Norwin students test Tinkers Run; water quality good

The water quality in North Huntingdon’s Tinkers Run is pretty good, based on the results of tests Norwin High School’s environmental science students recently conducted.

The water in the stream flows into Brush Creek and averaged 84.82 on the water quality index, “which puts the water quality in the good to excellent range across five sites in the park,” said Norwin teacher Joyce Muchoney, whose advanced placement environmental science class conducted the tests in Tinkers Run Park.

The students tested for temperature, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, total dissolved solids, turbidity, pH, nitrates, and phosphates, Muchoney said. They did not conduct the coliform bacteria portion of the test because of time constraints, Muchoney said.

“The water quality typically turns out to be in the good to excellent range,” Muchoney said. The teacher noted, however, that this is the first time that many of the students have conducted these tests, so there is potential for human error in the results.

The water quality is much better at that section of Tinkers Run than downstream, where acid water from a mine underneath Alfieri Scrap Metal Co., pours into the stream and turns it orange, which affects Brush Creek, less than 100 yards away.

The students conducted the water quality tests on Earth Day, April 22. While they usually do not conduct water quality tests on other creeks in the area, the AP environmental science class has traveled to Lutherlyn in Butler County to test acid mine drainage, and to Powdermill Nature Reserve in Cook Township to test Powdermill Run.

A tributary of Tinkers Run will be the site of an $85,756 streambank restoration project along Irwin Park that is designed to reduce flooding at the park and stop erosion that has cut away four feet of the bank of the stream.

The project will address 450 feet of the stream — from a baseball field fence to the tunnel that carries the stream from Route 30 into the park — by placing riprap along the banks adjacent to the walking path, said Shari Martino, borough manager. Some of the streambank will be graded as well, Martino said.