Lowber field day gives area students hands-on knowledge of mine drainage problem

Greater Latrobe senior Mc­Kenna Brackney recalled visiting an acid mine drainage treatment system near Saint Vincent College when she was in grade school.

She took a more hands-on approach during her Friday trip to a similar passive wetland treatment site in Sewickley Township.

Brackney was among about 140 area high school students who took part in an environment-­themed field day at the Sewickley Creek Watershed Association’s Lowber mine drainage treatment site.

Her student team tested water samples, recording a neutral pH of 7 at the end of the treatment process. That’s an improvement from a more acidic 6.5 pH where drainage discharged from the abandoned Marchand coal mine enters a series of six ponds that allow iron to settle to the bottom, improving the water quality.

“I’ve always been into environmental stuff,” said Brackney, who wants to major in biochemistry in college and possibly pursue a career as a veterinarian.

“It’s cool to learn all this stuff and see it again in more depth,” she said of the treatment site near the village of Lowber. “I’ve definitely learned more that I’m going to remember.”

“I think these projects are good because they protect our streams and the wildlife in the streams,” said classmate Hayden Porterfield, who wants to major in business and marketing when he graduates from Greater Latrobe.

Greater Latrobe instructor Patrick Roberts accompanied 25 seniors from his capstone program in the school’s second year sending a group to the field day.

“The capstone program is based on environmental science,” he said, explaining the students also will complete stream studies and visit farms and a recycling center. “We want the kids to be out doing fieldwork as much as possible, so this is right up our alley.

“I want them to see all the opportunities that are out there for a career in the environmental field.”

Sophomore Ava Bobby was among members of Norwin High School’s Envirothon club who participated for the first time in the Lowber event. The club took first place last year in the Westmoreland County Envirothon competition.

“Acid mine drainage is such an issue in this region that I thought it would be really valuable for them to see it in action,” said Norwin teacher Joyce Muchoney.

“I’m really interested in the environment in general, and I’m looking at environmental engineering possibly in the future, so I’m taking a lot of science classes,” Bobby said.

She paid close attention to a map displaying the Sewickley Creek watershed, adding, “The process they use to filter out the iron is super interesting to me.”

The Lowber site on average reduces iron content in the water flowing from the mine from 70 parts per million to 7 parts per million, which is low enough for aquatic life to tolerate, according to Jim Pillsbury, a hydraulic engineer with the Westmoreland Conservation District.

Pillsbury manned one of nine learning stations during the Lowber field day. He engaged students in a scaled-down demonstration that illustrated the importance of properly using fertilizer, herbicides or insecticides and curtailing runoff of chemicals and sediment into local waterways.

Some Mt. Pleasant Area students who took part in the field day expressed an interest in helping to protect larger aquatic species.

“I love animals in the ocean like jellyfish, turtles, dolphins and starfish,” said Callie Lawson, a Mt. Pleasant junior who is studying chemistry.

Other students had a big concern about the harmful effects of littering, a problem field day presenters from Menasha Packaging said they strive to avoid by emphasizing use of recyclable materials in their production process.

“If we’re all polluting, we’re all going to destroy the planet,” said Greater Latrobe senior Ashley Deniker. “I think it’s important to talk about that and try to conserve what we can.”

Saint Vincent College, La Roche University and the California campus of Penn West University were represented at additional field day stations, along with presenters from Westmoreland Cleanways and the Sewickley watershed group that organized the event.