Dec 2, 2013 By Erin Hayes for The 5 min read

As a lifelong resident of Redstone Township, John Piwowar remembers a time when the area produced more coal that anywhere else in the world, when the night skies were lit by the continuous burning of coke ovens and when the economy was vibrant and attracted an influx of immigrants, including his grandfather.

But after a century of mining, Piwowar said the area is now known for its high poverty rate and a “subtle ugliness” that exists in the otherwise beautiful countryside. What Fayette County has inherited, Piwowar said, are polluted creeks discolored from abandoned mine drainage and a general lack of appreciation of the county’s attributes.

“We live in an area that was at one time vibrant and strong with the coal industry. What we inherited today is a creek that is supposed to run clear but now looks like orange soda,” Piwowar said of the iron oxide deposits that foul the water. “You don’t have to be an environmentalist, you just have to be a realist to see that that’s not right.”

Piwowar was moved to do something about restoring the area to its natural beauty and became active in the Greater Redstone Clearwater Initiative (GRCI), formed in 2000 at a time when the state Department of Environmental Protection was encouraging the formation of such organizations, Piwowar said. The community-based watershed association’s mission was the restoration of the 129-square-mile Redstone Creek watershed in Fayette County.

But after a decade of promoting community awareness, conducting assessments and brainstorming ideas to clean up the water, the organization ran out of funding, and interest dwindled. It also lost valuable leadership with the death a few years ago of Dave Leone, an environmental engineer by trade who was a passionate supporter of GRCI and instrumental in securing the many grants the organization needed to operate.

With the recent passage of Act 13 that makes available monies collected in the form of impact fees from natural gas drilling companies, however, funding now, again, will be available, and the organization is readying itself for new action with an upcoming reorganizational meeting to re-elect board members. Also at the meeting, Jon Dietz of Iron Oxide Technologies will explain the latest grant proposal for the mitigation of Phillips discharge, one of the worse sources of pollution of Redstone Creek, according to Piwowar.

“We know what we need to do,” Piwowar said of the options available to GRCI, fondly referred to as “Gracie” by its members.

Following the receipt of a Growing Greener grant several years ago, the group was able to assess the watershed and identify the problems plaguing it, which continue to be iron oxide contamination, illegal dumping and sewage in the creek and its tributaries. There also is contamination from agricultural pollution, but that fourth problem “is so overshadowed by the previous three, it’s incredible,” Piwowar said.

To combat the problem of iron oxide in the water, the organization plans to use a patented mechanical process developed by Dietz that pumps air into the water and forces the separation of contaminants. The end result is an abundance of iron oxide, for which there is a market, Piwowar said, and up to 7 million gallons a day of potentially potable water.

Piwowar said the project is expected to cost about $6 million and “is no small deal”, adding that in addition to the purchase of equipment, maintenance will be necessary, and a few acres of land will need to be acquired.

The option of using the “passive method” — simply allowing the water to collect in a large pond or pool where the iron oxide is able to settle at the bottom — was ruled out when it was determined that method requires larger areas of land, Piwowar said.

The area is riddled with abandoned mines, and, up until the 1960s, the water that seeped into them was pumped from those cavities in the earth. But that water now drains naturally, bursting through at the “point of least resistance” known as the Phillips discharge, which gushes 4,500 gallons of water a minute into the creek.

“That’s quite impressive,” Piwowar said of the force of the discharge.

Other problems plaguing the creek include a lack of appreciation for it, and GRCI has in the past participated in cleanup projects with area schools.

In one 100-yard section of the creek, volunteers pulled 94 tires from the water. In another section further upstream and closer to Uniontown, they removed 37 shopping carts, finding out later that youths were taking the carts and riding them downhill before dumping them. Over the years, volunteers have removed truckloads of trash, Piwowar said, include carpets.

“It’s disgusting what people do with that creek,” Piwowar said, noting that the problem with illegal dumping has greatly decreased now that communities are participating in mandatory garbage pickup. “People have viewed Redstone Creek as a dump — that’s the problem.”

The reorganizational meeting, which is open to the public, will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11, at the Conservation District offices in Nickman Plaza on Connellsville Street in North Union Township.