The Catawissa Creek Restoration Association held it's first public meeting on February 26, 1997, at the Ringtown Fire Company. Over one hundred people attended the meeting including representatives from many local and state government agencies. To name a few; DEP Bureau of Abandoned Mines, PA Dept. of Conservation & Natural Resources, Schuylkill County and Columbia County Conservation Districts, PA Fish & Boat Commission, Congressman Tim Holden's office, Senator Helfrick's Administrative Assistant.

But there is a way. If we work together we will bring life back to the stream.

After considerable discussion and debate, the organization drafted its by-laws by mid summer. The purpose of the organization: "To promote the recreational use of the Catawissa Creek from its headwaters in Schuylkill/Luzerne counties to its terminus in the Susquehanna River in Columbia county."

Further investigation showed that the headwaters are actually in Carbon County. From there it flows into Luzerne County, down into Schuylkill county and then into Columbia County to the Susquehanna River at Catawissa.

Public meetings are held bimonthly at Beaver TWP. Volunteer Fire Co., Eagle Rock, Ringtown, Brandonville, Park Crest, Beaver Township, Mainville, and Catawissa have all had a meeting or two. Beaver Township Fire Company may become the permanent open meeting place. It's location is just about the halfway point and makes it easier for members from Columbia county and Schuylkill county to meet without traveling too far.

That first year, both Schuylkill and Columbia County Commissioners presented the organization with matching checks for $2,500 to get us up and running. The Schuylkill County Chapter of Trout Unlimited donated $1,300. Some of that money was used to purchase high carbonate limestone sand @ $2/ton, to raise the pH of the water. The 131st Trans. Co. of the PA National Guard, at no cost delivered two additional shipments. The sand is relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of transportation from the quarry in Lebanon to Brandonville. We are currently working to once again have the 131st Transportation Company of PA National Guard "convoy" the sand to Brandonville.
Volunteers helped unload, and members of the Brandonville Fire Company washed down the PA Guard flatbed trucks, and eventually we got the limestone sand into the stream. One gentleman from Phennyville lets us use his dump truck even though he couldn't be there himself. East Union Township donated their backhoe, trucks, and workers, and Gezunt Nurseries on the Phennyville Road all helped disperse over 700 tons of sand to 5 different locations on the stream in 1997.
The total combined dosing was over 1000 tons of limestone sand in 1997.

At the lower end of the stream, from the Mainville area to Catawissa, a wide variety of fish are beginning to enter the main branch from the smaller streams flowing in. I have personally watched trout feed on aquatic insects at Mainville, in the summer of 1998, and I know that the Fish Commission did not stock trout in the main stem of the stream. Craig Morgan from the Schuylkill County Conservation District said at the April 15, 1998 open meeting in Brandonville, "Raise the pH of the water, and life will return."

But dosing is a temporary fix. The limestone sand dissolves over time and should be applied yearly. Dosing relies on higher water levels to disperse the sand downstream. 1997 did not produce a high water event until late fall or early winter.
We were unable to procure transport of the limestone sand in 1998 at no charge.

Additional grant money is available for permanent solutions to the pollution problems on the Catawissa Creed, and the people who know how to apply for this money have the ball rolling.

Butler Enterprises, which owns the land where several filtration systems are proposed to be constructed, is very receptive and cooperative with the CCRA.

Damariscotta Associates, a consulting firm very knowledgeable in AMD(Acid Mine Drainage)has already contracted and surveyed the mine discharges into the Catawissa Creek.

A grant for $5,000 was acquired through the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, and was used to hire this engineering firm to design the treatment systems that could be the "permanent fix" to the mine drainage.

One of the proposed filtration system designs would work like this:

AMD would then be diverted to these ponds and forced down through the mushroom soil and through the sand and exit the bottom discharge pipes into another lined pond where the aluminum would "drop out." This "sweet" water with a pH of over 7 would then be diverted back to the main stream free of unwanted elements.

The filtration system for Oneida#1 discharge in Luzerne County is slightly different than the one described above, it will clean over 20 miles of the Tomhicken Creek of AMD. This flows into the Catawissa Creek around the Zion Grove area.

Current membership is approximately 125, and continues to increase monthly.

The past two years the organization has manned a booth at the Bloomsburg Fair to show the public what the CCRA is and what we are doing on the Catawissa Creek. Hundreds of brochures were handed out last year.

Thank you to our members, a tremendous amount of progress has been accomplished in two years. Your efforts are not in vain.

The Catawissa Creek could become one of the best fisheries in this area, if not for the AMD. It has all the ingredients; Cold water, and many tributaries full of all types of aquatic life and different species of fish are just waiting to enter the main flow. The PA Fish and Boat Commission's survey of the entire watershed showed this. Bloomsburg University biology students are monitoring the aquatic life. A whole host of volunteers are monitoring the water quality with test kits from the mine discharges to the Susquehanna River.

So..How can the public help? PUBLIC SUPPORT! Join the CCRA or make a donation to help us achieve our goal.

The Catawissa Creek Restoration Association has been awarded the 1998"Watershed Organization of the Year" by the Schuylkill County, with the most active members.