WATER QUALITY ANALYSIS OF DOUBLE RUN DRAINAGE, INCLUDING MINERAL SPRING, AT WORLD’S END STATE PARK (SULLIVAN COUNTY), PA

On September 30, 2018, water samples were collected at 8 different locations along Double Run and Loyalsock Creek at World’s End State Park, Sullivan County, PA. Samples were collected along Double Run, a tributary above a mineral spring, the mineral spring itself, the West Branch of Double Run, and Loyalsock Creek below the confluence with Double Run. At each location, in situ data was collected for pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), conductivity and turbidity. The samples were then put on ice and brought to the lab where they were further analyzed for alkalinity and acidity within 6-8 hours and replicate subsamples collected for later analysis of major cations and anions by ion chromatography, and of a suite of metals using a Profile Plus ICP-OES. Along Double Run and above Loyalsock Creek there is a natural mineral spring, so-called due to the bright orange oxidized iron precipitate that forms at the outflow, very similar to abandoned mine drainage outflow deposits. All samples had pH values near 7, with the exception of the uppermost tributary at pH just over 5. With the exception of the Mineral Spring sample, conductivity, turbidity, acidity and alkalinity were all very low, similar to the values in samples from nearby Shanerburg Run collected the same day. Although the pH at Mineral Spring was near neutral, the acidity and alkalinity values were much greater than in the stream samples and much higher in iron (>1 ppm) and manganese (350 ppb). There could possibly be a coal seam that interacts with the groundwater underneath the spring. Sediment samples were taken at Mineral Spring, and examined using an AspeX PSEM™, revealing an abundance of iron-precipitating bacteria Leptothrix and Gallionella.