Jonathan Run Project

Fish are returning to Jonathan Run, thanks to a cooperative project of CRTU, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Pennsylvania Game Commission, and PA DCNR Bureau of State Parks.

Jonathan Run, a beautiful mountain stream flowing for miles through Ohiopyle State Park before entering the Youghiogheny River, was once a popular trout stream. Anglers caught both wild and stocked brook trout in a setting of deep forest and rocky terrain.

But in the early 1980s, coal mining in the headwaters upstream from the state park and outside the boundaries of bordering State Game Land 51 unleashed sulfuric acid and a heavy concentration of toxic aluminum. What had been classified by PA DEP as an Exceptional Value stream bore the white, chalky stain of toxic aluminum precipitate on its rocks and stream bottom for years. All fish-life disappeared.

Time and flowing water eventually removed most of that initial staining, but the stream remained devoid of fish.

CRTU made many attempts over decades to reclaim the stream. Administrative obstacles and legal difficulties faced by DEP in holding operators of the poorly reclaimed mine site responsible kept delaying progress.

In 2019, CRTU convened a series of meetings with Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, DCNR Bureau of State Parks, Game Commission, Fish and Boat Commission, Fayette County Conservation District, and DEP, seeking permission to establish an alkaline sand dosing station on Jonathan Run, located just inside Ohiopyle State Park’s borders.

Alkaline sand dosing is the method CRTU used in its 30-year commitment to jump-start and sustain recovery of Glade Run, tributary to Dunbar Creek nearby.

With permission to proceed, CRTU and Western Pennsylvania Conservancy improved a short span of abandoned logging road for truck access and built a quarter-acre stone “platform” for placing tons of alkaline sand along the streambank. Rain and high-water events wash the neutralizing fine-grade limestone into the stream.

The pH of discharges from the mine varied between 3.0 and 3.5 but improved markedly downstream of the alkaline sand dosing site.

Encouraged by this improvement and funded by a state Growing Greener grant, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy built a state-of-the-art passive treatment system at the mine workings that neutralizes acidity, adds alkalinity, and causes toxic aluminum to drop out of the water and collect in settling ponds before entering Jonathan Run.

On October 20, 2026, CRTU assisted biologists and watershed scientists from Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in electro-fishing two sections of Jonathan Run, to determine if conditions are improving enough to again support aquatic life. The goal is to achieve a self-reproducing population of wild brook trout, such as existed before the mine-induced pollution events.

At a sample-site near the alkaline sand dosing site, the team found no fish but an encouraging pH reading of 7.7.

The team then moved downstream about two miles to a site near Ohiopyle State Park’s Jonathan Run trailhead, where they electro-fished a 100-meter section. The downstream site yielded 36 fish. These included 2 white suckers, 4 creek chubs, and 30 black-nose dace.

CRTU and Western PA Conservancy’s electro-fishing team were elated to find fish returning to Jonathan Run. The captured fish were not brook trout, but their presence indicates a healing of the stream’s waters which have been unable to support fish life of any kind for nearly a half-century.

The team plans another sampling effort in the spring, in hope that brook trout from one unaffected tributary will repopulate Jonathan Run and show up in the samples.

Everyone who contributed in any way to the diverse productive partnership that has begun this restoration can take pride in a recovering coldwater resource. When Jonathan Run once again harbors the native trout of our Allegheny Mountains, anglers will enjoy the rare experience of fishing miles of public water in an incomparably appealing place.

Article by Ben Moyer

Last fall, CRTU continued it's work to improve water quality in Glade Run and Dunbar Creek.  On Oct. 24 chapter volunteers placed over 200 tons of alkaline limestone sand from Keystone Lime's quarry at Cranesville, WV at the three treatment sites on the Glade Run headwaters.  The alkaline sand neutralizes acid drainage into Glade Run from abandoned coal mine works at the upstream origins of Glade Run, northeast of Chalk Hill.  CRTUplaces alkaline sand on a regular twice-yearly schedule (spring & fall) to supplement the effectiveness of our passive anoxic drain treatment system near the mine site.  Currently, sand additions are funded by a grant from the state Growing Greener program, with administrative support from the Fayette County Conservation District and Mountain Watershed Association.  Funds we raise at our annual banquet also support the Glade Run project.  

CRTU's Glade Run Alkaline Sand Addition Project has continued -- sometimes sporadically when funding lagged --for over two decades.  Records indicate the chapter made the first additions in 1996, with a grant of $20,500 from the Western Pa Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation and an $800 contribution from Miller Brewing Company's Friends in the Field program.

CRTU, with early partners including Fayette  Conservation District, California University of PA, Dunbar Sportsman's Club, The Eberly Foundation, and Fayette Forward, chose to work toward Glade Run's improvement because mine pollution there was degrading Dunbar Creek.  Partners' consensus was that even a minimal investment in the Glade Run headwaters could have significant benefits downstream.

Many partners have worked with CRTU over the project's history.  The Western Pa Conservancy's Watershed office (Mark Killar) provide technical assistance to calculate how much sand was needed at the various sites to effect improvements.  Wharton Township and a local contractor helped improve access to the sites, and the Pa Game commissuion has consistently provided cooperation and direct assistance in access, maintenance and sand manipulation after initial placement.

Biological surveys by California University of PA documented early on that Glade  Run supported no life at the project's start.  But as the project continued, a series of Cal. U. graduate students documented steady improvement in water quality, the diversity of insect life, and finally, after a transplant of wild brook trout taken from Dunbar Creek's upper main steam, that brook trout were once again spawning in Glade  Run.  The transfer of upper Dunbar Creek brook trout was accomplished under the auspices of Cal U.'s Dr. William Kimmel and his PFBC Scientific Collector Permit. 

A small excerpt from recent water sampling (spearheaded by our late Scott Hoffman) on Little Piney tributary provides an indication of the sand project's impact on water quality downstream.  In December 2017, pH above the addition site on Little Piney was 4.7, with an alkalinity value of 10.  Downstream, where Little Piney enter Glade Run, its pH was 7.4 and alkalinity registered 20.

In August 2018, the PA DEP proposed to re-designate more than 40 miles of the Dunbar Creek basin, including parts of Glade Run as "Exceptional Value", qualifying the basin for the highest level of vigilance and protection by DEP should future permits be sought for mining, gas development or other disturbances.  The re-designation process is ongoing and should be complete in late 2019 or early 2020. DEP noted two decades of improving water quality, and CRTU's reclamation efforts on Glade Run in its 2018 Dunbar Creek Stream Redesignation Evaluation Report.

CRTU thanks all chapter members, partner organizations, agencies, funders and banquet patrons who have supported this worthy project.

Article by Ben Moyer, CRTU President