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lent of Mine Drainage Improves Blacks Creek (Venango County)
Watprhnrk/ lmnrn\/prl Metals in discharges from abandoned coal mines impaired Blacks
Creek, prompting the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection (PADEP) to add 5.6 miles of the mainstem stream and 13.0 miles of unnamed tributaries
to the state's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 1996 and 2004,
respectively. In response, project partners installed three passive treatment systems at a cost of
nearly $1 million to address the impacts of the mine drainage discharges entering the stream. Water
quality and aquatic habitat have been improving since project work began, and more systems are
planned in the future in hopes of continuing this trend.
Problem
key vi lie
BLACKS CREEK
WATERSHED
• TREATMENT SYSTEMS
	 NHD STREAMS
I I BLACKS CREEK WATERSHED
Western Pennsylvania's Blacks Creek watershed drains
approximately 9 square miles in Butler and Venango
counties and is a major headwaters tributary and
subwatershed of Slippery Rock Creek in the Ohio River
watershed (Figure 1). This watershed is predominantly
forested but has experienced significant Impairments
from abandoned mine drainage (AMD) discharges
from abandoned minesor oil wells dating back to
the 1800s. Nonpolnt source runoff from these AMD
discharges delivers high metals loads to Blacks Creek.
Due to the influence of layers of limestone underlying
the area, most of Blacks Creek and its tributaries have
an acceptable pH and are net-alkaline.
A stream survey conducted by PADEP indicated that
Blacks Creek was a degraded aquatic ecosystem with
depressed aquatic life due to AMD impacts. As a result,
PADEP included 5.6 stream miles of the main stem on
the state's CWA section 303(d) list of impaired waters
in 1996 for not meeting the aquatic life designated
use due to elevated levels of metals delivered through
AMD. An additional 13 stream miles of Blacks Creek
tributaries were added to the impaired waters list in
2004.
In 2005 PADEP developed a total maximum daily load
(TMDL) to serve as a pollution diet for the Blacks Creek
watershed. The TMDL set limits for metals (aluminum,
iron and manganese) systematically along stations on
Blacks Creek. These limits, which differ per station
based on the site-specific existing pollutant loads,
served as goals for remediation.
Figure 1. Blacks Creek is in western Pennsylvania.
After development of the TMDL in 2005, Stream
Restoration Incorporated (SRI) received a CWA section
319 grant to assess the watershed. Using the assess-
ment data, project partners developed a watershed
implementation plan that was approved in 2007. This
plan was revised in 2017 to include treatment imple-
mented since 2005 and to reprioritize needs.
Story Highlights
Over 20 AMD discharges have been identified and
sampled within the Black Creek watershed; 15 priority
areas are identified in the watershed implementation
plan. Passive treatment systems have been constructed
addressing three of these priorities, including an
upwelling of AMD from an abandoned oil well (site
BC16) and a heavily degraded tributary (Tributary #15)
that is downstream of a bond forfeiture and coal refuse
site known as the Mclntire mine site (Figures 2 and 3).

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Figure 2. A settling pond and wetland were installed
to address the BC16 AMD discharge site along an
unnamed tributary to Blacks Creek.
Results
Water sampling at selected in-stream points are
beginning to show improvements in water quality,
especially in iron removal. Project partners attribute
the improvements in water quality to the passive treat-
ment systems installed to address the AMD discharges
in this watershed. As project partners continued to
construct passive treatment systems in the watershed,
water quality has been steadily improving. Monitoring
has been occurring at various sites along the stream
since 2007. The results have been very promising
indicating that water quality may be good enough
soon to reassess the stream.
Table 1. Pre- and post-project monitoring data on
Blacks Creek.
Figure 3. An oxidation precipitation channel (OPC)
raises pH and removes iron from the water on a
tributary that is downstream of the Mclntire mine site.
SRI has built three systems that target the discharges
ranked the highest based on total metal loadings.
Monitoring data were collected at two TMDL points
to show improvement due to restoration efforts
(Table 1). The first TMDL sample point (BC2) point is
downstream of two of the three constructed systems.
Further downstream, TMDL point BC1 is located below
all three passive treatment systems. There are a few
more AMD discharges in the watershed that need
to be addressed. However, the work that has been
completed thus far has improved water quality and is
a significant step towards reestablishing aquatic life in
the Blacks Creek watershed.
Partners and Funding
The Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition, private land-
owners, SRI, BioMost, Beran Environmental, Quality
Aggregates, Butler County Conservation District,
Western Pennsylvania Coalition of Abandoned Mine
Reclamation, U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Foundation
for Pennsylvania Watersheds and PADEP partnered to
address the water quality problems in the Blacks Creek
watershed. SRI was awarded $19,415 in CWA section
319 funding to complete the watershed restoration
plan. Through 2017, the group has been awarded
$110,000 from Growing Greener and close to $871,986
from CWA section 319 to treat the discharges. Most
recently, they were awarded $49,667 to revise their
watershed implementation plan with updated data.
Pollutant
Sampling Years
2000
2012-2016 Average
Site BC1
Site BC2
Site BC1
Site BC2
PH
6.8-7.4
6.3-6.8
8
7.4
Iron
1.78
15.56
0.5
1.9
Aluminum (mg/L)
0.55
1.04
0.1
0.2
Manganese (mg/L)
3.18
6.87
0.6
1.3
Acidity (mg/L)
0
0
0
-75
Alkalinity (mg/L)
95.7
97.2
107
91
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©
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-20-001A
January 2020
For additional information contact:
Donna L. Wagner
Department of Environmental Protection,
Office of Water Resources Planning
717-772-5173 • donnawagne@pa.gov

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