Cleanup of Dysart Sportsmans Club Dam
This small dam has partly filled up with sediment. The Cambria County Conservation District is making a survey of the needed excavation and a plan for cleanup. The Association will contact landowners and investigate funding.
Cleanup of Abandoned Piles of Coal Refuse
Previous coal mining and processing has left many piles of coal refuse in the watershed. The piles are barren, unsightly and a source of acid drainage. Piles containing appreciable coal along with rock can be burned in the CoGen power generating plants of the area. Association members are investigating these piles to find ways that they can be used beneficially or reclaimed.
Numerous piles of coal refuse (gob, boney, culm) are scattered over the landscape of the Clearfield Creek area and other coal mining areas of western Pennsylvania. These piles commonly release acid waters from oxidation of pyrite in the rock, and little vegetation grows on the rocky material. Some piles contain enough coal mixed with the rock to be burned as fuel in the cogen plants of the area, thereby removing these eyesores.
During 2003, members located 18 piles of coal refuse in the upper watershed. Thirteen of these sites have been sampled and mapped. The samples have been analyzed for heat content, sulfur, ash, moisture and other parameters using a small grant from the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation. A number of piles have heat content high enough to be potential fuels. A report on the sampling and analysis has been prepared.
Little Laurel Run
Little Laurel Run flows into Clearfield Creek about 2 miles north of Ashville. The headwaters are about 3 miles upstream near the village of Buckhorn. Though the drainage is largely forested and hosts part of State Game Land 184, the stream is highly degraded by acid mine drainage from a number of abandoned surface and underground mines in its drainage basin. No fish or macroinvertebrates are present in the lower 2/3 of the stream, and brown iron oxide coats the stream bed. Acid from Little Laurel Run markedly decreases the alkalinity of Clearfield Creek. For these reasons, Little laurel Run is a target for remedial action by the Clearfield Creek Watershed Association.
