Into The Canyon – Winter 2008

Into the Canyon
Newsletter of Friends of the Cheat
Winter 2008
First Major Funding for CSX
Corridor Announced
In mid-January, it was announced that the 2008
Consolidated Appropriations Act passed by Congress
and signed into law by President Bush included
$294,000 to Friends of the Cheat toward acquisition of
the CSX rail corridor along the Cheat Narrows between
Rowlesburg and Rte. 7.
Congressman Alan Mollohan initially had earmarked the funding as part of the 2008 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related
Agencies Appropriations Bill. When Congress combined eleven different appropriations bills into the
Consolidated Appropriations Act, he was able to maintain the funding.
The Preston County Rail Trail Committee and
Friends of the Cheat are elated with Congressman
Mollohan’s efforts and look forward to leveraging
these funds into the larger target needed to acquire
the ten mile corridor from CSX Transportation, Inc.
Current communications between Friends of the
Cheat and Greer Industries may lead to a public / private partnership that acquires the railroad corridor
and maintains public access to it. Friends of the
Cheat Director Keith Pitzer and Greer Industries’ Joe
Dean agree this would be a win-win situation for the
community.
The Congressional funding will flow through
WVDOT. Details and scheduling of the funds are not
yet known. Friends of the Cheat is already working
with WVDOT on Recreational Trail Grants for the
Kingwood to Tunnelton corridor.
The overall vision of the Preston Rail Trail Committee is to develop the three abandoned rail corridors in
the area to connect with Kingwood and also the existing Decker’s Creek Trail to Morgantown. This would
serve several local communities with a trail and enhance tourism and recreation in the area.
Negotiations are still in process with Kern Valley
Railroad concerning the Kingwood to Tunnelton corridor. The need for drainage work and repair only increase as the corridor is left unattended. People in
Preston County are anxious to see a useful rail-trail
in this area and we hope to see their support.
This is a view of the Cheat River taken from the trestle
that crosses over the river at Preston. The trestle will be
included as part of the rail-trail, allowing visitors to
cross to the trail that is on the east side of the river from
Preston south to Rowlesburg.
In this issue
Rail-Trail Update .......................... 1
Donors, Partners ........................... 2
Working Upstream ....................... 3,4
ECRR EPA Grant ......................... 4
Morgan Run Project ..................... 5
Playmates in the Watershed ......... 6
New Cooling Tower, Albright ....... 7
Electronic vs Print ........................ 7
New Directors Enrich Board ....... 7
Outdoor Classroom Update ......... 8
Cheat Access Updates ................... 8
FODC Education Efforts .............. 9
Cheat River Festival ..................... 10
Membership Form......................... 11
Loss of Doug Ferris ...................... 12
Into the Canyon - 1 - Friends of the Cheat
Into the Canyon
Published by:
Friends of the Cheat
119 S.Price St., #206
Kingwood, WV 26537-1478
phone: 304-329-3621
fax: 304-329-3622
web: www.cheat.org
email: [email protected]
Friends of the Cheat Board of Directors
Charlie Walbridge, Dave Bassage, Dave or Lena Cerbone, Dan or Janet Lenox, Tom Nutter,
Nathan Ober, Bob Spangler, Ralph Teter, Troy Titchenell
Friends of the Cheat Staff
Keith Pitzer - executive director, Sally Wilts - office assistant, Jessica Zamias -monitoring, Drake Asberry - OSM/VISTA
Business Sponsors
Adventure’s Edge • Adventure Sports Center International • Aquafix • Arkley Forestlands • Backlund Paddles • Boofgear •
Cellular One • Cheat Canyon Campground • Cheat River Outfitters • Cool Runnings • Doppio Coffee • East/West Printing •
Electro-Kote Company • Firefly Grill • Filtersource • Grateful Heads Helmets • Highland Prospects • Longhollow Pens • Mario’s
Fishbowl • WKMM • Mountain Streams and Trails • Mountain Surf • Parker Sales • Preston Distributors • PS Composites •
Pyranha • Rigby and Bosley, LMT • Riversport School of Paddling • Rocky Mountain Kayak • George Simms Interiors • SONY •
Stonyboater Paddle Wax • T’s N More by Johnson • Video Veritas • Gail Anderson Vincent • Wagamuffin Pet Care • Wavesport
• We’re Nuts • West Virginia Brewing Company • WFSP • Whitegrass Cafe • Whitewater Warehouse • Whitewater Video •
Wilderness Voyageurs • Chrissy Zeltner Massage Therapy
Major Funding Supporters
Alpha Associates • Allegheny Power • Bikes Belong • Canaan Valley Institute • Chesapeake Energy • George and Miriam Martin
Foundation • Morgantown Energy Associates • Nisource Environmental Challenge Fund • Norcross Wildlife Foundation • Oakland
Foundation • US Environmental Protection Agency • US Office of Surface Mining • WV Department of Environmental Protection •
WV Stream Partners Program
Major Donors
with thanks to all of our members
Steven Barnett • Dave Bassage • Richard Brooks • Peter Bross • Peter Bernstein • Jonathon Burgess • Rence & Barbara
Callahan • Paul & Betty Connelly • Cliff Decker • Jack Ditty • Stephen Dorick • Strat Douglas • Christopher Earl • Robert Gedokah
• Ed Gertler • Ken Gfroerer • Jess Gonzales • Carlton Gutschick • Stephen Haid • Edward Hanrahan • John Harvey • Eric
Henrickson • Rick Herd • Ed Hughes • Stephen Ingalls • Frank Jernejcic • Jack Kangas • Pat Kingman • Chris Kirkman • John
Kobak • Blakely Lacroix • Greg Lee • Fred Lemke • Dan and Janet Lenox • Mary Lynn Mack • Harry Marinakis • Mike McCarty •
Tom McCloud • Joanne McGrew • Don Millard • Constance Miller • Eloise Milne • Arch Moore • Alfred Murray • Ann and Wayne
Nelson • Larry Pethick • Howie Pentony • Dan & Denise Rabun • Jack Sanders • James Scott • David W. Smith • Peter F. Smith •
Toddi Steelman • Keith Strausbaugh • John Sweet • Ann & Cecil Tickameyer • Mac Thornton • Barry Tuscano • Robert Uram •
Charlie Walbridge • Fred Wright • Vero and Anastasia Placentini Charitable Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation
Organizations
American Canoe Association • American Whitewater • Blue Ridge Voyageurs • Canoe Cruisers Association •
Cheat Lake Environmental and Recreation Association • Coastal Canoeists • Coopers Rock Foundation • Downstream Alliance •
Friends of Deckers Creek • Friends of Laurel Mountain • Greater Baltimore Canoe Club • Harper’s Ferry Outdoor Festival •
Kayak and Canoe Club of NY • Keel Haulers Canoe Club • Monocacy Canoe Club • Philadelphia Canoe Club • Project Wet •
Richmond Whitewater Club • River Network • Shavers Fork Coalition • Three Rivers Paddling Club •
Trout Unlimited • Upper Monongahela River Association • US Army Corps of Engineers •
• WV Raptor Rehabilitation Center • WV Rivers Coalition • WV Save Our Streams • WV Trophy Hunters Association •
WV Watershed Network • Zoar Valley Paddling Club
Into the Canyon - 2 - Friends of the Cheat
Working Upstream
By Keith Pitzer, Executive Director,
Friends of the Cheat
Fall became winter, or at least that’s what the calendar says. Some of the weather has been decidedly
not like winter. With ever more countries taking action on climate change, the question is finally becoming not if it is real, but rather, how quickly can the
earth’s climate respond if we make real change in
CO2 emissions? Although it has been too long since
the last newsletter, I assure you readers, we at
Friends of the Cheat have not been idle.
Putting this newsletter together has required more
false starts than usual. In September, we were devastated to have Doug Ferris stricken with heart symptoms that led to triple by-pass surgery. This in itself
was very serious but Doug was beset by complication after complication. After more than three months
in the hospital Doug passed away on December 29th.
The loss is profound, both professionally and as a
friend.
Whether monitoring in the field or applying his scientific background to data assessment, Doug was
superb. Always astute and in good humor, Doug
drove the water quality monitoring of the Cheat watershed to a peerless level for the last year and a half.
After getting to know Doug, that wasn’t surprising.
He first came to FOC as an OSM/VISTA. When he
arrived with his resume’ in hand, I had to wonder why
someone with his credentials wanted to serve a year
with a small non-profit watershed group. He had a
PhD in biology and had worked for nineteen years as
a researcher at the National Cancer Institute. But
Doug was looking for new challenges that would get
him outdoors. His years in the lab were not without fly
fishing, birding and canoeing and he wanted to be
closer to where he could pursue these physical and
mental outlets.
His work on our monitoring and mapping program
was soon noted. Before his year as an OSM/VISTA
was up, he was being asked by state and federal
agencies to present at meetings and conferences on
database management. His scientific training combined with a common sense approach proved invaluable. Whether in the office crunching data, or in the
field sampling streams and mine discharges, he was
sharing a wealth of knowledge about a broad range of
topics, from song birds to literature. Everyone that
worked with him came to see him as a deep well of
humanity.
In our hour of need, Jessica Zamias, previous
OSM/VISTA whose term just ended last September,
has come on board to help our current OSM/VISTA
Drake Asberry, with the monitoring and mapping program. She worked closely with Doug on the project
and so is very familiar with it. We welcome back her
positive energy and infectious smile.
To have a job that gets one out on streams and in
the woods, even if it’s usually on impaired streams
and looking for abandoned mine sites in the woods, is
not a bad job. I am fortunate. Combine that with some
time spent developing data and assessing a picture
of water quality that can be used in planning future
restoration projects and you start to get an idea of
how we spend a lot of our time. I have the assistance
of a steady stream of talented people who come to
work with FOC for a year or more as OSM VISTAs. I
get to know these folks, gain insight on what makes
them tick and I am rewarded beyond measure by the
experience.
Throughout the year, we sampled many sites on a
regular schedule, some less often and a few that we
had never sampled before. The new sites are always
somewhat intriguing. We wonder if we’ve found a site
that wasn’t previously catalogued by the state, if it is a
significant source of acidity to the receiving stream,
possibly something about it makes us wonder about
the history of the site.
Usually it looks much too much like other sites,
bad water coming out of a collapsed portal, the site
surrounded by acidic spoils and abandoned pieces of
machinery. These are truly abandoned industrial sites
and they are a lesson in history. I only wish more of
us could read it.
In time it all gets mapped and added to the database. Analysis of the data leads to prioritization of
restoration sites. This will become increasingly important as we juggle existing funding with the new
AML program funding and its priorities. Good information will always be a resource at the table with funding
agencies.
We’ve also worked hard on the invasive plant
project at the Cheat Festival site. Japanese Knotweed has made a large incursion into the area along
Into the Canyon - 3 - Friends of the Cheat
continued on next page
Working Upstream
continued
ECRR RECEIVES EPA GRANT:
HOPE AND HARD WORK TRAININGS
by Sarah Walters, OSM/VISTA
the river and around the wetland there. After much
research and two grants written by Sally Wilts, we
have embarked on a control program. Once aware of
Knotweed, one sees it at many points along
streambanks. Water is a common carrier of the plant
and once established, it out-competes all other plants
as ground cover. As such, it destabilizes stream
banks and lessens game cover and food sources. In
another season or two, we will have a good idea
about whether our control measures are successful
and could be extended to other areas. If so, we intend
to survey upstream to determine the extent of Japanese Knotweed’s hold in the Cheat watershed and to
begin control measures there, working downstream
over time.
The festival site beckons us more and more with
ideas for usage beyond festival day in May. We are
happy to have a landscape architecture student, Mary
Lukini, working on a senior design project at the site.
She has visited the site several times, taken stock of
existing planning, and met with original owner Eloise
Milne, who grew up there.
Eloise’s memories of the site are as a family farm
in the 1930’s and this gives yet another perspective to
the land and its uses over time. Eloise is a great supporter of FOC and our Nature Learning Center project
at the Cheat Festival site.
Our efforts at Rails-to-Trails development in the
watershed are continuing. We are making progress
in negotiations with the owner of the Kingwood to
Tunnelton corridor and the development of a private/
public partnership for the CSX Cheat Narrows corridor continues.
Another spring will soon be here. We’ll continue
to sample, to log data, to map sources of impairment
on the watershed. We’ll take this information to meetings, write grants and influence reclamation investment in the Cheat watershed. With this and other
projects, we envision a more vibrant Cheat river, alive
in every sense of the word, with fisheries, wildlife and
plant communities, and people, all coexisting in a
quality of life not known in many generations’
memory….maybe only in the river’s memory.
To this end, we’ll be working upstream.
The Eastern Coal Region Roundtable, an information clearinghouse and support network for Coal
Country watershed groups, is the proud recipient of
a four hundred thousand dollar grant that will support
trainings for watershed groups throughout Appalachia.
The Roundtable has been around for several
years, surviving on a tight budget and staffed by Office of Surface Mining VISTA volunteers. Funding
has been provided through the grant to hire a full
time executive director and for the first time in the
organization’s history, the ECRR is truly poised to
fulfill its mission of serving, supporting and advocating for grassroots watershed groups. The ECRR
seeks to become the voice of Coal Country, speaking on behalf of the needs of the many hardworking
watershed groups throughout the region.
The ECRR would like to formally and publicly announce Adam Webster as our Executive Director.
Mr. Webster is a native of WV who has long been
interested and invested in advocating for issues in
Coal Country. We are privileged to welcome him at
this most exciting and pivotal time in our
organization’s growth.
By the end of the two year cycle, the Hope and
Hard Work trainings will have created over 50 properly trained and fiscally sustainable watershed
groups. The trainings, two each year interspersed
with a hands on practicum period, will be regionally
based. One session will be held in Canaan Valley,
WV for the Northern Coalfields and the other will be
held at the Breaks in VA for the Southern Coalfields.
Two tracks will be offered at the trainings: water
quality monitoring and fiscal sustainability.
As a final wrap up, the ECRR plans to hold a
Roundtable Summit that will bring together participants, partners and policy makers. We will synthesize the information garnered through the two year
process and deliver a State of the Region report,
with the intention of elevating our regional issues to
receive national attention.
For more information about the trainings please
contact Sarah Walters at the ECRR office: 1-(304)329-8049 or write to [email protected].
Into the Canyon - 4 - Friends of the Cheat
Submerged Slag Adds Alkalinity
to Morgan Run Project
by Keith Pitzer
Work was completed in August on the Morgan
Run/DeAntonis site project. Ray and Jean
DeAntonis are the landowners that graciously cooperated and allowed access to build the project
on their property. The mine was called Lucky Jack
and drains into the north fork of Morgan Run not
far south of Kingwood.
Monitoring the water quality from the mine began in 2005. The site consisted of a collapsed
mine portal discharging as much as 300 gallons
per minute of pH 2.7 water and electrical conductivity as high as 2300. As one would expect with
this field chemistry, iron and aluminum concentrations were high. The mine portal is less than 100
yards from Morgan Run, so space for construction
was limited. The total area draining into this site is
about thirty acres and a small stream flows about
ten months of the year.
It was decided to utilize this fresh water as a
treatment source, augmented by having it run
through a steel slag bed. From this bed, water
flow is controlled by a vertical gate system and
gravity flows to near the portal to mix with the mine
discharge. The fresh water is now a high pH, initially as high as pH 13. When this mixes with the
pH 2.7 water from the mine, the iron precipitation
is dramatic. A system of shallow collection pools
allows for metals to drop out before discharging
through a culvert and into a larger settling pond.
From this pond, the water exits and runs down a
short channel to the stream.
At the time the construction was finished,
there had not been significant rain in weeks and
there was no fresh water entering the steel slag
bed. After recent rains, the bed is full and water
levels have been adjusted. Initial visits since construction yielded field chemistry of pH 2.64 and an
EC of 2600 coming from the portal. The end of the
channel at the stream, or system out, has fluctuated widely from pH 6.7 and EC 400 (high flow of
fresh water and hence alkaline treatment) and pH
The photograph above shows a settling pond at the
Morgan Run Project. The Morgan mine portal
discharges into a mixing basin, where mine drainage
mixes with high alkaline water and discharges into a
settling pond. The high alkaline water is produced by
combining fresh water and steel slag. As the mine
water mixes with the alkaline water the pH
increases, allowing the metals to precipitate out into
the settling pond. The water is piped to another
settling pond allowing more reduction to occur. The
water discharges into a limestone channel and into
Morgan Run.
3.5 and EC of 1600 ( low flow of fresh water entering the slag bed and hence level of alkaline treatment). Chemical samples have been taken and
we are awaiting lab results. Managing alkaline
generation with steel slag has been a topic of discussion for some time. The material is highly alkaline but becomes hardened with calcite production
over time. With this project design, the slag is submerged under water which should not produce the
hardening calcite as quickly as if exposed to air.
These initial results are encouraging; achieving
significant treatment in a small space with a passive system.
The project was constructed by Charles E.
Bolyard & Son, Inc. of Kingwood, WV. The project
design was graciously donated by Alpha and Associates, Morgantown, WV. The conceptual design was by Water Research Institute, WVU. The
project cost of $126, 601 was funded by Office of
Surface Mining’s Watershed Cooperative Agreement Program and by 319 funds through WVDEP/
Non-Point Source Program.
Into the Canyon - 5 - Friends of the Cheat
The Cheat Has Playmates!
by Jim Snyder, world-wide kayak adventurer
So there I was~ my kayak cutting through the
glass-flat mile-long pool above Seven Islands on the
upper Cheat. It was a beautiful warm early summer
day a couple years back. I could smell wood smoke
from the nearby camps and I could hear children
laughing and playing by the riverside. I had a fast boat
and was moving along swift and silent- unnoticed.
Then suddenly, near the end of the pool, some tiny
figures disturbed the surface- so I kinda veered that
way a bit to see what was up.
At a hundred feet away I could tell for sure it was a
couple small river otters playing! I’ve been paddling
the Cheat since 1969 and have never seen otters so I
was pleasantly surprised. I came up on these guys
so quick and quiet- they had no idea they were about
to be visited. I got within five feet before I was noticed. They were like the size of a cat and were apparently playing some form of tag with each
other. Then~ BOOM!~ there I was among them. One
erupted from the water and skittered backwards with
almost his entire body clear of the surface and he
made a hissing sound- facing me the whole time. He
went about two feet that way and figured out I wasn’t a
threat and went immediately back to playing with his
buddy. I was so glad to see them. Otters eat fish and
crawdads and love clean rivers. The Cheat is a clean
river with fish there and I love that.
River Otters used to live virtually everywhere on
this continent but errant beaver trapping and pollution
cut their numbers in West Virginia until there were only
a couple small enclaves in remote sections of the
state. Even with total protection provided by the state
in 1925- they didn’t have breeding size populations
and were on their way out. Then, from 1984 to 1997
the West Virginia DNR elected to re-introduce 245 otters into 14 major rivers in the state. The otters had
been caught with soft-catch foot hold traps in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Louisiana. They
were transferred to holding facilities, given health
checks and vaccinations and released back into the
wild. Yeah- the DNR put fun back into the rivers.
Last summer I was playing on the Narrows section of the Cheat just below Rowlesburg. I was with a
group of friends from down south and we were doing
“Mystery Moves” at a certain magical spot named
“Fascination Alley”. A Mystery Move is where you take
a very small “squirt boat” and dive into whirlpools and
ride around underwater until your breath runs out (and
then presumably return to the surface). It’s an otterlike endeavor with a certain mystic appeal to some
humans.
We were sitting up on the shore at one point and
someone said, “Hey look!”. Here comes a pair of GIANT otters floating on their backs. They get sucked
around in the whirlpools and casually just keep laying
back like they were relaxing in the tub. These guys
were a lot bigger than adult beavers. They got a few
swirls in before they noticed us and then they eddied
up on our shore and stayed for a couple minutes getting a good long look at us. That was cool. We were
like...”Hey aren’t we part of the same tribe...?”
And we are somehow- some cosmic fun-loving
tribe. Fun is a global language and not specially specific (is that a word?). And Fun’s ambassadors live in
this valley. Later that summer a sighting was reported
on the lower Cheat- above the Lake and another otter
sighting was reported on the Big Sandy. This valley is
re-assuming all the accouterments of a “wild” river.
So- what are the Otters trying to tell us? They
are saying there is hope for a full rehabilitation of the
Cheat. Otters in the Cheat Canyon might be more
than just a dream.
The Canyon has been stained with ambition, need,
and greed- but the fun is still there. And now the quality is coming back. We are out, out, outing the damn
stain! The entire Cheat River as one long clean playground.... sounds awesome! We really have a
unique and valuable resource here. The otters say
so!
Into the Canyon - 6 - Friends of the Cheat
Choice of Electronic vs. Mailed,
Printed Copy of our newsletter
Friends of the Cheat would like to know if you
would prefer not to receive a print copy of the
newsletter. Instead, we will send you an email to
let you know that the latest newsletter is posted
on our website.
Many organizations are increasing their reliance on electronic media to cut down on their
use of resources and to save money. If you
would like to switch to electronic notification, let
Sally Wilts know at [email protected].
New Closed Loop Cooling
Systems at Albright Power Station
Allegheny Energy’s Albright Power Station was
constructed in the early 1950’s. The original, oncethrough cooling system cooling tower was designed
as a “helper” tower to be employed at times of low
river flow. In 1976, due to the Cheat River’s long history of impaired water quality due to acid mine drainage, Albright Power Station was granted a Clean Water Act variance with heat rejection limitations.
As conditions in the Cheat River have improved, WVDEP decided that the thermal variance
was outdated. Additionally, EPA issued new rules
about cooling water intake in 2004. The best option
for achieving compliance with both mandates was
determined to be conversion to a closed-loop cooling
system including the installation of a new high-efficiency cooling tower.
The concentrations of AMD metals in the
Albright Power Station’s discharge are typically lower
than the levels of these pollutants in the river itself,
but the NPDES permit issued by WVDEP in June
2006 imposed much lower limitations for these metals. Therefore, plans for the water treatment facility
for the closed loop system were expanded to include
treatment of all of the station’s process water also.
The maximum existing water discharge to the
river with full load operation has been about 248 million gallons per day. Once the new systems are in
operation by October 31st of this year, the average
expected treated water discharge will be about 0.75
million gallons per day at very close to ambient temperature.
FOC Board of Directors
Enriched by New Members
Two new board members joined Friends of the
Cheat this fall. Bob Spangler lives on a farm between the Elk Run and Beaver Creek tribs of Little
Sandy Creek in Bruceton Mills, WV. He teaches
Physics, Astronomy, and the occasional music
class at Bethany College and also teaches
Physics occasionally at WVU. At
Bethany College, Bob advises the Outdoors Club
and works with the Environmental Science Club.
Dr. Spangler’s interest in helping FOC is
largely motivated by his love of rivers, in which he
likes to kayak and to refine his well-practiced
swimming techniques. It also satisfies an innate
desire to help.
In his free time, Bob likes to play music (usually with The Halftime String Band), kayak, hike,
ski, and root around on his farm where
he plays with semi-homegrown beer, cider, wine,
and mead production.
Nathan Ober works for Hatch Mott
McDonald, an engineering firm. “My passion for
the Cheat River Watershed was first born during
raft guide training in 1998 with Mountain Streams
and Trails. I have lived near the watershed while
pursuing academic studies, employment and recreation opportunities for the past 10 years.
While studying geology at West Virginia University I found myself involved in field trips to the
Cheat River Canyon and many of the tributaries
feeding the canyon. As a river enthusiast I have
enjoyed the opportunity to find serenity by rafting
and kayaking the many rapids that make up the
watershed from as far south as Blackwater Falls
to the northern reaches such as Big Sandy Creek.
On October 15, 2005 I married my wife Leslie
at one of our favorite spots, Coopers Rock State
Forest, overlooking the Cheat River. I still visit the
Cheat Watershed frequently with my family and
friends to enjoy the beauty and excitement it holds.
As a board member for the Friends of the
Cheat my mission is to apply my knowledge and
experience of geology and stream restoration to
preserve and restore the beauty of the watershed.”
Into the Canyon - 7 - Friends of the Cheat
Cheat Access Updates
by Charlie Walbridge, FOC Board Chair
For the third year in a row West Virginia University
students joined forces with Friends of Cheat to maintain vital river access points. On September 27th, 12
students and several staff from Greg Corio’s Adventure West Virginia program spent three hours improving the boat launch area at the FOC river access
in Albright. The spot, at the confluence of the Cheat
River and Muddy Creek, is used by kayakers and
canoeists who run Cheat Canyon. Low water and
warm air temperatures made the job easier.
The group used the method that Dustin and Scott
Stough used to repair shore side erosion at the Sang
Run access on Maryland’s Upper Youghiogheny
River. The entire muddy launch area was covered
with big flat rocks; these are in excellent supply in the
nearby river. When the water rises, silt fills the gaps
between the rocks and creates a natural-looking, but
tough launch area. This procedure can be repeated
several times if necessary to restore the shoreline.
Then the group waded into the shallow Cheat
River to remove some rocks that block easy access
to the main river flow at low levels. This area has
been shallow since the 1985 flood pushed boulders
between the shore and the main current. We hope
that this will make it easier for paddlers to begin their
trip but we’ll have to wait and see what effect the winter high water will have.
The day ended with a discussion of acid mine
drainage and thermal pollution, two problems vividly
demonstrated here, at the confluence of the Cheat
River and Muddy Creek. We also discussed the mining heritage of Preston County, the T&T mine blowout, the founding of Friends of Cheat, and our ongoing efforts to repair the damage from a century of
mining.
Two weeks later, twelve more community service
students from Adventure West Virginia put in a hard
three hours work at the Jenkinsburg Access. This
spot, at the junction of the Cheat and Big Sandy Rivers, is an important paddling access point that gets
used heavily by college students and local residents.
The group spread out and scoured the woods for
trash. The resulting 25 bags of garbage overflowed
the bed of a pickup. Afterwards, we stood on the High
Bridge and discussed the logging heritage of the
area, the challenge presented by acid mine drainage,
and the work of Friends of Cheat. These areas look
really good now, thanks to the folks from WVU.
At Rockville, FOC was contacted by Allegheny
Wood Products (AWP) in early fall about crossing
land donated by Chesapeake Energy just months
before. AWP owns the railroad grade downstream on
river right and ninety acres in the area of Wonder
Falls and Big Splat. Many folks have used this rail
grade as a trail and 4-wheel drive route for years.
For those that haven’t ventured downstream,
Wonder Falls is a wonderful scenic spot. No wonder
it attracts the usage it does. In return for cooperating
with AWP on access to haul timber out, FOC is receiving another strip of land adjoining the Chesapeake Energy donated land. This new acquisition will
make an easy put-in available river right upstream of
the bridge. In addition, AWP and FOC will attempt to
restrict motorized access over steep areas and
down river to Wonder Falls, but pedestrian access
will be allowed.
This new development held up our work on putting
in a parking area last year, but the new put-in access
will be better and more parking space can be made
with this arrangement. We hope to get this work
done this spring so that boaters and hikers can enjoy
the improvements. Chesapeake Energy’s generosity
and AWP’s willingness to work for a win-win situation
will provide improved public access to the Big Sandy
for years to come.
Outdoor Classroom Update
by Drake Asberry, OSM/VISTA
The Outdoor Classroom is steadily moving forward. We have raised about half of the funds that we
estimate we will need to construct the pavilion on the
festival site. We are working with Mary Luckini, a senior in Landscape Architecture at WVU, who is designing some potential uses for the site. Her design
concept is utilizing the 12 acre site for many uses
including the pavilion, nature trail and boating access.
Kevan Damm, experienced in post and beam construction, has given us some photos of his work and
brought some new ideas to the table for the design of
the pavilion. The vision for the Outdoor Classroom is
to educate people that visit the site about the history
of the area, the damage done with past coal mining
and the work that continues to restore the area.
Into the Canyon - 8 - Friends of the Cheat
Friends of Deckers Creek & FOC
Team Up for Young Friends of
Watersheds Program in Preston
County
By Amanda Lachowski, FODC Education Program
Coordinator
Greetings from the Deckers Creek watershed,
neighbor to the Cheat! Friends of Deckers Creek
(FODC) is happy to announce the expansion of its
watershed education initiative to include sites in
Preston County. This is made possible with funding from Project FLOW (future leaders of watersheds) through the Commission for National and
Community Service. Through this partnership
FODC staff will educate youth about pollution
problems that both the Cheat and Deckers Creek
watersheds share. We are grateful to FOC for
providing their expertise, support, and equipment
as we develop classroom curricula, schedule
sampling trips, and help youth develop meaningful
service projects that connect healthy watersheds
to healthy communities.
FODC has already begun working with its first
group of Preston County youth, the Preston High
Health Science and Technology Academy (HSTA).
This group of forty-four students is led by Preston
High science cornerstone, Bill Barlow. Each year
HSTA student groups develop research projects
which they present at their annual symposium.
HSTA students that meet club requirements receive a tuition waiver to a WV state school upon
graduation.
So far, HSTA students have learned what a watershed is, what watershed they live in, and the
major pollutants that undermine local watershed
health. Student groups have chosen to investigate
one or two specific water quality parameters at a
variety of sites and seek to become “experts” in
their field. Preston High HSTA will showcase their
findings at Braxton High School in Flatwoods, WV
on Saturday, April 19th. It is FODC’s hope that this
partnership will foster a sustainable watershed
education component for future HSTA groups and
other Preston High students.
FODC and FOC are also working with
Rowlesburg teacher, AngE Williams, to develop a
weeklong watershed feature for her eighth grade
science class. Williams will work closely with
FODC staff to select materials and schedule at
least one sampling trip outside of class, allowing
these students the opportunity to test their creek
legs this spring.
The largest group that is included in this initiative is the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy
(MCA) at Camp Dawson. Approximately 100 atrisk youth from all over WV enroll in the MCA program each session. FODC staff will teach five,
one-hour classes on watershed health this spring.
Cadets’ service to community will also be environmentally focused including water sampling,
benthic studies, trash cleanups, invasive eradication, and special projects from Camp Dawson’s
Division of Natural Resources such as migratory
bird box building.
FODC has also fostered the development
of a Youth Advisory Board to increase youth voice
and participation within the organization. This core
group of dedicated youth supports the mission of
FODC and wants to help in their own way, through
youth-led activities and research. The Youth Advisory Board, or YAB as they like to be called,
hopes to recruit more young people through the
aforementioned partnerships, and extends its
membership invitation to any Cheat Watershed
youth. For more information on YAB, contact
[email protected].
Into the Canyon - 9 - Friends of the Cheat
Cheat River Festival May 3rd Mark Your Calendars!
Planning for this year’s Cheat River Festival
has already begun. A group of dedicated volunteers met in January and discussed changes for
this year’s event. May 3rd seems like a distant
dream on cold wintry days, but letters to vendors
have already gone out and nonprofits and artists
will be contacted soon.
At the suggestion of Janet Lenox, we decided
to dedicate this year’s festival to Doug Ferris.
The back page of the newsletter has more information about his recent death.
The Cheat Downriver Race is Friday May 2;
go to www.cheatriverrace.com. The Cheatfest
5K,which benefits Preston Rail-Trails, will start at
10 am the morning of the festival and will be held
at Preston Country Club again. Our website will
have registration forms and information about the
race.
Janet initiated a T-shirt design contest last
year and has changed the criteria somewhat this
year (see below). She is also starting a Cheat
Watershed drawing contest for students.
2008 Cheat River Watershed Drawing Contest
As a way of educating and creating awareness of our Cheat River Watershed, we invite students in grades K-12 to submit a drawing that
portrays the mission statement of the Friends
of the Cheat, “To restore, preserve, and promote the outstanding qualities of the Cheat
River Watershed”. These entries should reflect
the beauty, the inhabitants, the benefits, or the
problems that can affect the aquatic life in the watershed. All Drawings must be received at the
Friends of the Cheat office by 12pm March
7th, 2008. Send in your name, address, phone
number and email address (if applicable) with all
submissions. There will be one winner from each
of the following 4 age categories: K-2nd, 3rd-6th,
7th-9th, and 10th-12th. Winners will receive two
passes to the 2008 Cheat River Festival , plus a
Clay Art by Gail watershed token. All entries will
be displayed in the Friends of the Cheat booth at
the 2008 Cheat River Festival. For additional information visit our website at www.cheat.org or
call (304) 329-3621
Second Annual T-shirt Design Contest
This contest is open to all that have graphic
design or photography skills that can create a
design or image that best represents the mission
statement of the Friends of the Cheat (see drawing contest). Other judging criteria would include
the quality of the entry for screen printing, creativity, and artistic merit.
Only digital artwork or good quality photos will
be accepted for this contest. Non vectored multicolored art should be a high resolution (300 dpi
or greater) tiff, psd, or jpg provided at 100% of
the desired final print size. The file format of
choice would be Adobe Photoshop or a generic
eps file for vectored art. A printed copy of your
design will be required for judging. Artwork
should not exceed 15”x 18”. Trademarked or
copyrighted images or logos of any kind will not
be accepted.
One winner will be chosen, but the judging
committee reserves the right not to use the design or photo for the t-shirt. All entries will be displayed in the Friends of the Cheat booth at the
2008 Cheat River Festival. The winner will receive a free one year membership to the Friends
of the Cheat, two Passes to the 2008 Cheat
River Festival, plus a Cheat River Festival t-shirt,
along with recognition for the best graphic design
or photo entered. All entries must be received
by 12pm March 7th, 2008. Please submit your
name, address, phone number, and email address (if applicable) with all entries. For additional information visit our website at
www.cheat.org or call (304) 329-3621
Into the Canyon - 10 - Friends of the Cheat
Why Get Involved with the Friends of the Cheat?
From its headwaters in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, the Cheat River flows 157 miles to the Pennsylvania state line. In its lower 20 miles the river has been so severely polluted by acid mine drainage that it is
effectively dead. Most of this damage is caused by underground and surface coal mines that were abandoned decades ago. The continuing legacy of this pollution has been the loss of fish and wildlife, aesthetic
damage, degraded drinking water, and losses to the local economy from diminished recreation activities
such as fishing and boating.
Our objective is to foster cooperative efforts by federal and state agencies, private industry, and local
landowners to address the severe acid mine drainage problems that paint the Cheat Canyon orange and
render it ecologically sterile. We need your support to create a new legacy for the Cheat River. Our membership includes fishermen, paddlers, guides and outfitters; land owners and renters; politicians and activists;
geologists and biologists; small businesses and large industries; residents and folks from many states away.
We are a diverse group with a common goal. Ours is a vision of a healthy river that provides multiple recreational opportunities and sustains viable local economies.
Help us make that vision a reality. Remember...Rivers carry the lifeblood of the planet... but they
should not run red. Restore water quality on the Cheat!
Consider making a planned gift to Friends of the Cheat in your estate planning. Making us a beneficiary of
a retirement plan, insurance policy or as a bequest can provide you or someone you designate with
favorable financial or tax benefits.
Become a member by completing the form below or by visiting our website at www.cheat.org.
Yes, I Want to Be a Friend of the Cheat!
Membership and Donation Form
All donations are tax-deductible
Membership includes our newsletter Into the Canyon
Basic Membership
___ Individual/family $20
___ Non-profit Organization $50
___ Business $100
Supporting Contributors
___ Stream Steward $100-$249 includes ball cap
with FOC logo and video Catalyst for Change
___ Watershed Watch $250 or more includes Tshirt & video
Contribution for Preston Rail-Trail Committee _______ (make check out to Friends of the Cheat)
T-shirt - $15 Short sleeve ($10 with $50 or more donation) $20 Long sleeve
Size __ Kids Large __ Adult Small __ Medium __ Large __ XLarge __ XXLarge
Choose ___Cheat Map Shirt or ___ Cheatfest shirt Choose ___ Men’s style ___ Women’s style
Cap – Low Profile Twill Cap with FOC logo. Khaki, dark green, tan $15.00 ______
Total amount enclosed: $____________ Payable to: Friends of the Cheat
119 S. Price Street, Suite 206
Kingwood, WV 26537-1478
Name _________________________________
Address _________________________________________________
City, State, Zip _________________________________________________
Email ____________________________________________________________
Into the Canyon - 11 - Friends of the Cheat
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Friends of the Cheat
119 S.Price Street, Suite 206
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when your membership expires. Renew to continue
your support.
Loss of Doug Ferris
Friends of the Cheat mourns the death of
Doug Ferris on December 29, due to complications of surgery.
Doug joined us in February 2006 as an OSM
VISTA. An ardent fly fisherman and conservationist, he had retired from an illustrious career
in cancer research. He was an incredibly accomplished individual. As well as his PhD in biology, he had a very wide range of interests and
passions. He was an inspiring teacher with excellent presentation skills.
His strong scientific background allowed him
to quickly understand the chemistry of acid
mine drainage. Soon he had reorganized our
database and taught all of us the importance of
rigorously checking our data for accuracy. As
his comprehension of all of the compiled water
quality information about our watershed grew,
he advised us that project designs needed to
be altered to adjust to the increased understanding of the hydrology of the area.
His contribution to our work was tremendous,
and he will never be replaced. Our hearts go
out to his most courageous widow, Melanie
Nichols, sister Martha Ferris, and his daughters
Diana and Carla.