RE: Kinzua Creek - 8/7/2008 11:13:25 AM Kinzuakitty: I have fished there almost my entire life....it is the impact of the oil/gas drilling.
RE: Kinzua Creek - 8/7/2008 12:56:59 PM dano: I agree. The whole creek muddies up more than it used to after a rain event and it seems like its taking longer to clear. I noticed a moderate amount of orange crap coming in, too. Also, noticed a lot more silty run off below rt 219 ever since they widened that highway.
RE: Kinzua Creek - 8/10/2008 8:08:58 PM Another10Pin: We also noticed an increased orange color in the stream while we were there. A few times along the bank I'd come across pockets of water close to the stream that had a shimmer to it. More of them in the delayed harvest area, but did see a few further downstream past were Kinzua creek and Meade run meet. Hope that isn't a trace of oil in there.
RE: Kinzua Creek - 8/23/2008 4:44:02 PM Fishtamer: There was also a small oil spill into the South Branch of the Kinzua Creek, about half way between Kane & Red Bridge a couple of months ago. I went there to fish & there were absorbent buoys stretched across the creek, with oil backed up behind them. The sportsman are paying are getting screwed double by the oil companies with high gas prices & polluted streams.
RE: Kinzua Creek - 8/23/2008 6:24:03 PM strandman220: Kinzua Cr, has been going down hill every year. It never was much of a wild trout stream. But in the special regs water a man, on a good day, could catch over 50 trout. Not no more. Its even sorry to look at. I wonder what the problem is and what we can do to turn this stream around??
RE: Kinzua Creek - 8/24/2008 12:44:48 PM chrisrowboat: Sportsmen must be vigilant when in the outdoors. With the cost of oil coming down a bit more unscrupulous actions will probably be happening with drillers and suppliers trying to keep the money flow high. Brine water and waste water form drilling are to big culprits to stream water quality but also remember sediment and run off from the well sites. Added with the spring acid snow melt, global warming and poachers. the streams of NWPA are ill fully under assault. If one sees problems do be hesitant to contact the PAF&BC or PA DEP. We are these agencies best eyes and ears in the afield.
Chris
RE: Kinzua Creek - 8/27/2008 9:38:05 PM ConMan: I have fished this are extensively over the past few years. Week plus a day or two every time 2x a year. Definitely going down hill. I've not noticed the sheen on the water that some of you speak of but it is sure cause for concern. When we were there in Fall 07 the fishing was poor but the environment was even worse in the Special Regs area. The number of trucks going up and down the road was beyond brutal. And the toppper was they were "fracking the well" across the road from the "big hole" which was an annoyance at the big hole but even more so that it echoed through out the entire valley. I live in Chicago now and get to the ANF only 2x a year now. If I wanted to hear jackhammering, I would have stayed in the city! The amount of wells is a huge disturbing trend and no doubt has caused much of the sediment in this stream.
RE: Kinzua Creek - 9/6/2008 7:29:29 AM Kinzuakitty: It is all about politics and greed. The drilling in the ANF has no impact on the price at the pump. The oil is not used for gasoline but for lubricants. Most of the wells in the ANF produce very little. In fact some of the wells are simply for tax write offs. Oil field workers will tell you...when there is no one around that the wells may produce 2 barrels on a good day. The oil companies are subsidized to drill for domestic oil and then when there is a loss they use it as a tax write off. Some of the wells near my house that have obliterated the National Scenic Byway have not pumped in a year. It is time the average tax paying citizens and surface owners of the ANF contact their legislators and remind them WE HAVE RIGHTS TOO!!
This should give you the sense of what is going on on Kinzua Creek, and all are testimony from "professional" or "lifetime' fisherman ... ER ... fisherpersons! Sorry Kinzuakitty! They were edited and to be truthful, there are reports of some fish being caught in pockets or in connecting streams that empty into Kinzua Creek.
But I am only concerned about the main branch in this article.
Now for MY personal experience. My personal eye-witness observations as a lifelong outdoorsman who has in the past been an avid fisherman, "specializing" in native trout. I walked a half mile of Kinzua Creek Saturday Sept 27th. We walked a section starting where Mead Run enters the main branch and walked the shoreline upstream (easterly) for about a half mile.
I was with members of the Allegheny Defense Project (all seasoned outdoors people) including Cathy, Ron, Jim, Tom, along with Maddox my grandson and Sadie the dog.
What we observed was incredible! Somebody called Kinzua Creek "dead and gray" and THAT is exactly what it is! There is an ominous "gray" tint to the water or the sediment on the bottom. We seen absolutely NO wild or plant life in the creek at all! It was quite astonishing! No plants, bugs, fish, minnows, salamanders, crayfish, frogs, tadpoles, or anything living for that matter. It was devoid of any forms of life! We were all quite surprised by the lack of any identifiable life forms.
There was an obvious "oil film" on and along the shore line. Some orange color (some can be organic) with other pools of yellow orange crude oil deposits and some obvious oil film cover in still pools or pools isolated from the main stream along the side (captivated when the water level dropped).
My best guess as to the cause? First, like some of the above comments from frequent fisherman indicate, there may have been one, a few or even several "oil spills" into the creek or one or many of it's tributaries. Second, the land immediately north of the north bank of the Kinzua Creek from the Mead Run input, east to Westline (Thundershower Run), is a private in-holding that is very intensively drilled for oil and gas. I'm even wondering that since there are so many roads and well sites very near the Kinzua Creek and tributaries, that "they" or "somebody" might be "sneaking" brine water into the creek. It seems to be what the "tell tale" gray sediment on the bottom or in the water is indicating. It looks to me (admitandtly a non-expert) to be "brine" or the **** (stuff) that is left after fracking a well.
But perhaps Tony Scardina from the Bradford Ranger District can tell us what the "gray stuff" is in the water, and why there is no life forms in Kinzua Creek.
Why is Kinzua Creek dead, and why did they let that happen? Who killed Kinzua Creek? And what will be done about it?
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