9/5/2024

MORGANTOWN – Lower Deckers Creek appears to be coming back to life. And it appears to be because the Richard Mine acid mine drainage treatment plant is pouring in clean water each day instead of tons of AMD.

A reader told The Dominion Post this week that he’d seen some small fish in the creek near Marilla Park. That led us to contact the Division of Natural Resources and Friends of Deckers Creek to see if the fish are beginning to return.

DNR’s answer was a bit roundabout, but it agreed that seeing fish there makes sense.

“During our fish kill assessment we did observe live fish throughout the kill zone, so it was not a complete kill,” DNR said. “In addition to the Deckers Creek resident fish that survived, fish from the Monongahela River served as a seed source to replace those killed. We are not aware of any other fish kills since last year that would have impacted Deckers Creek.”

The mine had been the single largest source of acid mine drainage into the creek: 200 gallons per minute. Each year, that contaminated flow put into the creek 730,500 pounds of acidity, 140,000 pounds of iron, 59,000 pounds of aluminum and 3,200 pounds of manganese.

The drainage killed aquatic life in the creek’s lower six miles and the metals turned it red-orange all the way through Morgantown to its mouth at the Monongahela River. The aluminum left white deposits that can be seen year-round at the discharge site and along the creek’s edge during low flows.

The new AMD treatment plant began operation in mid-April. During a tour a few days after the startup, Jonathan Knight, with the state Department of Environmental Protection Office of Abandoned Mine Lands, said, “This pretty much will help restore the lower end of the watershed.”

The plant culminated 30 years of work by FODC and Morgantown residents, along with state and federal agency officials, to obtain the funding to get it built.

FODC Executive Director Brian Hurley said they aren’t doing fish surveys themselves at this time; they rely on surveys done by DNR and WVU.

But, “We’ve had quite a few reports of fish returning the lower section of Deckers Creek after the treatment system was online.”

Learning about The Dominion Post’s inquiries to DNR, he said, “That’s a really exciting update. Also not unexpected, but it’s still wonderful to see. That’s the whole reason why FODC does what it does.”

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