Jim Sconyers jim_scon@yahoo.com 304.698.9628
Remember: Mother Nature bats last.
----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Chris Craig ccraig@laurellodge.com To: Regina Hendrix regina1936@verizon.net; Jim Sconyers jim_scon@yahoo.com; Paul Wilson pjgrunt@gmail.com Sent: Mon, May 17, 2010 1:20:43 PM Subject: FW: ALERT! Defend West Virginia's Waterways
National Audubon Society This was the first I’d heard of this, though I’m probably behind the times. Have we taken any action on it?
Chris Craig
________________________________
From:Audubon [mailto:audubonaction@audubon.org] Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 11:23 AM To: ccraig@laurellodge.com Subject: ALERT! Defend West Virginia 's Waterways
Trouble reading this e-mail? View it online.
The Dunkard Creek Tragedy Need Never Happen Again Comments Needed to Protect our Streams and Creeks Dear Chris, Fish and mussels were wiped out by the golden algae bloom. Send a letter to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and demand clean water protections. Photo courtesy of Deborah Fulton In September 2009, disaster struck West Virginia . That’s when golden algae (Prymnesium parvum) struck Dunkard Creek, a stream which meanders along the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border roughly 90 miles south of Pittsburgh . A massive fish kill and complete kill of mussels resulted. The loss of food and habitat is also affecting birds and other wildlife. This was the first case of golden algae in the mideastern U.S. The algae, typically a marine organism, produces a toxin that kills gill-breathing organisms. State agencies which investigated the fish kill are in agreement that high Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) discharged from Consol coal mines, created the brackish environment which allowed the algae to thrive in what had been a freshwater stream. Please send an email to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) today. Let them know you care about West Virginia 's creeks and streams, and the fish, birds and other wildlife that depend on them. Tell them allowing companies to pollute our streams is unacceptable. Since the Dunkard Creek event, golden algae has been discovered in Whitely Creek in PA and several other streams in WV. Twenty streams and rivers in WV have golden-algae-friendly high TDS levels and the algae may potentially be carried to other streams by human activity and by wildlife. Eradication of golden algae is not possible, as the organism can lie dormant until conditions are once again favorable for growth. The only known means of control is to improve water quality by limiting algae-friendly TDS levels. WVDEP recently announced that they are considering establishment of a long overdue TDS standard for streams in West Virginia and are soliciting public comment. Please contact WVDEP now and ask them to implement water pollution control standards that will protect all our streams, and the fish, birds, wildlife — and communities — that depend upon a healthy environment. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, in a series of extensions starting in 2002, allowed Consol to avoid compliance with in-stream limits on chloride levels required under the Clean Water Act — pollution that caused the disastrous collapse of Dunkard Creek. It could have been averted had the Clean Water Act standards been enforced.
________________________________
Do you know someone else who cares about protecting West Virginia 's waterways and the wildlife that depend on it? Help us to spread the word: Tell-a-friend! Trouble with the "Take Action" links in the message? Try cutting-and-pasting this link into your web browser: www.audubonaction.org/site/Advocacy?id=851
National Audubon Society Public Policy Program 1150 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 600 , Washington , DC 20036 (202) 861-2242 | audubonaction@audubon.org
Change your contact information | Unsubscribe