Salt-loving algae wipe out fish in Appalachian stream

A salt-loving alga that killed tens of millions of fish in Texas has struck for the first time in an Appalachian stream that flows along the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Prymnesium parvum or “golden algae” caused the sudden death of thousands of fish, mussels, and salamanders in early September along some 30 miles of Dunkard Creek. University and government scientists fear the disaster could presage further kills in the region. Streams at risk due to high concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) include portions of the northern branch of the Potomac River and 20 other streams in West Virginia, according to state scientists. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky also have many vulnerable rivers and streams, according to U.S. EPA scientists.
Dunkard Creek is a tributary to the Monongahela River, where last year high TDS levels fouled industrial equipment and ruined the taste of drinking water. Faced with projected increases in TDS as a result of the burgeoning and water-intensive natural gas hydraulic fracturing activity at the Marcellus Formation, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) recently proposed TDS standards for end-of-pipe discharges of 500 parts per million (ppm) TDS and 250 ppm each for sulfate and chloride.
Despite historically high TDS levels, the creek was a good fishing stream with small mouth bass, muskie, mussels, and salamanders, according to biologist Frank Jernejcic with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources. In just a few days the algal bloom wiped out the creek’s 18 species of fish and 14 species of freshwater mussels—the most diverse population of mussels in the Monongahela basin. “This is the worst fish kill I’ve experienced in 21 years in West Virginia,” says Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the Water Research Institute at West Virginia University.

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