by Eric Hrin
The North Branch of the Potomac River as a "world-class" tourist destination luring legions of anglers, boaters, and other recreation enthusiasts is an image Scott Rotruck can't get out of his head.
However, Rotruck, the newly elected chairman of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB), knows that certain issues facing this waterway must be addressed before it can achieve that coveted status.
A former member of the North Branch Task Force for the Potomac River, the Keyser native was appointed recently by Governor Cecil Underwood to a six-year term on the commission. He will serve as chairman for the next year.
As chairman of the commission, Rotruck is dedicated to the organization's mission of enhancing, protecting, and conserving the water and associated land resources of the Potomac River Basin and its tributaries through regional and interstate cooperation.
"Although the commission has a responsibility for coordinating efforts across the whole basin, it is focusing some special attention on the North Branch, the only stretch of the river that has acid mine drainage problems," said Rotruck, who serves as director of economic development and senior economic advisor at WVU.
The Legacy of Abandoned
Mines
Although the operations of the Jennings Randolph Reservoir near
Elk Garden and efforts on behalf of govern-ment and the mining
industry to mitigate acid mine drainage have helped this part
of the river, work still remains.
According to Rotruck, water from 13 abandoned coal mines accounts for most of the acid mine drainage in the North Branch. "Acid mine drainage is a legacy of mines that operated until after World War II," Rotruck explained. "The mining complexes in the North Branch produced the coal that produced the steel that won World War II."
Below the reservoir, meanwhile, water quality has been improved. "It now has a world-class trout fishery," Rotruck said.
However, he added, this area—like the area above the reservoir—has been plagued by acid mine drainage from old, abandoned mines. "The number-one problem of the North Branch continues to be acid mine drainage," he said. "Although much has been done, there's still much to do."
The problems affecting the North Branch, Rotruck believes, stand in the way of the creation of a substantial fishing and recreational industry there.
"The lingering acid mine drainage problems—while being held in check by aggressive mitigation efforts by the state, the federal government, and its private sector partners—still preclude the resource from reaching its true potential," Rotruck noted.
The North Branch, Rotruck believes, has the potential to become a destination for people from outlying states and a tool for tourism for the rest of the state. "We can function as a gateway to the rest of West Virginia," he said. "It's important to have a friendly, inviting front door. It is a well-recognized fact that fishing folks are attracted from long distances for high-quality, world-class trout fishing. They will stay overnight and may spend $25 to $40 a day besides lodging."
Rotruck added that the river needs to be restored for whitewater rafters as well. Rafters, he said, are cognizant of a waterway's aesthetics, and they cringe at the sight of the orange-colored runoff from acid mine drainage.
Rotruck noted also that improving an area's quality of life will attract businesses. Restoring the North Branch could attract businesses to the area that, he hopes, would stay around for the long run.
Funding the Cleanup Efforts
The North Branch Task Force, which Rotruck served on from 1993
to 1999, issued a report, "Flowing to the Future,"
concerning the North Branch in 1995. It was revised in 1998.
The task force was disbanded following completion of the report;
Gov. Underwood and Maryland Gov. Parris Glendenning have asked
that the ICPRB continue efforts to improve the North Branch.
"The Task Force has a view of the North Branch watershed as it could be ten years hence," reads the report. "That vision is of a healthy watershed that supports a high-quality, nationally recognized trout fishery and provides diverse recreational opportunities to complement and sustain viable local economies."
Improving the North Branch also is important to ensure that everyone in the entire watershed is supplied with high-quality water. "The overarching mission is to ensure an adequate water supply for the Potomac River Basin," Rotruck emphasized. "We need to do our best to send our fellow citizens downstream the best water we can."
These days, the economic advisor is thinking a lot about funding and research in regard to the North Branch. He said the federal Abandoned Mine Lands Fund, for example, has a balance in excess of $1 billion. The fund, created in 1977, was built up through fees on deep mines and surface mines. Its original intent was to provide funding to reclaim abandoned mine lands.
Rotruck explained that the money, however, is being appropriated for other uses, albeit legitimate and necessary ones. As a result, he said, significantly less money is being appropriated from the fund for abandoned mines than is being contributed to the fund.
More of the funds, he believes, need to be earmarked for mine lands reclamation. Noting that the fund sunsets in 2004, Rotruck said it's vital the money be used for this purpose. "If we don't get money to these projects, there will never be money to do it," he said. "We'd like to see a more aggressive approach to this appropriation."
Meanwhile, Rotruck said he is encouraged by a request by U.S. Congressman Nick Rahall for an appropriation from the fund for acid mine cleanup. According to Rotruck, a total of $270 million this year is being requested by Rahall for that purpose.
"I applaud his efforts," Rotruck said. "If this request is realized, this appropriation will go a long ways toward putting monies in the watersheds that need it."
Rotruck also hailed research as important. Already, relatively
new technologies are being applied.
Currently, he pointed out, a committee—consisting of federal and state representatives, community leaders, and coal company officials—is attempting to apply new technologies to resolve the North Branch's pollution problems.
"They're looking at creative ways to use the byproducts of current coal utilization to help address the acid mine drainage problem," Rotruck said, explaining that waste material such as alkaline ash, for example, can be used to treat acidic water in the North Branch. "It's just important to note the restoration of the North Branch is being addressed in part by the contributions of a healthy, current coal industry."
The Role of WVU Research
Explaining that WVU is home to the National Mine Land Reclamation
Center, Rotruck believes that the University can play a big role
in research.
"The National Mine Land Reclamation Center here at WVU is probably the leading center in the country in developing advanced acid mine drainage control methods," said Paul Ziemkiewicz, center director.
"The center plans to focus a great deal of its effort to cleaning up the North Branch—developing technologies to clean up the North Branch. The technology we had 10 years ago was not adequate to clean up a waterway like the Potomac River Basin. The technology we're developing now will be able to do that."
In-situ treatment, which involves treating polluted water in the mine before it is discharged into a waterway, is a major area under study by the center. Ziemkiewicz said the center's study of this area of treatment was inspired by the current problems in the North Branch.
In-situ treatment involves neutralizing acidic water in an abandoned mine and then separating the metals in the water, which become insoluble following the neutralization of the acidic water.
Ziemkiewicz said there's still a lot of work to do, however. The center is continuing efforts to fully understand the hydrology of mines like those in the North Branch. Understanding the hydrology helps in treating the water by allowing scientists to know how much alkaline material to apply to acidic water and where to discharge treated water.
Ziemkiewicz explained that a test application is being conducted at Long Ridge Mine in Preston County in an attempt to neutralize acidic water there. The center also is looking at in-situ treatment for not only underground mines but for surface mines as well.
"I extend an invitation to everybody in the basin to become active in their watershed and especially to people at institutions of higher education and the private sector who can help create the next generation of treatment technologies," Ziemkiewicz added. "One of the most important things we have to do is in the research arena."
Anticipating Future Demands
Drought control is also a factor in maintaining the North Branch
as a recreational river. "The fact that we've got recreation
in the North Branch has to come into our drought planning,"
said Joseph Hoffman, executive director of the ICPRB. "There's
a lot of potential for travel and tourism in that area."
During drought conditions in the summer of 1999, for example, boats in the Jennings Randolph Reservoir had trouble accessing the water from the West Virginia side. "We're not going to control drought; Mother Nature controls it," Hoffman said. However, he noted, there are ways to approach the drought problem.
Hoffman said the commission is working with Maryland and Virginia water suppliers servicing the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area to look at future demands.
"What we're trying to do is look out to the year 2020," he explained. Looking at the such projections gives officials ideas about how much supply will be needed and how they might develop resources to meet new demands.
Hoffman said he is confident that everyday demands on the river can be balanced with recreational demands. "Planning is absolutely key," agreed Rotruck, noting the population areas served by the river, especially the Washington, D.C., area and the northern Virginia communities, are expected to grow. "You can't understate the importance," he said.
The demands being placed on the water supply, Rotruck said, are for residential, commercial, and industrial uses. He noted that the Washington, D.C., area uses about 500 million gallons of water a day, which is equal to the total daily flow of the Shenandoah River. Some options being weighed are increasing the upstream water supply and increasing water utilization efficiency.
Rotruck said getting the federal government to participate in the funding of the commission and filling some vacancies on the panel also are among his goals. He stressed that the river is important to the nation. Declared an American Heritage River, the waterway is an integral part of this nation's history and was beloved by such historical figures as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Despite its continuing problems, Rotruck said, the river is in better shape today. "Twenty years ago, there basically was no life in the North Branch at all—from the headwaters to where the Savage River came in," he said.
Rotruck can't help but harbor strong feelings for the Potomac River. It was part of his childhood, after all. "I have a long history on the Potomac River," he said. "I grew up in Keyser, and fished with my father and grandfather in the South Branch."
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