Pennsylvania DEP to EPA:

Monongahela River is impaired

Pittsburgh Business Times - by Anya Litvak

The DEP signaled the move earlier this month when it informed the Allegheny Conference on Community Development that it would be seeking the impairment status because of high total dissolved solids and sulfates in the river.

Impairment is a label given to parts of streams or lakes that either aren’t attaining water quality standards or won’t be doing so in the future without changes. The highest category of impairment warrants the DEP to study the area’s discharge sources and come up with a total maximum discharge limit, or TMDL, to improve water quality.

A TMDL plan involves surveying the sources that discharge into the impaired water and adjusting their discharge permits to achieve the desired water content, a move that could mean new restrictions for businesses. The DEP completed 110 such plans in 2008 and 2009.

Parts of streams and lakes can be considered impaired for several uses, including aquatic life, recreation, water supply and fish consumption.

The DEP found that:

• More than 10,000 miles of streams have been deemed impaired as a result of the statewide assessment over the past two years.
• Pennsylvania has 5,546 miles of waters impaired as a result of abandoned mine drainage, another 5,380 miles impaired by agriculture and 2,302 miles by urban runoff/storm sewers.
• The presence of metals in streams account for 5,060 of impaired miles, while siltation, the largest cause of impairment, affects 8,274 miles. Total dissolved solids and chlorides account for 198 miles of impaired stream miles.
• A survey of Pennsylvania lakes revealed that more than 40,000 acres were impaired for fish consumption as a result of high mercury counts.
• About 68 miles of the Monogahela River were added to the list of stream miles impaired for potable water supply. The sources listed were abandoned mine drainage, industrial point sources and subsurface mining, with the polluting element identified as “other inorganics.”
• Dunkard Creek had about 35 miles categorized as impaired for aquatic life because of salinity, TDS, chlorides, exotic species and osmotic pressure associated with subsurface mining.
• Anywhere from a handful to more than a dozen miles of the following creeks were newly listed as impaired for either aquatic life or recreation because of high pathogen levels in the water: Jacks Run, Chartiers Creek, Sewickley Creek, Raccoon Creek, Connoquenessing Creek, Slippery Rock Creek on the Mon River, and Crooked Creek and Dunlap Creek on the Allegheny River.
• About 9 miles of the Allegheny River also got the designation for recreational use because of pathogens.
• The DEP added 3.2 miles of the Stoneycreek River to the impaired list because of salinity, total dissolved solids or chlorides associated with acid mine drainage.
• Siltation from road runoff impaired about 3 miles each of Montour Run and Pucketa Creek on the lower Allegheny River.

The complete list of waters designated as impaired and requiring a survey and plan to manage discharges is available on the DEP's website at streams and lakes.