> From: <dep.online(a)wv.gov>
> Date: September 7, 2016 at 10:28:51 AM EDT
> Subject: DEP Public Notice - WV NPDES Water Pollution Control Permit - Monongalia County - Morgantown Utility Board
> ======================================================
> Wednesday, September 7, 2016
> ======================================================
>
> STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA
> DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
> DIVISION OF WATER AND WASTE MANAGEMENT
>
> …
[View More]PUBLIC NOTICE
>
> WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION'S, PUBLIC INFORMATION
> OFFICE, 601 57TH STREET, CHARLESTON SE, WEST VIRGINIA 25304-2345 TELEPHONE:
> (304) 926-0440.
>
> APPLICATION FOR A WEST VIRGINIA NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM
> WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PERMIT
>
> Public Notice No.: L-77-16 Public Notice Date: September
> 14, 2016
>
> Paper: Dominion Post
>
> The following has applied for a WV NPDES Water Pollution Control Permit for
> this facility or activity:
>
> Appl. No.: WV0083071
>
> Applicant: MORGANTOWN UTILITY BD
> 278 GREENBAG RD
> PO BOX 852
> MORGANTOWN, WV 26507-0852
>
> Location: MORGANTOWN, MONONGALIA COUNTY
>
> Latitude: 39:40:51 Longitude: 79:52:03
>
> Receiving Stream:
> CHEAT RIVER
>
> Activity: To operate and maintain an existing 750,000 gallons per day sewage collection and treatment system. The system is designed to serve approximately 10,000 persons or equivalents in the Cheat Lake and surrounding environs and discharge treated wastewater, via Outlet 001, to the Cheat River (Lake), approximately 9.4 miles from its mouth of the Monongahela River. Sewage sludge generated and/or processed at the Cheat Lake wastewater treatment facility shall be pumped and transported to the Morgantown Utility Board's main treatment facility for ultimate treatment and disposal. An antidegradation review has been conducted and Tier 1 protection is provided for the uses specified in Title 47, Series 2, Section 6.
>
> Business conducted:
> Municipality
>
> On the basis of review of the application, the "Water Pollution Control Act (Chapter 22, Article 11-8(a))," and the "West Virginia Legislative Rules," the State of West Virginia will act on the above application.
>
> Any interested person may submit written comments on the draft permit and may request a public hearing by addressing such to the Director of the Division of Water and Waste Management within 30 days of the date of the public notice. Such comments or requests should be addressed to:
>
> Director, Division of Water and Waste Management, DEP
> ATTN: Lori Devereux, Permitting Section
> 601 57th Street SE
> Charleston, WV 25304-2345
>
> The public comment period begins September 14, 2016 and ends October 14, 2016.
>
> Comments received within this period will be considered prior to acting on the permit application. Correspondence should include the name, address and the telephone number of the writer and a concise statement of the nature of the
> issues raised. The Director shall hold a public hearing whenever a finding is made, on the basis of requests, that there is a significant degree of public interest on issues relevant to the Draft Permit(s). Interested persons may contact the public information office to obtain further information.
>
> The application, draft permit and any required fact sheet may be
> inspected, by appointment, at the Division of Water and Waste Management Public Information Office, at 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV 25304-2345, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on business days. Copies of the documents may be obtained from the Division at a nominal cost. Calls must be made 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
> =====================================================
>
>
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WVU's freshman community service in Preston County was great success
From an Article by John Dahlia, Preston County News & Review,August 19, 2016
This year’s incoming freshman class at West Virginia University represents one of the largest ever at WVU — around 5,400. According to WVU enrollment officials, that number is up 7.6 percent from last year. More often than not, those first-time Mountaineers do not know or have any desire of visiting or learning about the area, including …
[View More]neighboring Preston County.
But thanks to a new university initiative, all first-year students will have an opportunity to participate in area community service projects — some of which took place right here.
Dozens of students spent many hours working on two projects. The first was at Coopers Rock. Students began working on various projects on Sunday, August 7th, through this past Tuesday, August 16th. The work was coordinated by the Coopers Rock Foundation, West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and Adventure WV. The work accomplished included general repair and clean-up efforts at the park.
Adventure WV is mainly an Outdoor Orientation Program for incoming WVU first-year students that has expanded to include an outdoor recreation center, climbing wall, outdoor education center, challenge course, zip canopy tour, international study abroad programs, leadership training opportunities, and many other outdoor and experiential education programs.
Adventure WV provides new Mountaineers a comprehensive development of adventure education programming for students of all levels, supporting adjustment to college life, retention, and career success by assisting student development in self-knowledge, teamwork, and leadership skills.
The second and much more ambitious community service effort was with the Friends of the Cheat organization and its continuing effort to protect the waters in and around the Cheat River.
On Tuesday, August 16, 25 WVU students helped the Friends of the Cheat with its stream monitoring effort. The student volunteers were broken into five groups who traveled to different sampling sites in the Sovern Run watershed.
The Sovern Run watershed is a sub-watershed of the Big Sandy Creek watershed, which is part of the Cheat River watershed. Because acid mine drainage from abandoned coal mines has impaired the Sovern Run watershed, it needs to be consistently monitored.
According to FOC Director Amanda Pitzer, each group paddled the Cheat Narrows with Cheat River Outfitters and worked with FOC staff. The restoration of Sovern Run has been one of the FOC’s biggest successes.
Both service projects were certainly a giant help to the folks who work and support Coopers Rock State Park and, of course, the exceptional staff with the Friends of the Cheat. The initiative also gave a good number of WVU’s newest and brightest the chance to learn a little about Preston County and at the same time meet some great people.
We commend WVU for this outstanding community-centric initiative and sincerely hope those students who spent some time here decide to head back to enjoy the sights, events, tastes and people that make our beloved Preston County such a wonderful place.
See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net
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http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/snails-going-extin…
Snails Are Going Extinct: Here's Why That Matters - Scientific American
From John R. Platt, Scientific American, August 10, 2016
Ah, snails. They’re small. They’re slimy. They lack the charisma of a polar bear or a gorilla. And yet just like flora and fauna all over the world, they’re disappearing.
In Hawaii, a critically endangered snail called Achatinella fuscobasis has been brought into captivity to help learn …
[View More]how to keep them alive in the wild. In Alabama, conservation groups have petitioned to add the oblong rocksnail (Leptoxis compacta) to the Endangered Species List. In New Zealand, a snail known only as Rhytida oconnori has found itself constrained to a habitat just one square kilometer in size. On Fiji, scientists have expressed an “urgent need” to keep the island’s unique tree snails from going extinct. That fate may have already happened to three snail species in Malaysia after a mining company wiped out their only habitats, a series of limestone hills.
That’s just scratching the surface. By my count, nearly 140 scientific papers about endangered snails have been published so far this year.
All of which begs the question: why does the extinction of a snail matter?
Obviously the answer to that question depends on the exact species, but we can make generalizations. Many birds, fish and other species rely on snails as important parts of their diets. Most land snail species consume fungi and leaf litter, helping with decomposition, and many are carnivores, so they help keep other species in check.
Beyond that, there’s actually a lot that we can learn from snails. “From the most practical standpoint, snails have a few pretty interesting characteristics that tell us we should probably pay attention,” says snail researcher Rebecca Rundell, assistant professor at State University of New York. For one thing, their shells—which they carry with them their entire lives (because they’d die without them)—are made of calcium carbonate, which provides a record of their lives. Unlike plant husks or insect exoskeletons, these shells tend to persist after a snail has died, leaving behind a valuable tool for researchers. “We can look in marine sediment and pockets of soil for evidence of past ecological communities, and thus evidence for environmental change in a particular area,” she says.
Living snails can also serve as indicators when something is wrong with the environment, something we’re already seeing with ocean acidification. “If snails in the ocean that make their shells, their protection, exclusively from calcium carbonate are having trouble building them, then that means the ocean is in big trouble,” Rundell says.
They can provide similar clues on land, where land snails often have particularly narrow habitat requirements. “They need certain levels of moisture, shade, and decaying matter,” Rundell says. “When they don't have this, they start dying off.”
That’s just the start: if tiny land snails start to disappear, it’s important to ask what might happen next. “It might give you a chance to change course,” she says, “to detect subtle changes that humans might not otherwise be able to see until it is too late.”
Snails also help us to answer bigger questions. “The fact that many of these land snail species have small geographic ranges and that there are many species, make them fascinating subjects for learning about how life on Earth evolved,” Rundell says, adding that “scientists really rely on groups like Pacific island land snails to tell life's story.”
That opportunity, however, is at risk. “We are losing snail species at an astronomical rate,” Rundell says, “one that is equivalent to, if not exceeding, the worldwide rate of loss of amphibians.” Most species have extremely limited ranges, making them, as she puts it, “particularly susceptible to human-induced extinction.”
Meanwhile, the number of people studying snails remains relatively small. “That means we are at a big disadvantage in not only documenting land snail diversity, particularly in the tropics, but also learning from it in terms of what snails have to tell us about how life on Earth evolved,” Rundell says.
Saving snails from extinction is no easy feat. For one thing, their habitats are just too easy to destroy. For another, we don’t even know what it would take to keep most snail species alive in captivity, a function of their narrow microhabitat requirements. “One snail species might be feeding on hundreds of species of fungi that are unique to that particular forest,” Rundell says. “It is very difficult to replicate these diets in the lab.” A handful of captive-breeding efforts have been successful, but Rundell says they are labor-intensive and hard to fund.
Rundell’s own work studying Pacific island snails has shown her what it would take to reverse this snail-extinction trend. “Ultimately what is most important for land snails is the human element: people working together to protect what is most unique, precious, and irreplaceable on these islands—native forest,” she says. “This involves documenting what is there using a combination of field work and the study of natural history museum specimens.
It also involves learning lessons from the past unchecked development such as agriculture and later urbanization, particularly in lowland tropical forests, and figuring out how we can protect as many pieces left as possible.” This, she says, has the “added benefit of leaving parts of the watershed, storm protection, and forest food and medicinal resources intact for people to survive in these places.”
So why does snail extinction matter? Just like everything else, snails are an important piece of the puzzle that makes this planet function. They’re also a way to help us better understand how we got here—and maybe where we’re going.
See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net
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> From: Canaan Valley Institute <alyssa.hanna(a)canaanvi.org>
> Date: July 5, 2016 4:25:54 PM EDT
>
> Subject: Film, food, brews, and fun! Film screenings for the documentary "The Stewards of Shavers Fork"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Announcing the television premier of "The Stewards of Shavers Fork" on Sunday July 10th at 8:00pm!
>
>
>
> Join us for the television premier of
> "The Stewards of …
[View More]Shavers Fork!"
>
>
>
> CVI is thrilled to announce the television premier of Stewards of Shavers Fork on Sunday July 10th at 8:00pm on West Virginia Public Broadcasting's West Virginia Channel!
>
> This short documentary film chronicles how primeval spruce forests, century-old steam locomotives and ghost towns all influenced modern restoration efforts to save the river's brook trout, West Virginia's only native trout. CVI's work reconnecting critical tributary habitats with the Shavers Fork mainstem are highlighted. The film was the inspiration of our long-time partners at West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and WVU and we are grateful for the opportunity to share the Shavers Fork story with a wide audience.
>
> Join members of the cast and crew as well as restoration experts for a watch party at one of these locations around the state at 8 p.m. Sunday, July 10 for the debut.
>
> * Charleston - B&D GastroPub, 200 35th Street
> * Morgantown - Mountain State Brewing Company, 54 Clay Street
> * Elkins - Big Timber Brewing, 1210 S. Davis Avenue
> * Davis - Stumptown Ales, 390 William Avenue
>
> "The Stewards of Shavers Fork" will also air on WV PBS at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, July 11; 7 p.m. on Monday, July 25; and 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on July 26.
>
> For more information on additional show times or to find the West Virginia Channel in your area visit http://wvpublic.org/find-wvpb-television . Also check into the WVPBS website after July 10th to watch the film online!
>
>
> Canaan Valley Institute | (304) 259.4739 | www.canaanvi.org
>
>
>
>
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> Canaan Valley Institute, 494 RiverStone Road, Davis, WV 26260
>
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http://wvmetronews.com/2016/06/20/cheat-river-in-middle-of-a-rebirth/
Cheat River in middle of a “rebirth”
Cheat Canyon near High Falls, photo credit Kent Mason
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — More than a decade of efforts, along with federal funding, have contributed to what’s being called a rebirth of the Cheat River.
“A lot of folks at the state level and local level in cooperation with the EPA have really focused on the Cheat to turn the story around,” explained Jon Capacasa, Director for Water …
[View More]Protection Division of EPA’s Mid Atlantic Region. “Their efforts are paying off.”
Parts of the goals of the non-profit Friends of the Cheat are being met through Clean Water Act funds.
“Cheat River restoration efforts have received more than $5.1 million in support. $2.6 million of that is from EPA’s non point source program. It’s a Clean Water Act program that funds projects to reduce pollution from area sources,” Capacasa added.
Friends of the Cheat released an update that detailed the toll acid mine drainage took on the river.
“The recovery has been dramatic since 1994 when, in the first of two incidents, torrents of polluted water from an illegally-sealed underground mine blew out a hillside and poured into Muddy Creek and then the Cheat River, turning the river orange for 16 miles on the way to Cheat Lake, killing everything in its aquatic path, and bringing greater attention to a history of AMD problems affecting the Cheat.”
Capacasa said funding has helped pay for a passive treatment system.
“Limestone rocks are used to neutralize the acid coming out of these abandoned mines so that before they hit the stream they are made more minimal to aquatic life and the health of the stream.”
Significant changes are noticeable from the work that was underway from 2000 to 2013.
“Restoration work there has reduced acid mine drainage related pollution more than 1.7 million pounds,” Capacasa noted. “More neutral water is more amenable wildlife and aquatic life to survive in.”
Today, the Cheat is host to bass fishing tournaments, a healthy perch population and even pollution-sensitive walleye, according to Friends of the Cheat.
All the while, outdoor enthusiasts are coming back to the Cheat for the thrill of the rapids.
“It means a lot of local outfitters are and small businesses are benefitting with huge numbers of recreational users that are coming back to the river, Capacasa said. “It’s a great economic engine not just a clean water story.”
Duane Nichols, Cell- 304-216-5535.
www.FrackCheckWV.net
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http://www.firehouse.com/news/12205018/bad-road-slows-firefighter-response-…
Bad Roads Slows WV Rescue in the Cheat River Canyon
By Kathy Plum, Morgantown Dominion Post, May 9, 2016
Masontown, WV -- The condition of the road to the Jenkinsburg bridge slowed firefighters as they worked Sunday to rescue an injured rafter.
The Masontown Volunteer Fire Department was called at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, when a man fell from a raft on a trip by a licensed river rafting company. Guides pulled the man …
[View More]from the river and brought him to the riverbank on a raft, Masontown Fire Chief Dan Luzier said.
The problem was getting him to medical care quickly and safely, the chief said. KAMP Ambulance brought an ambulance to the top of the steep, single-lane dirt road, County Route 14/4, that leads from the Masontown side of the bridge to the river. Because of the deteriorating condition of the road, neither the ambulance or fire department trucks were able to go down it.
Firefighters took a side-by-side, a type of ATV, to the river. Normally it's a 15-minute trip from the river to where the ambulance was parked, Luzier said.
"Because of his condition -- with broken bones and we felt he had some internal injuries -- it would have done him more harm," to go on the rough road up to the Masontown side, Luzier said. Had the trip been attempted, he estimated it would have taken 45 minutes to get up the hill, with the patient in a Stokes basket on the all-terrain vehicle.
Instead, firefighters went out by the Bruceton side of the bridge and met Bruceton Ambulance on the Hudson Road, about a 10-minute trip. The ambulance then took the patient to Valley Point, where Bruceton-Brandonville volunteer firefighters set up a landing zone for HealthNet medical helicopter. The man was flown to Ruby Memorial Hospital. Luzier did not know his condition Sunday afternoon.
The area at the Jenkinsburg Bridge or High Bridge, also known as the Blue Hole, is a popular spot for summer entertainment. It is also where rafters put into the Cheat.
Firefighters aren't the only ones to express concerns about the condition of the road. At a recent Preston County Commission meeting, Friends of the Cheat Executive Director Amanda Pitzer and representatives of American Whitewater and Cheat River Outfitters asked county commissioners for help getting it fixed. She noted that emergency vehicles would have problems with access, as well as the potential economic impact.
The last two miles before the river are the worse, Pitzer told commissioners, She said one culvert is especially bad and rock needs to be jackhammered out to make the road passable. The road is single lane most of the way, with a hillside on one side and a sheer drop to the river on the other.
"It's the exact scenario we were worried about," Commission President Craig Jennings said Sunday. "We've got enough situations around here with weather and things that can't be fixed," he said, but this could be.
Friends of the Cheat collected donations of $11,000 in 2014 and $8,000 last year to pay for work on the road, and is collecting them again. Any work they fund must be approved by the State Division of Highways (DOH). The DOH was on the road last month but spokeswoman Carrie Bly told The Dominion Post then that, "We're just doing the basic stuff because in our eyes we have to walk a fine line, because it is a very low-traffic roadway most of the time."
"The Bruceton side's not too bad," Luzier said. "But it's our territory. We're the closest."
Bruceton-Brandonville VFD (BBVFD) Assistant Chief John Vincent said while his department didn't have any part in the actual rescue Sunday, water rescues take a lot of manpower. BBVFD firefighters aren't trained in swift water rescues. That would take 20-40 hours' training by the volunteers and the expense for the department. They rely on the county dive team for any rescues involving diving, but the department does have a six-by-six Polaris Ranger it can use for rescues.
But Bruceton-Brandonville already covers the largest territory of any volunteer fire department in Preston County, Vincent noted. It's 156 square miles, roughly the top one-third of the county.
"It would definitely put a strain on our guys if we had to add that territory, especially such a remote and hard to access area," Vincent said.
Luzier said firefighters have talked to legislators about getting help for the road, without success. "We don't want a highway, we just want a way to get there and back," he said.
"It's just starting," he said of the summer recreation on the river. "Here it is in May and it's started already. Usually that means it's going to be a long season."
Preston County Commissioners asked Friends of the Cheat and businesses to return to them with estimates of the economic impact of the road use.
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> From: Chad Pierskalla <cpierska(a)wvu.edu>
> Date: April 20, 2016 at 11:38:34 AM EDT
>
> Subject: WVU Woodlot Rec Management Plan--Open House invitation
>
> Invitation to provide input to direct the future management of the WVU WOODLOT/BAKERS RIDGE TRAILS (off West Run Rd.)
>
> OPEN HOUSE
>
> When: April 28 (Thursday) 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm
> Where: Black Bear restaurant, Evansdale, University Ave.
> Format: Drop-in anytime during event.
> …
[View More]Purpose: To share student management ideas for the WVU Woodlot. Also, to encourage public input into future plans for the Woodlot.
>
> For more information, please contact Chad.Pierskalla(a)mail.wvu.edu.
>
> The event is being organized by WVU graduate students with support from Drs. Selin and Pierskalla. We hope to see you at the event!
>
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http://www.theet.com/content/tncms/live/
Preston County Journal - By Thresea Marthey, March 22, 2016
Cheat River is stocked with trout for the first time this season
ROWLESBURG — The Cheat River is once again stocked and ready for fishing season again.
Rain greeted Trout for Cheat, Inc. volunteers who stocked the Cheat River with 1,700 pounds of trout on Tuesday, Mar. 15.
“This is our 16th year, and the first of four stockings for this year,” Trout for Cheat President Art George said. “We …
[View More]make 18 stops along the Cheat River.”
The trout range from two to eight pounds each, and the Trout for Cheat committee members as well as cadets from the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy join together to put the fish into the river.
To make stocking a little easier, volunteers and cadets created a bucket brigade type chain, handing giant buckets of fish and water to one another until they reached the banks of the Cheat River, where the fish were gently set free.
Indian Lake Fisheries of Elkview have been providing the trout for the stockings for 13 years.
“It is awesome doing this,” Indian Lake Fisheries Wholesale Manager Chris Veltri said. “We pride ourselves on long term business.
The Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy Cadets have been helping for many years also.
“We have 28 cadets here today,” Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy Program Coordinator Kim Keene said. “We have been doing this for many years.”
“We also knew it would be raining, so we made sure they had rain coats today,” Keene said.
The Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy uses the trout stocking program as part of its 40 hours of community service each cadet is required to have in order to graduate.
“Groups call us when they have an event where they need help or volunteers,” Keene said. “Or if I know there is an event coming up where volunteers may be needed, I will call the group so the cadets can get their community service hours.”
Trout for Cheat is accepts donations for the stocking program. They can be sent to 200 View Street, Kingwood, W.Va. 26537.
Duane Nichols, www.FrackCheckWV.net
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http://gotowv.com/the-east-coasts-whitewater-gem/
The East Coast’s undiscovered whitewater gem
The Cheat River ranks among the best for whitewater paddling in the region.
Northeastern West Virginia is chock-full of creeks and rivers for boaters. At the center of it all is the Cheat River, which is excellent for all levels of paddlers.
The Cheat River is a remote, scenic waterway tucked into the hills. It carves a big-volume course through a tight canyon as inaccessible as any in the …
[View More]Pacific Northwest. While accessing the Cheat can be challenging, in terms of its quality, the Cheat is unbeaten.
At its most difficult (in normal flows), the Cheat is a solid Class IV. There are 9.5 miles of river with 13 rapids.
The most popular section of the Cheat River is the beginner- and intermediate-friendly Narrows, a 5-mile fun-fest that builds in difficulty from beginning to end. The Narrows never goes past Class III rapids, and, it (almost) always gives you room to deal with any challenges you may encounter along the way.
The best section is the Canyon, a Class-IV wonderland of boulders, chutes and, in high water, massive waves and swirling holes. Even advanced paddlers should be aware of Coliseum and Pete Morgan. These 2 back-to-back rapids stretch close to .25-mile, and will, no doubt give you a wild ride.
Veterans even need to bring their A-games when the water gets above 16 feet on the new gauge. At that point, beginner and intermediate paddlers might want to rethink running the Cheat.
Discover more WV whitewater >
Duane Nichols, Cell- 304-216-5535.
www.FrackCheckWV.net
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