Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 11, 1993 TAG: 9308110108
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG LENGTH: Medium
The national forest has 1,287 miles of streams, and biologists say 90 percent of the waterways are vulnerable to acid rain because the bedrock is primarily sandstone rather than limestone, which counteracts the acid.
"Fridlay Run is one of the most severely degraded aquatic ecosystems from acid rain in Virginia," said Larry Mohn, fisheries biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Scientists believe the acid rain that falls on the Blue Ridge, Shenandoah and Allegheny mountains begins at smokestacks in the Ohio Valley. Prevailing winds blow sulfur dioxide from the factories eastward, where it mixes with water vapor to form acid rain.
Limestone, which neutralizes the sulfuric acid that falls with the rain, has been used successfully to sweeten Little Stoney and Cedar creeks and protect native brook trout, the state fish. But Tuesday's operation was the first time a helicopter, rather than a truck, was used to transport the loads.
Fridlay Run, which empties into the Shenandoah River, no longer has trout. Its headwaters in the rugged slopes of the Massanutten Mountains 10 miles northeast of Harrisonburg can't be reached by truck.
The 50 tons of sand-like limestone was being shuttled through Fridlay Gap and up the Massanutten ridge by helicopter.
The North Carolina Department of Natural Resources loaned the Huey helicopter, and Nielson Construction Co. loaned the one-ton concrete buckets normally used for dumping cement.
The Northern Virginia Chapter of Trout Unlimited donated $1,000 to the project, and the Massanutten chapter of Trout Unlimited recruited volunteers to help spread the limestone on a 50-yard area of the headwaters.
Chemstone Corp. donated the limestone, T&M Construction agreed to haul the material from a quarry and Davis Equipment Service loaned a front-end loader.
"I grew up watching my brothers catch trout in that stream," said Willie Davis, owner of Davis Equipment. "We watched it go down; and if we can do something for the generations to come to be able to enjoy it, I'm all for it. Maybe we can get it back to the way it was."
If the limestone resurrects Fridlay Run, wild trout from other streams will be brought in to re-establish a natural population.
The limestone treatment is expected to last five to seven years, and the experiment will help determine if the aerial method of treating other remote streams is economically practical.
"This is a Band-Aid," said Forest Service fisheries biologist Mark Hudy. "Acid rain is not going to go away, so what we learn here will be critical. We hope to rehabilitate the stream, but we also hope to gain knowledge from the experience."
by CNB