John Davidson has watched Raccoon Creek rebound over 30 years from an ironcolored industrial sewer to a clear, life-sustaining stream, but an ironic twist of nature is now threatening a rusty

Record precipitation over the past two years in southwestern Pennsylvania is furiously flushing through abandoned mine workings at the headwaters in Washington and Allegheny counties, spewing harmful levels of iron, aluminum, and manganese into the creek.

Iron is the biggest concern, and the creek is again "running red" from Washington County to its mouth at the Ohio River in Beaver County.

Environmentalists do not yet know the impact wrought by the heavy storms of 2003 and 2004.

They suspect long-abandoned mines are belching water at record levels, which can only mean increased levels of acid mine drainage. They say it shouldn't pose a danger to humans, but fear it will significantly harm aquatic insects and subsequently fish, which feed on them.

"This has been a major setback," said Davidson, a retired mine inspector with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and an active member of the Raccoon Creek Watershed Association. "I just hope it's not a 10-year trend or anything."

The Pittsburgh region has exceeded average precipitation over the past two years by a total of 22.73 inches, which translates into millions of additional gallons of water flowing into tributaries that make up the Raccoon Creek watershed.

Raccoon Creek begins in Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County, and flows north for about 46 miles through Allegheny and southern Beaver counties before joining the Ohio in Potter Township. Its watershed covers 184 square miles.

In Washington and Allegheny counties, precipitation seeps down through rock substrata and into a vast network of tunnels underlying the Burgettstown region, where men once excavated bituminous coal from the massive Pittsburgh coal seam.

Once described as "the most valuable single mineral deposit in the world," the Pittsburgh seam averages 5 feet to 8 feet thick, stretches across portions of four states and covers 5,729 square miles. Miners have been digging it for more than 200 years.

The tunnels are now underground rivers, containing millions of gallons of water. They burp and spew tainted water through more than 200 bore holes and seepages lining the hills and valleys surrounding the headwaters of Raccoon Creek.

Minerals such as iron, aluminum and manganese occur naturally in coal beds. As the water flushes out, it carries the acidic metals with it.

Mine reclamation and environmental cleanup efforts over the past 30 years have pretty much neutralized the acid problem in Raccoon Creek. Iron is now the big problem.

The metal, which oxidizes once it hits the air and causes streams to run an ugly reddish orange, settles on creek beds and smothers bottom-dwelling aquatic life.

In recent years, local environmental groups and government agencies have built several natural treatment facilities to filter water spewing from some of the worst iron polluters along the creek.

Davidson said he was finally seeing results. The water was clean enough to sustain life, and that brought anglers, boaters and swimmers back to the stream.

Nature is now threatening to undo all that, and the worst is yet to come.

The mines will continue discharging at higher than normal levels long after the onset of dry weather. Without water to dilute it, the metal concentration will rise dramatically.

Davidson said the creek will eventually flush itself and return to the way it was before the floods, but that could take as long as two years after the waters subside. Meanwhile, creek supporters can only sit back and wait.


Fifty-Year Effort
Efforts to clean up Raccoon Creek date back at least 50 years. The creek was a biological wasteland back in 1955, when local conservation and sportsmen's leagues joined forces to develop a cleanup plan.

The original activists, most of whom are now dead, realized the potential of the creek, which almost exclusively passes through rural farmlands and forest. In addition to recreational value, the creek possesses the best of western Pennsylvania's scenic qualities and can provide an economic boon to surrounding communities.

However, the key to any successful cleanup is money, and 50 years ago there was little to be had.

Gary Stokum, director of the Washington County Conservation District, said the most significant cleanup came as mining companies returned over the last 30 years to abandoned workings and stripped away coal that remained from old deep-mine operations. As the coal was removed, so were the minerals that poisoned Raccoon Creek. Biological studies of the creek have documented the improvements.

In 1989, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission found 15 fish species living in the creek, according to Gary Lorson, area fisheries manager of the commission's Southwest regional headquarters in Somerset. The study netted smallmouth bass, walleye, channel catfish, carp, sunfish and a slew of minnow species.

A 1998 study after an oil spill at the Independence Marsh in Independence Township found 20 species of fish living in Raccoon Creek near the marsh. In addition to the minnows and sport fish noted in the earlier report, the 1998 study found northern pike, rock bass and blue gill.

Prepared by the McLaren Hart firm in Pittsburgh, the study noted that the existence of darter minnows was a "strong indication" that water quality had improved. Darters are especially susceptible to water pollution.

In recent years, federal and state governments have set aside cash for the specific purpose of cleaning up abandoned mine drainage. Organizations such as the Raccoon Creek and Washington County Watershed Associations, the Independence Marsh Foundation and Stokum's Washington County Conservation District successfully applied for grants from Pennsylvania's Growing Greener program and the U.S. Office of Surface Mining.

The money was used to study the Raccoon Creek watershed, identify seven main polluters, 17 lesser ones and construct natural treatment facilities to neutralize them.

In 2000, the Fish and Boat Commission estimated that the remediation would translate into a $2.5 million annual payoff for communities of the Raccoon Creek watershed. The money, the commission said, would be spent by anglers.

To date, three treatment facilities have been built at an estimated cost of $700,000, and a fourth is currently in the design stage with construction set for 2006.

The facilities, known as "passive treatment facilities" generally consist of settling ponds and wetlands, which filter out water impurities.

Facilities have been built at the infamous Langeloth Borehole, a discharge from the old Langeloth Mine in Smith Township, Washington County; the Joffre Borehole No. 2, also in SmithTownship; and at a discharge on the former Hamilton farm, which was polluting Potato Garden Run in Findlay Township, Allegheny County.

Environmentalists have identified four other major polluters on the creek, but it will probably cost in excess of $3 million to construct the necessary treatment facilities. The biggest, Joffre Borehole No. 1, could cost in excess of $2 million.

The problem, as always, is money. Governor Ed Rendell signed legislation on April 14 asking Pennsylvania voters to authorize the largest investment in environmental programs in Pennsylvania history. The $625 million bond was placed on the May 17 primary ballot and would pay for a significant expansion of the state's landmark Growing Greener program, which supports a wide range of environmental cleanup projects and land protection.

In addition, the Bush administration is promising federal government cutbacks that could affect the availability of money that was previously available from the Office of Surface Mining.

"If we had some kind of treatment on the big ones, it would make a dramatic improvement on Raccoon Creek, no matter what the precipitation was," Stokum said. "If Growing Greener II does not pass, it will just bring all of our abandoned mine reclamation to a halt."


Job Not Yet Done
Back in 1967, an ambitious John Davidson made a promise to Joe Craig, then president of the Beaver County Conservation League, that he would restore Raccoon Creek to its previous natural glory.

"I told Joe that I'd have that creek cleaned up in 10 years," Davidson said with a chuckle.

Thirty-eight years later, Davidson is working with a second generation of environmentalists dedicated to cleaning up the creek, and the job remains incomplete.

In 1998, the late Elmer Anderson, outdoor columnist for The (Beaver County) Times and a longtime advocate of the Raccoon Creek cleanup, lamented the damage left by mining and praised the efforts by the watershed groups to undo the harm.

On the eve of the 21st century, Anderson, who had been editorializing about the creek for 50 years, wrote that he hoped the new millennium would finally bring about long-awaited creek restoration.

Davidson thinks that it still will, despite the recent setback.

"The creek will recover," he said. "It's just going to take time."

But to finish the job, organizations such as the Raccoon Creek Watershed Association and the Washington County Conservation District and the Independence Marsh Foundation will need help from the public and continued financial support from government officials.

Vicky Michaels, vice president of the Raccoon Creek Watershed Association and a longtime advocate of environmental causes, recently wrote that Raccoon Creek is a valuable resource for this area. The public, she said, should realize why it's so important to clean up the creek.

"People drive hundreds of miles and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to visit our state and national parks where the air and water are clean and the hills are green," Michaels wrote in a note to The Times. "If people can experience that just a few miles from home, isn't that a big part of what makes a place attractive to live, work and play? Who can put a price tag on that?" SLDT