On October 5, a nearly 40 acre reclaimed abandoned mine land site in western Clinton County was dedicated to the memory of Joe Schueck, a DEP hydrologist with Pennsylvania’s Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program.

The site above Camp Run and Rock Run was used as an illegal coal refuse disposal site by the permittee, who willfully allowed the refuse to be dumped there overnight and covered before dawn.

The result was the pollution of more than 8 miles of high quality trout streams that contained wild fish.

The pollution occurred in the late 1970s and continued until 2021 when DEP's Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation completed a complete overturn of the site, mixing it with high content alkaline material.

Wild trout have since returned to the streams.

Schueck was active in developing plans for how to abate the acid mine drainage and spent a large portion of his career as an engineer/hydrogeologist working on the site.

He was also instrumental in the restoration of Babb Creek in Tioga County, Schrader Creek in Bradford County and several other acid mine drainage remediation projects across the state, using the latest technology to evaluate the sites.

Based on the data he would then develop the plan and being a hands-on guy, be on the site when the remediation was taking place.

Schueck died in January of 2023, but he lived to see the recovery of the streams. A sign was placed on the site to honor his hard work and dedication.

(Contributed by Michael Klimkos a retired DEP employee who worked in the mining programs and later ran the Dirt and Gravel Road Maintenance Program. He was a state fire training instructor who specialized in rural fireground operations and water supply.

He has authored, A History of Trout Unlimited and the Environmental Movement: 1959 – 2000, (2003), and compiled and edited The Letort: A Limestone Legacy, (2015), The Fires of Penn’s Woods (2017) Waters of the Valley: 50 Years of the Cumberland Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited (2018) and A Fly Angler’s Glossary (2023).)

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[Posted: October 10, 2024]

10/21/2024