"The grant we've just awarded will go a long way in helping Friends of the Cheat and its partners restore nearly three miles of a trout waters in the Cheat River watershed" said Norton.

The proposed Upper Muddy Creek AMD remediation project is located in Preston County, West Virginia in the Cheat River Watershed. Although severely degraded by AMD near its mouth, the headwaters of Muddy Creek (9 miles) are high quality waters and a trout fishery. However, the middle and lower sections of the stream are severely degraded by polluted discharges from abandoned coal mines.

Friends of the Cheat is partnering with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Water and Waste Management (WVDEP) on this project. WVDEP will contribute State share funds in the amount of $145,030. With the $96,687 Watershed Cooperative Agreement award from OSM, total funding for the Upper Muddy Creek AMD Remediation Project will be $241,717.

The funds will be used to treat AMD discharging into Muddy Creek from four collapsed abandoned mine portals. Proposed remedial measures include a passive treatment system that will direct the four seeps into limestone leach beds. This design will form a single treatment system consisting of four consecutive limestone beds, joined by open limestone channels. A final limestone channel will transport treated water from the last leach bed into a final retention pond before discharging into Muddy Creek.

The installation of this system should increase pH, reduce acidity and metal concentrations and restore a trout fishery to the middle section of Muddy Creek. Neutralization of the four seeps at the Muddy Creek site will remove up to 141 tons of acid per year from Upper Muddy Creek and the lower Cheat River.