• Cherry Creek -The first project undertaken by YRWA was an acid mine drainage source (pH 3.1) discharging into Cherry Creek, a tributary of Deep Creek Lake. This project installed a Pyrolusite® microbiological system as well as a Successive Alkalinity Producing System (SAPS) to treat the AMD. The result was a net-alkaline, low metal content, near neutral pH discharge into Cherry Creek. Once fishless, it now supports trout and smallmouth bass.

• Hoyes Run -"It just disappears down a hole in the streambed,” says Alan Klotz, Western Regional Fisheries Service Biologist for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), “and when it reappears a hundred yards downstream, it brings a whole lot of problems with it.”
  The problems Klotz refers to result from the influx of sediment and warm water, which, over time, threaten to strangle the life out of a stream and slowly but inexorably render it incapable of supporting a healthy matrix of aquatic life. Klotz and a team of Fisheries Service personnel have been monitoring Hoyes Run since 1980 and have documented signs of the stream’s general degradation such as siltation and a marked decline in aquatic invertebrates. Most ominous of all has been the precipitous drop in numbers of adult fish and young-of-the-year production in all three species of trout.

  Hoyes Run is a unique tributary of the Youghiogheny River due to the presence of naturally reproducing populations of brook, brown, and rainbow trout. After documenting the decline in trout populations in Hoyes Run by Maryland DNR Fisheries, stream degradation was identified in the upper portion of the watershed adjacent to a limestone quarry. Stream flow had been lost entirely through fractures in the streambed and flowed into the quarry. Phase I of the project utilized polyurethane grout injected into the streambed, and initially restored base flows to the stream and improved conditions for cold water biota.

• Crellin Borehole -This abandoned mine borehole discharges an average of 500 gallons per minute of acid mine drainage (average pH of 3.0) directly into Laurel Run. This is the major source of AMD into the Youghiogheny River. Working with West Virginia and Maryland agencies, YRWA has secured funding through the Office of Surface Mining to install a doser on the site.

• Crellin School -A truly one of a kind project, the Crellin School Project includes an outdoor classroom complete with an arboretum of native plants, interpretive trails, a town history themed playground, as well as an acid mine drainage remediation project. The area behind the Crellin School had a coal tipple area that had to be removed as part of the reclamation process. The AMD discharge has been remediated and the "gob" pile has been removed and revegetated.

• Chub Run -An acid mine drainage study in the Youghiogheny River Watershed conducted in 1972 identified a 10.9 acre strip-mine adjacent to Chub Run as a top priority reclamation site. Reclaimation was completed by 1985, however AMD treatment improvements were less than expected. A new treatment system has been designed to improve water quality, and YRWA has worked with several agencies to secure funding for the project.

UPDATE: The Bureau of Mines has developed the topographic map and first rough draft of the project. There are still funding issues that we are working on.

• Enlow Farm -YRWA worked with landowners and other agencies to secure funding to construct approximately 9,000 feet of fencing. The successful completion of the project will keep about 90 cattle out of a headwaters stream. Protecting this headwaters stream will allow the opportunity for native brook trout and other fish species to recolonize the stream.