BEAR CREEK

The purpose of this project was to develop a Restoration Plan for the North Branch of the Bear Creek watershed. This project was completed in May 2004 and resulted in the “Acid Mine Drainage Restoration Plan for the North Branch of Bear Creek.” The plan identifies seven high priority projects with an estimated cost of approximately $816,000.

This project was sponsored by the Bear Creek Watershed Association, with the Butler County Conservation District acting as the fiscal agent. The project was funded by the Growing Greener program. The BCWA and the BCCD will use the restoration plan to pursue funding for their top-priority projects.

For this project, HE personnel and volunteers from BCWA performed a stream walk of all affected streams, established and installed monitoring stations, and collected monthly samples for a period of one year. The resulting data was analyzed and the restoration plan was developed.

One of the challenges of this watershed is that many discharges flow directly to the stream with little or no space available for treatment. These challenges must be addressed through discharge mitigation, discharge plugging or relocation, or innovative small-scale treatment systems.