KINGWOOD — It may not be lions, tigers and bears, but according to Friends of the Cheat, it is better. River otters, fish and salamanders have been spotted again in the Cheat River.

These are all signs of a recovering Cheat River Watershed, but there is still a lot of work to do, the group reports.

“In 1994, when Friends of the Cheat formed, the Cheat River was one of the 95 most-endangered American rivers,” Friends of the Cheat Executive Director Amanda Pitzer said Tuesday. “Now we have fish from the headwaters, and otters have been spotted in Big Sandy again.

“I can also tell you what the Friends of the Cheat is not — we are not trout stockers and we are not raft guides,” Pitzer said. “We are the people who keep the river clean.”

Pitzer and the staff of Friends of the Cheat gave a “State of the Cheat River Watershed” presentation at Rosemary’s Thyme Mexican Restaurant in Kingwood. It was the second of three sessions about the progress on cleaning the watershed and where the group wants to focus in the future.

Pitzer said 87 percent of the funding received by Friends of the Cheat goes toward the restoration of the river and the streams feeding it. “Eight percent goes towards administration costs, and 5 percent towards fundraising,” Pitzer said.

Friends of the Cheat maintains 28 treatment sites through an agreement with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

“We have just signed an agreement to maintain those sites through March 2020,” Restoration Program Manager David Petry said. “Our primary task at these sites is sampling of acid mine drainage at state-owned water treatment facilities.”

Those 28 facilities include a combined total of 33 lime dosers, 12 sodium hydroxide tanks and 38 sample points.

“To date in 2017, we have used 560 tons of lime, 13,600 gallons of sodium hydroxide,” Monitoring Coordinator Ellie Bell said. “We have also taken 380 water samples and have driven 47,000 miles.”

A new pilot project that Friends of the Cheat began this year is monitoring bacteria levels at nine public river access sites between Parsons and Cheat Lake.

“We send those water samples to West Virginia University in a partnership with Dr. Dorothy Vesper,” Bell said. “And those water samples are analyzed for total coliform and E. coli bacteria.”

The Friends of the Cheat then uploads the sample results to the Swim Guide at www.theswimguide.org.

“Our preliminary results have shown generally low levels of bacteria throughout the study area,” Bell said. “The exceptions have been during warm months with low-water conditions.”

Pitzer said Friends of the Cheat has always been looking toward the future, and was able to purchase 20 miles of railroad corridors for rail trails in 2016 and 2017.

“The West Virginia Northern Rail Trail is one that is being developed by the Preston County Parks and Recreation Commission,” Pitzer said. “And the Cheat River Trail between Manheim and Allegheny Wood Products, that is just over nine miles.”

In addition to monitoring and advocating for clean water, Friends of the Cheat maintains four whitewater access points on the Cheat River and Big Sandy, Pitzer said. 

“But we still have a long way to go,” Pitzer added. “The DEP is constructing a new $8 million abandoned mine drainage treatment facility on W.Va. Route 26 to treat water from Muddy Creek.

“In addition to treating water from the T&T coal mine site, the facility will also treat water from Ruthbell No. 3 site and polluted waters from the Viking Coal, Rockville and Fickey Run sites,” Pitzer said. “This is a great opportunity to reconnect the Cheat and lower Muddy Creek with the healthy active trout fishery with Martin Creek.”

These are just a few things Friends of the Cheat is involved in to protect the Cheat River Watershed — from its headwaters near Snowshoe to its convergence with the Monongahela River near Point Marion, Pa.

The next “State of the Watershed” is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, at Crab Shack Carriba in Cheat Lake.