Annual spring tour includes Holmes AMD reclamation site
The Holmes AMD project included improving a wetland area to treat pollution from an abandoned underground mine.
Rural Action and the Mud Run Watershed Streamkeepers invite the community to attend the annual tour of the Mud Run Watershed on Saturday, June 16 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The Mud Run Watershed Streamkeepers are a community group of local residents dedicated to improving water quality in the Mud Run Watershed.
The tour will include an electro-fishing demonstration in the headwaters of Mud Run as well as the Holmes AMD reclamation site. AMD, acid mine drainage, is the polluted water that drains out of historic abandoned coal mines.
Participants are invited to come out and help collect a water sample themselves, watching the pollution decrease as the tour moves downstream across the Mud Run Watershed.
Staff from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources will then demonstrate electro-fishing, a method used to count and identify fish species in the stream. The tour will conclude with a presentation on water-quality data and how it can be accessed for free online.
During the event, Rural Action staff and volunteers will be present to answer questions about AMD reclamation plans, environmental education efforts and other projects being completed in the Mud Run Watershed.
Memberships will be available for anyone interested in joining Rural Action with all proceeds benefiting the restoration of the Mud Run Watershed including environmental education and AMD reclamation projects.
“Monitoring is the theme of this year’s tour,” said Sebastian Teas, AmeriCorps member with the Middle Tuscarawas River Watershed office. “The Holmes reclamation site was constructed in 2016. Now we are in the monitoring phase where we take water samples regularly to assess the impact of the project. During the tour, guests will be able to see what goes into that process.”
Guests will meet in the village of Tuscarawas at the Tuscarawas Community Memorial Park on East Cherry Street at 10 a.m., and then transportation will be provided to the tour sites. A free lunch will then follow at 12:30 p.m.
Learn more about Rural Action at www.ruralaction.org. One also can keep up with their work on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.