using
alkaline mine drainage, the reactor is capable of discharging effluent with a pH
hear 7, a total iron concentration below 5 mg/l and a Fe(II) concentration below
1 mg/l. The cost to operate the reactor is about $1.60 a day.
Two afternoon field trips were offered
to the Keystone
State Park Acid Mine Drainage Remediation Site and the Latrobe
Foundation Property Project.
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