PROMOTING AND PROTECTING OUR RIVERS REQUIRES PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (Click to enlarge above image)

From the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC), July 10, 2022

Join BCMAC and friends July 17th to celebrate the Ohio River! We’ll have a free cookout and food, summer games, an info session with the Three Rivers Water Keepers, kayaking (feel free to bring your own), and a river clean-up with Mountain Watershed Association. We’ll also be giving out free school supplies!

(**In the event of inclement weather please check the Facebook page for any day of updates.)

Please register (RSVP) so we know how much food to bring. And please spread the word!

The event is being held at the Monaca River Front Park, which does not require steps to enter and has a bathroom and handicap-accessible bathroom on site. Childcare is not provided, but the event is child friendly, with children’s activities and a playground on site.

Vegan and vegetarian food options will be available, but please mark in the registration form for other dietary needs.

If you are feeling sick, have had a direct covid exposure, or have tested positive for covid within the past week, please sit this one out and join us next time! The event will be held completely outdoors and is not in a scent-free or scent-reduced environment. COVID-19 vaccination is not required to attend, but masks are encouraged and will be available on-site, with event organizers asking that attendees respect the need for distance between themselves and others.

Our mailing address is: Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, P.O. Box 31, Ambridge, PA 15003

Mayfly on Fishing Rod

Mayflies, wastewater and the health of our natural water sources

From an Article by David Katz, Preserve the Beartooth Front, May 26, 2014

The life of the mayfly is one of nature’s amazing stories. They spend their first three years under water in the larval stage, and then emerge for a quick but eventful run as adults, with wings and reproductive organs but no way to ingest food, bite or sting. In the 24 hours or so they spend in adulthood, they become what one zoologist calls “little flying sex machines.” Their sole purpose is to reproduce.

What does that have to do with oil and gas drilling?

Potentially a lot. A recent study by the Stroud Water Research Center found that even highly-diluted levels of fracking wastewater, as low as 0.25% over a period of 20-30 days, could have a deadly effect on an insect known for its fragile beauty and long-considered a key indicator of stream health.

According to Senior Research Scientist John Jackson, who led the study, “Mayflies are a very reliable indicator of whether a stream is healthy or not healthy. When it comes to streams, we want to see vibrant communities of mayfly species there. So their conspicuous absence in a stream tells us something isn’t right. It’s not an environment where they are thriving.”

Key results of the study, which looked at mayflies, water fleas and fathead minnows:

• • Half the mayflies across three species studied died after 20-30 day exposures to concentrations of less than 0.5% produced water.
  • Among the mayflies that survived to reach the adult stage, development time slowed, indicating they were stressed.
  • Reproduction rate was significantly reduced in two of three species and somewhat reduced in the third, mostly because mortality increased and development time slowed.
  • The water flea was less sensitive than mayflies to produced water, but the fathead minnow was more sensitive than mayflies.

The mayfly in Montana
Montana contains 109 species of mayflies. The scientific order name is Ephemeroptera, Greek for “brief adult life.” The French call the aquatic insects éphémères, or “one-day flies.” Montana Outdoors describes them as “looking like miniature angels when flying and, with their delicate upturned wings, tiny sailboats when floating on the water.” They are an essential part of the food chain that keeps our natural water vital.

The mayfly hatch begins in March each year with the blue winged olive mayfly, a creature so prolific that it hatches three times a year, continues throughout the summer, and closes in October.

This study is a reminder of how vulnerable our natural water is. Very low levels of contamination from fracking wastewater can kill off the mayflies and ruin the health of our streams and rivers. We need to take responsibility as a community to make sure our water is protected. We can’t expect anyone will do it for us.

I’ll leave you with this lovely scene from A River Runs Through It, in which the Craig Scheffer character says they’re biting on “Bunyan Bug Stonefly #2.” I can’t really tell the difference between mayflies and stoneflies. Perhaps you can.

WV Route 18 CleanUp Team (Doddridge County Watershed Association)

Scientists study fracking diseases with WV Host Farms

Update from S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

On Thursday, March 13^th,  a small group of scientists came to Doddridge County, which is being hit particularly hard by the fracking industry because of the high “natural gas liquids” content there. This visit was hosted by the WV Host Farms organization.

There are a range of complaints which appear near wells and compressor stations. They include asthma, nose bleed, disorientation, gastrointestinal problems, and other symptoms, and are presumed to be the result of gases leaked from facilities, evaporated liquids from fracking ponds, fumes from the trucks and other engines, road dust and silica sand, etc.

This time the group included graduate students as well as professors. They conducted interviews detailing the experiences of individuals and their previous health history. This will be taken back to the universities to be sorted and analyzed.

Numerous other interesting stories were heard in the waiting room. It seems old “stripper wells” which had low production are now becoming valuable, because of the increased production around Marcellus wells once they have been fracked. Children living in “man camps” have serious problems in school. They don’t live in one place long enough to complete a year’s work before moving, so their education comes in disjointed bits and pieces. Records from several previous schools are hard to acquire.

In one place in the county a company tried to put in a pipeline up a steep hillside by a major North-South road during the cold and deep freezing weather. The back fill liquefied and has slid down into the road, keeping a crew busy through the worst of the weather keeping the road open, with the road frequently closed off due to further sliding.

This is the second of three rounds of scientists coming to Doddridge this spring. The function of WV Host Farms is to provide food, lodging and access to positions where the fracking can be observed and tests taken. Land owners and their guests can, by law, go on their own property. Lack of access, as well as expense, has been a major problem for scientists because the industry generally will not provide access. [Many universities are deeply tied to fracking, because they have received funds from oil & gas companies; and,  if they want more money in the future, they want to have a “spotless” record.]

WV Host Farms is now active all over West Virginia and extends into several other states. There are a number of strong, enthusiastic leaders involved, so the number of and nature of the projects are constantly growing.

[A recent project of the Doddridge County Watershed Association involved cleaning up trash debris along WV Route 18 South of West Union, as shown in the photo above, which is an area that continues to receive extensive drilling, fracking, air and water pollution, road damages, land disturbances, etc.]

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Stream Monitoring in Western Maryland: See a report on the recent project at the Mountain Ridge High School in Frostburg (near Cumberland), Maryland, involving most of the school in water sampling and analysis just in case Marcellus drilling and fracking come into western Maryland.

September 18, 2012

TEST the WATER.  SHARE the DATA. PROTECT our WORLD.

By Trey Cody, Student at Penn State University and Intern at EPA.

Did you ever wonder how information is gathered on the condition of our streams, lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters?  Or how we know whether it is safe to use these waters for drinking or recreational activities like fishing, swimming, and boating?

September 18^th is your day to not only ask these questions, but to get out and be involved in the data collection yourself… because September 18^th is World Water Monitoring Day!

You don’t have to consider yourself a scientist to help keep tabs on the health of your local watershed.  As part of World Water Monitoring Day, you can do your own monitoring tests and enter your results into an international database.  Simple monitoring kits are available for purchase by anyone interested in participating.

The health of our water bodies is important more than just one day per year, which is why the World Water Monitoring Day Challenge runs annually from March 22^nd (the United Nations’ World Water Day) until December 31^st. Events are held, and tests can be conducted and results submitted at any time. The purpose of the challenge is to encourage people everywhere to TEST the quality of their waterways, SHARE their findings, and PROTECT our most precious resource.

Watch this video for background on the event and to learn how to test for the four indicators (Turbidity, pH, Temperature, and Dissolved Oxygen) of the World Water Monitoring Day Challenge.  By just testing these four parameters – and it’s easy to do – we can learn a lot about the health of our waterways.

There are lots of materials out there to help you learn more about the importance of water monitoring. EPA’s Monitoring and Assessing Water Quality page and other outreach materials can help get people excited about water quality.

So get out and assess your waters!  Tell us about your water monitoring experiences and what you found in your data collection.

About the Author: Trey Cody has been an intern with EPA’s Water Protection Division since graduation from high school in 2010. He is currently attending the Pennsylvania State University.

2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the nation’s law for protecting our most irreplaceable resource.  Throughout the year, EPA will be highlighting different aspects of the history and successes of the Clean Water Act in reducing pollution in the past 40 years.  The month of September will focus on Action and Education.

Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.