This document discusses the impacts of acid mine drainage (AMD) on aquatic ecosystems and recovery efforts. It outlines how AMD decreases water quality and harms fish and macroinvertebrates. The document then examines recovery in the Twomile Run watershed following AMD treatment, finding improved water quality and return of sensitive species. It also analyzes differences in macroinvertebrate communities and body shapes of brook trout between AMD-impacted and reference streams. The key conclusions are that targeting areas with source populations is important for fish restoration, and long-term biological monitoring post-treatment is needed to fully understand recovery success.

1. 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 Program
srummel@tu.org

2. 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

4. 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

5. Effects on Invertebrates

6. Sub-Lethal Effects on Fish

7. Sub-lethal
AMD
Small Stream Food Web

8. 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

9. 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

10. Passive Treatment in PA

11. Scarlift Report
1972

12. Benchmark Project
2009

13. 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

14. Pennsylvania CSI

15. 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

16. 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)

17. • 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

18. 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

19. Brook Trout Recovery
in Middle Branch
a) Density of Brook Trout b) Size Class Distributionof Brook Trout

20. Pennsylvania CSI

21. 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)

22. PA Unassessed Waters Initiative
2010 2011 2012
PFBC Partners 88 438 626
PFBC Staff 217 304 261
Total
305 742 887
(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)

23. PA Unassessed Waters Initiative
2009 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

24. 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 Trout
Collaboration between LHU and TU

25. Electroshocking
Surber Sampler

26. 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 7
Percent EPT .837 .585 .467
Simpson’s
Diversity Index .796 .881 .802
Biotic Index 1.79 3.01 3.32

27. Traditional Morphometrics
and Digital Photographs:
Use of photographs and
landmarks to identify
locations to measure
between.

28. 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.
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Above
AMD
Below AMD
Larrys
Creek
Fatter
Skinnier
RW1: 20.7%
RW2: 15.5%

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Disproportionately
Large Mouths
Disproportionately
Small Mouths
RW3: 11.9%

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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