Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY
Reclaiming Abandoned Mine Lands Improves Bear Run
Waterbody Improved
Discharges from abandoned surface and deep mines caused
high metal concentrations and acidity in Pennsylvania's Bear
Run watershed. This prompted the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
(PADEP) to add numerous segments of the South Branch and main stem of Bear Run to the
state's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters (between 1996 and
2004) for failing to attain their cold-water fishes designated uses. To restore these segments
in the Bear Run watershed, project partners reclaimed and treated abandoned mine lands
(AML) to address pollutant loadings. Those efforts have resulted in water quality improvement
downstream of the reclamation sites, in both the South Branch and main stem of Bear Run.
Problem
The Bear Run watershed is in Clearfield, Indiana and
Jefferson counties, Pennsylvania, in the headwaters
of the West Branch Susquehanna River (Figure 1).
Land use is composed of approximately 79 percent
forest cover, 15 percent agriculture and grassland,
and 6 percent abandoned coal mines and quarries.
Soils are deep and well drained. Coal mining first
began in the area in the late 1800s and continues
through the present day; large areas within the
watershed are disturbed by deep and strip mining
operations.
The mining operations have negatively affected
water quality in the Bear Run watershed. As
rainwater and snowmelt flow through surface mines
and spoil piles (excavated soils that were removed
during mining), they become laden with metals and
acidity, which are transported to receiving streams
as runoff. Most of this runoff percolates down
through the depressions left by the abandoned
surface mines and is then transported to subter-
ranean deep mine pools (ground water that has
accumulated in an underground mine after mining
operations have ended) via subsurface flow. The
runoff leaches additional acidity and metals as it
passes through underlying rock layers and deep
mine pools, thereby significantly compounding the
toxicity and volume of the abandoned mine drain-
age (AMD) discharges associated with the legacy
deep mine pools.
Water quality data showed that AMD was causing
metal and pH impairments in multiple segments
along the South Branch and main stem of Bear
Run, preventing these segments from supporting
Figure 1. The Bear Run watershed is in western Pennsylvania.
their cold-water fishes designated use. As a result,
PADEP added them to the state's CWA 303(d) list
of impaired waters between 1996 and 2004. Water
quality standards require that the waterbodies must
remain at a pH between 6 and 9 and include iron
concentrations of less than 1.5 milligrams per liter
(mg/L), manganese concentrations of less than 1
mg/L and aluminum concentrations of less than 0.75
mg/L.
In 2007 PADEP developed a total maximum daily
load (TMDL) for Bear Run. The TMDL set limits for
the metals (aluminum, iron and manganese) and
acidity loads systematically along water quality
sampling stations along Bear Run. These limits,
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6.00
i* 0.00
•pH
•Fe
•Mn
-Al
— — Linear (pH)
1.00 -Linear(Fe)
— Linear (Mn)
— — Linear (Al)
Figure 2. Data show improving trends (dotted lines) in pH
(left axis) and metal concentrations (right axis).
60
/in
4U
7fl
o
51
1
1
11 ii ml
2008 2009 2010
• # Species •
Jt J
J ll
2011 2012
#Fish
Figure 3. The number of fish and variety of fish
species have improved overtime in Bear Run.
which differ per station based on the site-specific
existing pollutant loads, serve as goals for reme-
diation, specifically to meet water quality criteria
99 percent of the time.
Project Highlights
Since 2007 eight AMD construction phases have
been completed or are nearing completion (see
Figure 1). The waste coal piles in the South Branch
Bear Run subwatershed, a source of high metals
and acidity leachate, were removed and treated by
2013 through a combination of re-mining, grading,
and amending and revegetating bare soils. The
AMD discharges have been treated using passive
and active treatment systems, including aerobic
staggered pond/wetland systems, manual flush oxic
limestone drains, Swedish bucket lime silo dosers
and limestone channels.
A ninth construction phase might be initi-
ated through an agreement/partnership with the
Pennsylvania Game Commission and P&N Coal
Company, through an expansion of their surface
mine in State Game Lands 164 in the Bear Run
watershed. If progress continues, the ninth phase
will be a coal refuse reclamation project on Keal
Run, a tributary to Bear Run.
Results
The restoration efforts described above have
significantly improved water quality, as shown in
measurements of pH and metals at the mouth of
Bear Run (station 1.8) following restoration activities
(Figure 2).
Fish surveys also show an increase in the num-
bers of fish species and individuals (Figure 3).
Before treatment, the Susquehanna River Basin
Commission (SRBC) surveyed fish at Bear Run sta-
tion 1.8 and found only one species, the pollution-
tolerant creek chub. In the September 2012 survey,
SRBC collected a total of 51 individuals represent-
ing nine species, including wild brown trout. PADEP
anticipates this improvement will continue slowly
as fish move into this section via the West Branch
Susquehanna River. This recolonization should
quicken as additional restoration activities are
completed.
Partners and Funding
Partners that supported the restoration effort in
Bear Run included PADEP, the U.S. Department
of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining (OSM),
the Pennsylvania Game Commission, SRBC, the
Indiana County Conservation District, and the
Evergreen Conservancy. PADEP provided $273,000
in grant funds through the Growing Greener Grant
and $1.424 million through the Growing Greener
Watershed Renaissance Initiative Grant. OSM
provided $130,000 in grant funds through the
Watershed Cooperative Agreement.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission supported the
restoration by providing land, while SRBC provided
project oversight, monitoring and stream assess-
ments. Lastly, the Indiana County Conservation
District and Evergreen Conservancy supported
project implementation as grantees of the afore-
mentioned funds.
UJ
(9
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-15-001S
March 2015
For additional information contact:
Scott N. Heidel
Water Program Specialist
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
717-772-5647 • scheidel@pa.gov
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