I fail to see the credibility in that article.  He is obviously no expert on water quality or pollution for that matter.  Just because water is murky does not mean it is not clean, a reference he makes bunches of times in the article.  While he may be on to something, he really could use some credible contributers and some finite data for his next article. 

Nice page:) lots of info.
Let's hope things will change in ANF but with domestic Oil high on both parties agenda sadly we may lose even more. :(
Chris

Today is the Tuesday after the 15th Annual Allegheny Defense Projects Fall Gathering. This year it was held in what I call "the old CCC/Prisoner of War Camp" where Mead Run runs into Kinzua Creek. In the Red Bridge area of the ANF.

During the afternoon on Saturday, some of the group hiked a half mile section of Kinzua Creek. A friend of mine turned me on to this webstie and this discussion thread about the Kinzua Creek.

I was dismayed by several posts that talked about Kinzua Creek being "dead". I heard locals talk about it being "dead and gray". I thought we needed to witness this for ourselves.

While scouting for a campsite a few weeks before, Bill B. and myself did go down to a secluded part of the creek to check it out, and we did find it to be "dead", that is, there was no obvious signs of aquatic life.

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 led a group who 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 wildlife 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?