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The Dunkard Creek Tragedy Need
Never Happen Again
Comments
Needed to Protect our Streams and Creeks
Dear
Chris,
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
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