WATER QUALITY OF A NATURALLY-OCCURRING MINERAL SPRING AND ENVIRONS AT WORLDS END STATE PARK (SULLIVAN COUNTY), PA

We analyzed the water chemistry of Double Run, a tributary of Loyalsock Creek in Worlds End State Park, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, as a more in-depth followup to a 2006 water quality study in that area. Flowing into Double Run is a naturally-occurring mineral spring which looks remarkably like an acid mine drainage (AMD) outflow. The water chemistry was tested from the upstream wetlands of Double Run, past the mineral spring inflow, and down to the confluence with Loyalsock Creek. In-situ analyses of the sample sites included pH, conductivity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen. Turbidity was measured on non-filtered samples, while alkalinity and acidity were measured on filtered samples at the field site. Laboratory analyses were conducted to determine the concentrations of specific anions and cations using ion chromatography. The concentrations of 11 metals were determined using ICP-OES. We found out that in part the water chemistry of the mineral spring is similar to that of many AMD sites, containing iron oxyhydroxide precipitates (yellow boy?) and elevated dissolved manganese, iron, barium, and acidity, all at levels much higher than the waters sampled from the wetland headwaters to the confluence with Loyalsock Creek. In contrast, dissolved strontium, bromide, potassium, sodium, and calcium as well as alkalinity were high compared with the waters in Double Run whereas dissolved aluminum levels were lower, unexpected results based on our analyses at AMD drainages in the Middle Anthracite Field. As in 2006, the pH of the spring water was higher than that measured at the other sites. The spring is stratigraphically below the Pottsville Formation (Pennsylvanian age), which in this area contains coal deposits of the western northern anthracite field, and the iron-rich Burgoon Sandstone (Mississippian age).