Watershed Group Works to Neutralize Acid Rain Damage

The Buffalo Creek Watershed Alliance is planning to spend $305,000 on a project to offset damage caused by acid rain to the fragile ecosystem at the western Union County, PA headwaters.

Because the mountaintop terrain where the creek forms has very little limestone in it, the waterway can't buffer the acid rain. As the waterway winds its way down into the valleys where the soil has more lime, the acidity drops to levels that are more hospitable to aquatic life. But, far up in the western Union County mountains, the increased acidity of the water has reduced habitat for trout. The watershed group's project will create a small pond where water will be diverted from the creek and then run across a lime bed to increase alkalinity in the creek. In Northumberland County, there are a number of similar projects to remove the acid flowing into waterways from abandoned mines in the Coal Region. http://www.dailyitem.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070218/NEWS/702180306