Kettle Creek Kill Zone

WQED Pittsburgh has announced that the documentary, “Water: An Endangered Resource” is scheduled to air on April 23 at 5:00 p.m. on Channel 13 (WQED) in Pittsburgh.

“Water: An Endangered Resource” visits some of the 2,000 miles of Pennsylvania’s waterways that are polluted with abandoned mine drainage to the point that no aquatic life can survive in them.

The documentary examines the issue from the perspective of watershed associations, fishermen’s groups and governmental agencies, and explores efforts to clean up streams with the pollutants left behind by Pennsylvania’s long coal industry heritage.

It looks at our state’s water supply, emphasizing the importance of rejuvenating the rivers and streams affected by decades of Pennsylvania’s unregulated coal industry pollution. These streams and tributaries feed into larger rivers that stretch from Pennsylvania throughout the eastern United States.

The documentary visits diverse sites like the Cobbs Creek Environmental Education Center; the Philadelphia Water works; Kettle Creek, a site devastated by AMD; a 19th century church in Pittsburgh with acidic mine water soaking into its basement; the Reliant Energy Power Plant in Seward, which will utilize 100 million tons of waste coal fuel; Cooks Run, which was at one time believed to be the state’s most polluted water source; and the rivers of Pittsburgh (once thought to be too polluted so support significant aquatic life), for a national bass fishing competition.

Individuals featured in the documentary include: John Dawes, Administrator, Pennsylvania Watershed Association; Amy Wolfe, Trout Unlimited, Executive Director, Kettle Creek Watershed Association; Dean Mertz, President Kettle Creek Watershed Association; Ray Nelson, Cook’s Run Watershed Association; Dr. Colson Blakeslee, Cook’s Run WA; Kathleen McGinty, Secretary, DEP; Dick Imler, Manager Reliant Energy Seward Power Plant; Robert Eppley, President WPCAMR and President of Blacklick Creek Watershed Association.

And Dennis Tubbs, Aquatic Program Specialist, Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission; Robert Hughes, Regional Coordinator EPCAMR; Ben Wright, Director, Watershed Field Services, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy; Carole Wright, Program Manager, Loyalhanna Watershed Association; Gail Tomlinson, Director, Philadelphia Waterworks; George Ambrose, Director Park Management Program, Cobbs Creek Environmental Education Center; Jeff Jordan, Director of Education, Pittsburgh Voyager; Angela Belli, Director, Environmental Education Center St. Vincent College; Rev. Calvin Cash, Pastor, John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church; Chuck Williamson, Restoration Project Director, John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church; Bob Hedin, President, Hedin Environmental; Sean Brady, Program Director, Venture Outdoors; and Jim Gusek, Golder Associates, Manager Cook’s Run AMD Remediation Project.

This documentary is a production of Penn State Public Broadcasting and was partially funded by the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation; the Pennsylvania Electric Company, Sustainable Energy Fund of the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies; Raymond Nelson and The Project AWARE Foundation. Additional funding was provided by the Pennsylvania Public Television Network.

The documentary originally aired on February 10 on WPSU State College.

3/10/2006