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Muddy Creek Targeted Watershed Initiative: Strategic AMD Restoration

This initiative aims to restore and preserve water resources in the Muddy Creek and Lower Cheat Watersheds through a holistic, science-based approach. It evaluates different approaches for remediating AMD and emphasizes the importance of strategic planning and coordinated project management. Partnerships with public and private sector organizations are crucial for implementing successful restoration plans.

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Muddy Creek Targeted Watershed Initiative: Strategic AMD Restoration

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  1. Muddy Creek Targeted Watershed Initiative:Strategic AMD Restoration Rick Herd, Jennifer Fulton and Paul Ziemkiewicz West Virginia Water Research Institute WV Mine Drainage Task Force Symposium April 10, 2007

  2. Overview • Targeted Watershed Grant Objectives • Background • Technical Approach • Implications

  3. EPA Targeted Watershed Grants Program • Purpose- encourages innovative solutions to achieving measurable water quality improvements at watershed scale • Objective- to restore and preserve water resources through strategic planning and coordinated project management that draw in public and private sector partners • Goal- advance successful partnerships and coalitions to implement technically sound watershed restoration/protection plans

  4. Partners • Friends of the Cheat • River of Promise • WVDEP Special Rec and AML • OSM • WVU--NMLRC and Watershed Technical Assistance Center (WTAC)

  5. Implementation of the Watershed Based Plan for AMD Remediation in the Cheat River Watershed, WV • Primary objective- restore 27 stream miles ( six 303(d) listings) in Muddy Creek and Lower Cheat Watersheds • Secondary objective- evaluate and compare the efficacy (cost and ecological benefit) of four approaches for remediating AMD: • Passive at-source • Active at-source • Active in-stream • Combination of above (hybrid)

  6. What We Know About Passive At-Source AMD Treatment (Traditional Approach) • Significant number of diffuse and spatially distributed sources • Landowner access agreements difficult and sometimes impossible to obtain • Individual access roads can be costly • long-term effectiveness of passive technologies uncertain • It will take much longer and cost much more to restore water quality with passive at-source treatment alone

  7. What We know About Active In-Stream AMD Treatment • Achieves an economy of scale producing greater benefits, more quickly at less cost In more stream miles (Ziemkiewicz, 2006) • Reduces risk by Increasing performance certainty • Sacrifices some amount of stream habitat • Requires long term O&M • Compatible with EPA’s “Watershed Approach”

  8. Strategic Approach to Watershed Restoration • Integrate chemical, biological and habitat data into GIS watershed modeling framework • Quantify the ecological value (EUs) in terms of historic, current and recoverable • Iterate location and type of least cost projects to maximize benefits (link EU recovery) • Design and implement projects • Monitor and assess outcome • Adapt and modify if necessary

  9. EcoUnit Concept = a quantitative measurement of the structural/functional ecological value of a stream (length or surface area). ***scalable from stream segment to whole watershed ***decision making “currency” Examples: Coldwater Fishery EcoUnit Warmwater Fishery EcoUnit Organic Matter Processing EcoUnit. Biological Diversity EcoUnit Applications: Strategic Watershed Restoration Development of Mitigation Offset Credits Development of Water Quality Trading Credits

  10. EU Applications • Petty, J. T., and D. Thorne. 2005. An ecologically based approach to identifying restoration priorities in an acid-impacted watershed. Restoration Ecology 13:348-357. • Developed a coldwater fishery EU to conduct a cost:benefit analysis of various limestone sand remediation alternatives in the upper Shavers Fork watershed. • Merovich, G. T., Jr., and J. T. Petty. 2007. Interactive effects of multiple stressors and restoration priorities in a mined Appalachian watershed. Hydrobiologia 575:13-31. • Developed an invertebrate diversity EU to assess the benefits of AMD treatment as an alternative offset to impacts from thermal effluent to the Cheat River mainstem. • Poplar-Jeffers, I. and J. T. Petty. 2007. Culvert replacement and stream restoration: application to brook trout management in an Appalachian watershed. Restoration Ecology (IN PRESS). • Applied the coldwater fishery EU to identify culvert replacement priorities and assess the benefits of culvert replacement as a form of mitigation for road related impacts to streams.

  11. General Equations for EU Calculation • EU=Stream Surface Area (ac) X Observed WVSCI/Max WVSCI • Coldwater EU = fn (drainage area, elevation, canopy cover, habitat quality, water quality) • Warmwater EU = fn (drainage area, gradient, water quality)

  12. Muddy Creek AML and BF sites

  13. EU Loss Within the Targeted Watershed Area

  14. Historic, Current, Lost, and Recoverable EcoUnits in each 12-Digit HUC subwatersheds of the lower Cheat River.

  15. EcoUnit Recovery Under Various Restoration Alternatives in the Upper Shavers Fork of the Cheat River

  16. Summary • Traditional AMD restoration is expensive and time consuming; outcomes uncertain • A holistic science-based strategic watershed approach produces greater benefits more quickly at less cost and risk • Anticipated Outcome- inform future AMD restoration policy and demonstrate a currency for mitigation/WQ trading credits

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