A ceremony to mark the activation of four water treatment dosers on headwater streams of Three Fork Creek is scheduled for 1 p.m., Thursday, April 21, at the Pell School Road Site.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Abandoned Mine Lands program is funding the $750,000 project, which aims to restore 21 miles of trout stream in Preston and Taylor counties. The four dosers will dump acid-neutralizing alkaline materials into Three Fork’s tributaries, which have been impaired for decades by acid mine drainage from pre-law mining operations.
Dosers will operate on South Fork of Birds Creek; North Fork of Birds Creek; Squires Creek; and Raccoon Creek. Three Fork Creek, which runs through Preston and Taylor counties, empties into the Tygart Valley River at Grafton.
West Virginia’s AML program will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the dosers, as well as for some of the post-treatment water quality monitoring on the stream.