Posted by Evan Smith, OSM/VISTA
Long time no word but in the world of water when it rains it pours. So after a dormant winter the first Spring flowers have brought lots of water news. More will come soon BUT…
Mercy that’s a lot of water!
There has been a mess of water quality problems on Little Dry Fork (the creek, not the road, meaning the creek from the Parkway Motel up Highway 15 and Brian Baker Drive). Something unexpected happened and there was a blow out that has opened up a passage for thousands of gallons a minute to be spewing from the hillside. Typically the places where Acid Mine Drainage exits the old mines are called “seeps” but that word just doesn’t apply in this case. Below you can see the confluence of Little Dry Fork (orange) and Dry Fork.
I wrote an article for the Mountain Eagle that they printed and took a Western Kentucky University student out to help me take some pictures. Things got a little confused at the Mountain Eagle; the photo credit should be given to Christian Hansen. But I’m glad The Mountain Eagle was interested in the story.
WYMT TV also did a short story and was able to get up with County Judge Jim Ward. He said that the water isn’t impacting the drinking water supply at Blackey and he doesn’t expect erosion problems.
Please go to a webpage specifically about Little Dry Fork to get more info about this site and its problems, but at this point there are more questions than answers… Posted by Sam