Recovery of Coldwater Ecosystems Following Treatment of Abandoned Mine Drainage:

Looking Beyond Water Quality to Determine Successful Treatment

Shawn Rummel, Ph.D.Field and Research Coordinator

Trout Unlimited, Eastern Abandoned Mine Programsrummel@tu.org

Outline• Impacts of AMD on

aquatic ecosystems• Prioritizing areas for

successful recovery• Biological recovery in the

Twomile Run watershed• Morphometrics of brook

trout– Direct and Indirect effects

of AMD on brook trout

Impact of AMD on Aquatic Ecosystems• Water Quality

– Decreased pH– Increased metal concentrations; Fe, Al, Mn

• Habitat– Precipitating metals often coat substrate (limits benthic

macroinvertebrate habitat and fish spawning habitat)• Benthic Macroinvertebrates & Fish

– Loss of pollution sensitive taxa– Decreased growth, reproduction, or death– Increased avoidance behavior or movements for mobile

organisms– Dissolved metals are toxic to fish (Al > 0.5 mg/L)– High metal concentrations interrupt respiration in fish

Effects on Invertebrates

Sub-Lethal Effects on Fish

Sub-lethal

AMD

Small Stream Food Web

AMD Treatment• Passive Treatment

– Series of ponds (filled with limestone and organic material) & wetlands to increase pH and precipitate heavy metals

• Active Treatment– basic chemicals such as

hydrated lime, quick lime, or soda ash, are added to the water. This increases the pH and removes metals.

• Remining

Objectives of AMD Treatment

• Although objectives may vary amongst projects, typically there are two main objectives of AMD treatment:

1. Improve water quality

2. Restore ecological function• Restore native fish populations

Passive Treatment in PA

Scarlift Report1972

Benchmark Project2009

Conservation Success Index (CSI)• Developed for all native salmonids

in North America• 20 indicator variables

– Range-wide condition, habitat integrity, population integrity, and future security

• 1st Tier Analysis:– ID most important opportunities for

protection, reconnection, restoration, reintroduction, and monitoring

• 2nd Tier Analysis:– Info on small population persistence,

metapopulation dynamics, climate change, energy development, and invasive species

– Used to inform management decisions

Pennsylvania CSI

Biological Recovery in Middle Branch (Twomile Run)

• Objective:– Document recovery of benthic macroinvertebrates

and fishery over time following passive treatment of AMD

• MB treatment system rehabilitated in 2007

Mean (St.Dev.) Water Quality Data

MB UPS Raw Discharge MB DWS (before)

MB DWS (after)

pH 5.49 (0.37) 3.21 (0.27) 4.56 (0.61) 5.94 (0.36)

Cond (µS) 41.72 (19.13) 886.14 (524.58) 200.68 (83.74) 105.06 (35.67)

Alkalinity (mg/L) 3.64 (1.91) 0 (0) 1.30 (2.20) 9.61 (8.06)

Acidity (mg/L) 7.31 (3.62) 230.65 (208.33) 33.58 (18.14) 3.46 (4.35)

Fe (mg/L) 0.08 (0.09) 3.33 (4.89) 0.19 (0.18) 0.12 (0.13)

Mn (mg/L) 0.04 (0.05) 10.87 (6.21) 1.33 (0.81) 0.16 (0.08)

Al (mg/L) 0.12 (0.10) 29.97 (26.91) 3.72 (2.86) 0.24 (0.20)

• What should successful restoration look like? What is the end goal of project?

• Important to establish realistic control sites to monitor success of restoration project• Unimpaired areas

within the watershed • Unimpaired areas in

adjacent watersheds with similar characteristics

Benthic Macroinvertebrates

DWS Treatment UPS

2008 2010 2012 2013 2012

Total Abundance 3 46 124 235 225

Total Taxa Richness 3 7 15 21 15

EPT Taxa Richness 1 6 8 9 8

% Sensitive Individuals 33.3 97.8 55.6 40.0 47.6

IBI Score* 30.4 53.9 56.7 53.0 55.7

Brook Trout Recoveryin Middle Branch

a) Density of Brook Trout b) Size Class Distributionof Brook Trout

Pennsylvania CSI

PA Unassessed Waters Initiative• PA has >86,000 miles of streams/rivers (2nd only to Alaska)• 58,000 waters have not been surveys• UWI launched in 2010 by PFBC in collaboration with 15 partners (as

of 2013)

PA Unassessed Waters Initiative2010 2011 2012

PFBC Partners 88 438 626

PFBC Staff 217 304 261

Total305 742 887

(516 miles) (1,762 miles) (2,057 miles)

3 year total – 1,934 streams sampled; 4,335 miles of stream

175 new streams added to the wild trout list (516 miles of wild trout water)

PA Unassessed Waters Initiative2009 2012

• Highlights the importance of completing proper assessments prior to any restoration/improvement project.

• Do not just rely on DEP designation or PFBC status of stream• Examine if/what biological data currently exist

Objectives:1. Test for differences in invertebrate density

and diversity between an unimpacted stream and a stream with sub-lethal AMD impact.

2. Test for differences in brook trout body shape between an unimpacted stream and a

stream with sub-lethal AMD impact.

Morphological Differences in Brook TroutCollaboration between LHU and TU

Electroshocking

Surber Sampler

Results: Direct Impacts of Sub-lethal AMD on Invertebrates

Unimpacted Sub-Lethal AMD Isolated

Density (#/m2) 228.0 53.1 112.5

Species Richness

17 8 14

EPT Richness 11 3 7Percent EPT .837 .585 .467Simpson’s Diversity Index .796 .881 .802

Biotic Index 1.79 3.01 3.32

Traditional Morphometrics and Digital Photographs:

Use of photographs and landmarks to identify locations to measure between.

Geometric Morphometrics: Utilize the X and Y coordinates of landmarks to conduct multivariate analyses.

Step 1: Adjusts all fish to the same size (scaling).

Step 2: Calculates the average shape fish (the average location of each landmark). = Consensus configuration

Step 3: Compares the landmark locations for each fish to the average landmark location.

1

2 3

4

5

6

78

9

10

11

1213

RW1

2

3

4

56

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

4748

49

5051

52

5354

55

5657

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

6667

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

9495

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168169170

171

172

173174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181182

183

184

185 186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212213

214

215

216

217

218

219

220

221

222

Above AMD

Below AMD

Larrys Creek

Fatter

SkinnierRW1: 20.7%RW2: 15.5%

ogr

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

1718

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45 46 47

4849

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68 69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112 113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121122

123124

125

126127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161162

163164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171172

173174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

220

221222

Disproportionately Large Mouths

Disproportionately Small Mouths

RW3: 11.9%

Summary - Morphometrics

• Invertebrates: There is lower density and diversity of invertebrates in sub-lethal AMD streams

• Trout: Trout are skinnier in sub-lethal AMD streams

• Within isolated site, entire range of skinny to fat fish present

Ongoing/Future Research

• Continue long-term biological data set on post-treatment recovery– Expand to other watershed to investigate trends in

recovery• Expand morphological study• Age structure and growth rate comparisons• Brook trout movement and genetics in

isolated systems• Thermal impacts of passive treatment systems

Conclusions• Important to prioritize AMD restoration work,

especially if goal is to restore native fish populations – Target areas with adequate source populations

• On-the-ground biological surveys are necessary pre- and post-remediation of AMD

• Long-term data sets are rare, but necessary to understand if biological restoration is successful– Important to communicate this point to potential

funders that are often most interested in short-term outcomes and “shovel-ready” projects