Rock Creek on Stearns Ranger District

Rock Creek is a beautiful stream, with magnificent boulders, riffles, glides, and pools. Flowing through southeastern Kentucky, it is both a Blue Ribbon trout fishery and a Kentucky Wild River. However, highly acidic water flowing from abandoned mine lands left the stream virtually dead from White Oak Junction to the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. The acid mine drainage had killed most of the vegetation and aquatic life in the stream.

The Rock Creek Task Force was formed with the cooperation of ten state and federal agencies and Trout Unlimited to tend to the needs of the Rock Creek watershed. Restoration work began in 2000 to improve water quality, sustain aquatic life, and bring back the beauty of the steam.

Innovative wetlands were constructed to treat the mine flow heading into the stream. Limestone sand was placed in Rock Creek to neutralize the acidic water coming from the mines. Tons of coal refuse material was removed, treated, and relocated to designated storage locations. Limestone rock was placed along the channels as they enter Rock Creek to boost alkalinity.

Monitoring of Lower Rock Creek has shown an improvement in water quality and aquatic life. The charts below show how acidity has been reduced and alkalinity increased at several sites. Fish surveys at lower Rock Creek
have yielded multiple species in good and improving numbers. A July 2001 fish survey collected a brown trout and a blackside dace, each found in different parts of the Rock Creek watershed. The most optimistic sign of all is the presence of anglers who have returned to fish the lower portion of Rock Creek.

Water Tank Hollow, a three-acre site located on the north bank of Lower Rock Creek, was once used for dumping mining refuse. Secondary acid forming minerals were observed in the refuse as shown in the chart below. About 20,000-30,000 tons of coal refuse material was removed, treated and deposited in a safe location.

A modified anaerobic wetland was installed at Paint Cliff to treat acidic water discharging from a coal refuse pile and an abandoned mine. An anaerobic wetland consists of a large pond with a layer of organic substrate planted with cattails and other wetland vegetation that reduces sulfates. The wetland reduced acid and metal load flowing into Rock Creek from the Paint Cliff site by more than 90 percent.

These agencies and private organizations make up the Rock Creek Task Force:

• Kentucky Division of Abandoned Mine Lands (Dept. for Surface Mining Reclamation and
  Enforcement)
• Kentucky Division of Water (Dept. for Environmental Protection)
• Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources
• USDI Geological Survey
• USDI Office of Surface Mining
• USDA Forest Service
• USDA National Resources Conservation Service
• US Army Corps of Engineers
• USDI Fish and Wildlife Service
• USDI National Park Service
• Trout Unlimited

Funding for this project was obtained through grants from the Office of Surface Mining’s Appalachian Clean
Streams Initiative, Kentucky Division of Water’s 319(h) Nonpoint Source Implementation Grant, PRIDE
(Personal Responsibility In a Desirable Environment) and the Kentucky Division of Abandoned Mine Lands.