Mountain Watershed Association<\/a>, which brought the lead issue to light last summer.<\/p>\n\u201cThe consent order was supposed to happen last fall and we\u2019re still waiting. That it hasn\u2019t been issued by now is frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n
DEP spokesman Brandon Glass said his agency\u2019s investigation into the pollution remains active and DEP \u201ccannot comment on settlement discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHighland Ventures has removed shooting-related debris from the three gun ranges and has done preliminary sampling to determine the extent of the contamination,\u201d said Glass, who indicated that the company is in pause mode until spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinter weather has prevented any further activities at the sites but recent correspondence from Highland Ventures states that they have temporarily suspended shooting on all three courses, beginning Jan. 19, 2026, and through to April 1, 2026, to allow for maximum accessibility to conduct the remediation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lead in Blue Hole Creek, which once was considered clean enough to drink from, was more than 400 times higher than a level deemed acceptable, last year. Other metals, including cadmium, aluminum, zinc and manganese, also were detected.<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources erected signage along the stream urging hikers to avoid the water, and removed handles from pumps the public could use to extract water.<\/p>\n
\u201cDCNR will continue coordinating with DEP as remediation moves forward to ensure public safety and protect natural resources,\u201d said DCNR spokesman Wesley Robinson.<\/p>\n
There is no safe level of lead, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which cites serious health effects, including heart and kidney disease, as well as lower IQ and developmental delays in children.<\/p>\n
DEP received complaints about impacts from Highland as early as 2021.<\/p>\n
Initial water quality testing indicated contamination with Blue Hole in 2023, Harder said. \u201cThat\u2019s when DEP should have had all of these issues addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lead has impacted hatch life on the stream, with Mountain Watershed finding too few macroinvertebrates to even index, Harder said.<\/p>\n
Recent surveys of the impaired section conducted by the Fish & Boat Commission did not produce many fish, agency spokesman Mike Parker said, noting that \u201cthe only species observed were wild brook trout and mottled sculpin, both native coldwater species.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh \u2014 A once-pristine southwestern Pennsylvania trout stream has been dropped from the state stocking schedule because of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4188,5091,28,30,29,30168],"class_list":{"0":"post-121454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-fishing","9":"tag-nature","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","12":"tag-pennsylvania-news","13":"tag-trout"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}