A shot of passive mine treatment at work in Nanty Glo, Pa. Click photo for larger image. More Coverage: Fishing Notebook: Fish consumption advisory released

When the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission began stocking Turtle Creek, a Monongahela River tributary, 25 years ago it didn't know from one opening day to the next whether abandoned mines at the headwaters would put the kibosh on the fish it had planted.

"It's still not an extremely healthy stream," said Diane Selvaggio, director of the 30-year-old Turtle Creek Watershed Association, one of Western Pennsylvania's oldest. "But it's able to support stocked trout for months, which is a pretty good sign a lot of progress is being made. Could there be more improvement? Absolutely. Would it be wildly expensive? Yes."

Millions of dollars in taxpayer and private sector funds have been poured into the restoration of Turtle Creek and streams like it in Pennsylvania and other coal states where acid mine drainage still poses the greatest single threat to aquatic life, according to Trout Unlimited.

Last month, the nonprofit coldwater conservation group and the federal government's Office of Surface Mining signed a memo of understanding that they will partner to restore streams.

"We're trying to raise the visibility of the problem," said Steve Moyer, Trout Unlimited's government affairs coordinator. "Generally, we've stopped the hemorrhaging and we're working on restoration. But it's piecemeal. A lot of work still needs to be done."

In Pennsylvania, of the 180,000 acres of abandoned mine lands -- which have rendered 6,200 stream miles sterile or degraded -- just 23,750 acres have been reclaimed since 1980, when the federal government began a mine reclamation program, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Tom Rathbun.

The waste coal industry has recovered another 3,800 acres, Rathburn said, by burning waste coal. Though DEP has funneled $665 million -- about $24 million a year -- in federal funds to reclamation efforts in the past 25 years, Rathbun said abandoned mines are a $15 billion problem in Pennsylvania.

According to Moyer, funding is limited and never certain. Congress this year failed to reauthorize the Office of Surface Mining's Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation Fund, which provides the bulk of federal funding, and is now operating on short-term legislation.

"We're lobbying for a long-term fix, a 15-year commitment," Moyer said. "Otherwise, money to states could stop flowing."

The same office awards grants of up to $100,000 specifically for stream reclamation projects, through its Appalachian Clean Streams Initiative. And Pennsylvania, unlike some other states, has a Growing Greener program that helps grassroots groups, such as the Turtle Creek Watershed Association, treat mine drainage, although the $19 million spent so far has just scratched the surface.

"The science and art is figuring out how much pollution to treat to get a stream over the recovery threshold and not throw money away, given how limited it is," said Moyer, whose agency is a Growing Greener recipient. "The problem is so big we're still trying to get over thresholds in a lot of places. Some streams are unhealthy. Some are dead."

Trout Unlimited's focus in Pennsylvania for the past eight years has been Kettle Creek, a north-central Pennsylvania tributary within a watershed that contains more than 5 percent of the state's Class A wild trout streams. Some of the $2.8 million for the restoration has come from Trout Unlimited's Home Rivers Initiative, a nationwide program supported by members and foundations, such as the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Trout Unlimited has expanded its focus to partner with other entities, including DEP, on the entire West Branch Susquehanna River basin, where the state has high hopes for eco-tourism. DEP estimates that 1,000 miles of the river and its tributaries are sterile from mine drainage.

"That includes 50 miles of the main stem from the western part of the watershed -- the Altoona and Johnstown areas -- to the north in Renova and Kettle Creek," he said. "We've got old mines leaking acid in the tribs. We're trying to identify the worst sources."

Through a Growing Greener grant, Trout Unlimited also provides technical assistance to other conservation groups statewide through its subcontractor Hedin Environmental, a Pittsburgh-based engineering group. In Western Pennsylvania, those projects include the Friedline Mine Treatment System in Westmoreland County (Loyalhanna Watershed Association); Lambert's Run in Somerset County (Southern Alleghenies Conservancy); Casselman River Acid Mine Drainage Treatment Sites Evaluation, Somerset County (Casselman River Watershed Association); Lyons Run Watershed, Westmoreland County (Turtle Creek Watershed Association); Jacobs Creek Watershed in Westmoreland County (Jacobs Creek Watershed Association); and Little Bruebaker Run in Cambria, Indiana and Clearfield counties (Chest Creek Watershed Alliance).

Moyer said there is enough funding to provide additional groups with free help in evaluating existing mine water treatment systems and in designing passive treatment systems.

For more information, contact Trout Unlimited at awolfe@tu.org or 570-726-3118, or visit www.hedinenv.com. Other resources include www.dep.state.pa.us and www.tu.org