WATER CHEMISTRY OF TWO WATERSHEDS OF THE WESTERN ALLEGHENY PLATEAU ECOREGION: LEADING CREEK AND SHADE RIVER

The water and sediment chemistry of two watersheds of the Western Allegheny Plateau Ecoregion in Southeastern Ohio have been investigated as part of an EPA STAR grant. Twenty five sites were sampled on Leading Creek and eighteen sites on the West and Middle branches of the Shade River. Water and sediment samples were sampled to determine the composition of anions and cations in filtered and unfiltered water samples and cations in sediment samples. The results show that the predominant ions in the majority of the waters are calcium and bicarbonate. However, in some impacted sites the waters are acidic and show higher concentrations of sulfate and iron. In several sites phosphate is high with values up to 0.4 mg/l, probably due to use of fertilizers and/or other anthropogenic inputs. The impacted sites seem to be affected by acidic discharges from abandoned coal mines as suggested by correlations between sulfate and acidity, and low alkalinity sites. A biological assessment of fish, macroinvertebrates, and algae is underway by another group of researchers and will be compared with the water and sediment chemistry of the different sites.