Legislature asked to get involved
News Article on this first day of fall
A link to the Pittsburgh Journals' article http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09263/999458-113.stm?cmpid=news.xml
. . .as well as the Dominion Post's: http://olive.dominionpost.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=RFBvc3QvMjAwOS8wOS8yMiNBcjAwOTA0&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
September 21, 2009
On September 8, I heard that people along 20 miles of Dunkard's Creek in Mon County and s.w. PA had started to notice strange things. Dead fish, some so enormous it took two men to lift them, began floating up on the creek banks. Pike and Muskies. The usually deep green water had turned a strange orange. A horrible smell hung on the creek.
Curious (and otherwise helpless,) today I borrowed a friend's waders and sloshed out into Dunkard Creek to see for myself what is happening there. It was raining. I found everything in the creek dead, except for one huge fish, decaying as he swam. His huge dorsal fin was in ribbons as he struggled along. Hundreds of smaller fish were crowded up the mouth of one tiny tributary of clean water that flows into the poisoned creek. This little stream was packed with the surviving fish, like a living sardine can. Elsewhere, it is bodies bodies bodies.
There were herons and crows. Will they die as well?
I heard it might be Consol's Blacksville #2 Mine that has released the poison. I heard the coal mines were blaming G-20 protesters in Pittsburgh. I do not think the test results are in yet, but I heard one person tasted the water and said it tasted salty.
The sign in the first picture reads:
"DEAD ZONE
Who Murdered !!
Dunkard Creek?
And who will Save IT?
Please Help to Find
Out!
For the
Love of
the
Creek!
Save our Creek"
The woman in the final picture told me her family had lived on the Creek for 45 years. She said 'My heart is broken. I grew up here. I think it is gone forever."
Think of all the little orange streams you've seen around. This is another little piece of WV history, I guess, different only in that it is happening RIGHT NOW.
12/20/2011 10:37:03 PM - 004072814340
PHYLLIS CARR DEC 20 2011 AS I LOOK AROUND EVERY THING AROUND US IS BEING DESTROYED THE LIFE OF OUR FISH TO THE LIFE OF OUR TREES TO THE LIFE OF OUR AIR TO THE LIFE OF OUR WATERS TO THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE HOW DO WE STOP WHAT IS HAPPENING TO US I DONT KNOW . MY FAMILY AND I WERE NEVER SICK BEFORE JUST LIKE THE FISH WE STARTED WITH HEADACHES BURNING SKIN BURNING EYES BONES HURTING SO BAD NOTHING WOULD HELP AT TIMES I COULDNT EVEN REMEMBER MY NAME . MY FIVE GRANDCHILDREN WOULD CRY HOUR AFTER FROM THE PAIN THEY WOULD HAVE FROM THE BLISTERS UP THERE NOSE TO THE BURNING OF THE SKIN WE COULD NOT FIGURE WHERE THIS ALL CAME FROM TILL WE HAD OUR AIR TESTED AND OUT THERE WHERE WE HAD PICNICS PLAYED BASKETBALL TO PLAYING FOOTBALL THAT WAS MY THREE GRANDSONS VERY BEST SPORT . OUR AIR WAS FOUND WITH 48CHEMICALES IN IT THE PLACE WE CALLED HOME FOR MY FAMILY AND ME WAS BEING INVATED BY SOMETHING WE NEW NOTHING ABOUT AND NEITHER DID OUR DOCTORS THEY TO WERE LEFT IN A FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES AND STILL OUR WHAT CAUSED THIS WE HAD THE ENEMY OF THREE GAS COMPRESSORS FIVE WELLS THAT HAD US BOXED IN AND US WITH NO WHERE TO GO JUST LIKE THE FISH THEY HAD NO WHERE TO RUN TO SAFETY . AND NOW THERE OUR SO MANY OF US NOW WHO OUR SUFFERING THE SAME THING YOU HEAR STORY AFTER STORY FROM TOWN TO TOWN IVE SAT AT NIGHT CRYING WHEN MY DAUGHTER AND I PUT THE CHILDREN TO BED HOPEING SOME ONE WOULD COME TO OUR RESCUE JUST LIKE THE FISH MUST OF FELT WHO IS GOING TO HELP US .THEM NOT KNOWING THEY WERE GOING TO DIE AND HOW LONG IS IT BEFORE WE OUR GOING TO BE JUST LIKE THE FISH BEFORE SOME ONE STOPS THIS RUSH FOR GAS AND GIVE US BACK OUR LIVES WE ONCED HAD WILL IT BE TO LATE IF THEY OUR LEFT GO AT KILLING EVERY THING WE THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA HAD WORKED FOR . LOOK AROUND I HAVE AND WHAT I SEE IS BEING TAKEN AWAY AS I SPEAK .THE FISH BUILT THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE ON EARTH FOR US TO SEE THEY CLEANED THE WATERS FOR US WE OWE THE FISH PROECTION FROM HERE ON IN . DUNKARD FISH WE OUR ALL GOING TO MISS YOU PROECTING US YOU OUR A TRUE FREND TO ME.
9/23/2009 6:34:26 PM - 002089448718
This just breaks my heart.
9/23/2009 2:25:53 AM - 002089440304
Hi Ann -- Good foryou for creating this great site -- the streaming photos are great. I'm sitting here digesting the obvious signs of poisoning, and what look like possible sulfides (anything accumulating in the nearshore pools?) -- those shiny surficial scums... I don't suppose you looked at any of the fish in dissection, for swollen bladders / gills... not that i really know what to look for. If you lift up a rock from the stream and put it in a bucket, do dead insects come off of it? These are all bad signs. I'm going to start poking my nose where I can. Oh, the Marcellus, supposedly great treasure, another dog we should have let lie...
9/22/2009 2:40:52 PM - 002089528622
Hi, Anne. This is tragic. Did you see today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on Dunkard? Seems likely it is from illegal Marcellus brine waste disposal. I pray they catch whoever did this.
And did you catch NPR's Morning Edition today, interviewing a Marcellus gas industry rep about how wonderful this Marcellus is going to be? We have to get to NRP -- I already sent in comment. you might go to their website and at the bottom is a Contact Us in which you post your comments. you could give them your webiste - it is so powerful.
Mary