Reports and Special Projects

2012-2017 summary report of SOS Program activities.

The West Virginia Save Our Streams Program's major goal is to improve and protect the water quality of the rivers and streams of our state. Two primary and equal objectives are used to accomplish this goal.

Elkhorn Creek has not been flowing in a truly natural stream channel since serious coal mining started in the region. The stream was moved in many stretches to accommodate roads, railroads, houses, towns and coal mines. In several stretches one or both banks ofthe stream is a rock wall, a concrete wall, a timber crib wall, or a railroad embankment consisting of rock, gravel and other materials. In many sections the stream bank is a gob pile and coal fines are piled everywhere.

Upper Glade Run is a rather unique system due to the hydrologic influences exerted by the two-acre lake at its headwaters. This lake was built more than 50 years ago for recreational purposes but in many ways has behaved as a flood control structure for most of the watershed.

In 2004, The Mountain Institute (TMI) received funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to implement a watershed education project involving students and educators who live in West Virginia's Potomac River watershed. As part of a broader effort to educate the public about the compromised and increasingly stressed health of the Chesapeake Bay and its headwaters, Potomac Stream Samplers was designed by TMI to raise awareness of the connection between regions within the Potomac River drainage and the Bay itself.

In this study, information was collected regarding the habitat condition, channel profile, and discharge of key waterways within the Piney Creek watershed. ​