Business, Government Legal News from throughout WVPreston County organization seeks volunteers to test water quality of Cheat River, tributaries

By CYNTHIA McCLOUD

For The State Journal

Friends of the Cheat recently started a new water quality monitoring project aimed at protecting the Cheat River watershed.

FOC is a nonprofit group in Preston County working to restore, preserve and promote the Cheat River and its tributaries.

The goal of FOC's Cheat Aquatic Pollution and BaseLine Ecological, or CAPABLE, Monitoring Program is to collect data on all the tributaries of the Cheat River. FOC previously focused mainly on streams impacted by acid mine drainage. However to do that, the organization needs volunteers to monitor the river and its tributaries using electrical conductivity meters and water sampling kits. Volunteers will visit their assigned stream twice a month or more to collect data and report changes in water quality.

"It was initiated last year by my predecessor, Andrew Miller," said watershed coordinator David Manthos. "We are concerned about Marcellus shale gas drilling and the potential impact it could have on the watershed, particularly on streams we don't have much data on."

Manthos said the organization is making an objective scientific inquiry into water quality and watching for pollution — regardless of its source.

"If there is an accidental discharge of flowback water, if there's an accident involving drilling pond failure that would dump those fluids into a stream, any number of things could cause an immediate problem, so we want to monitor all streams," Manthos said.

Friends of the Cheat exists because of industrial damage to the watershed. The group was formed in 1994 in response to acid mine drainage blowout from a mine. 

"The previous mine owners had tried to block up the mine, and eventually heavy metal-infused water dumped into streams," Manthos said. "That's the reason why Preston County has a number of streams that are essentially dead. At the end of this year we will have 17 projects in place to treat and restore certain portions of streams."

The FOC has an extensive database of information about acid mine drainage-impaired streams in the Lower Cheat watershed. But they know little about clean streams. The group hopes the CAPABLE monitoring program will change that.

Since last year, five volunteers have been faithfully monitoring several sites; most check two streams. About six more people have expressed an interest in monitoring local streams. Ideally, Manthos said, FOC would like to have 20 to 30 volunteers actively watching the water, particularly in areas where drilling activity might occur.

The volunteers use a $70 electrical conductivity pen to test the water and make visual observations. A reading 50 to 100 times higher than normal is a good indication of pollution from something with high saline content, such as fluids used in hydrofracturing for natural gas, Manthos said. 

FOC owns four testing units and is borrowing 10 from West Virginia University's Water Research Institute. The group hopes to purchase six more using a grant from the Department of Environmental Protection.

CAPABLE also is getting funding and support from private donations.

Earlier this month, 35 people attended a dinner organized by Buy Fresh Buy Local West Virginia, Friends of the Cheat and Morgantown restaurant Café Bacchus. The Watershed=Foodshed Benefit raised more than $2,000 to help buy monitoring equipment for CAPABLE.