Boat Tour Looks at Future of the Monongahela River

WBOY-TV, Clarksburg, WV
3 October 2009
By Macall Allen



MORGANTOWN -- The Upper Monongahela River Association and the Mon River Recreation and Commerce Vision 2020 Committee took a group of people on a trip up and down the Monongahela River Saturday to look at the river and envision its potential from a new perspective.

About 20 people boarded the 52-foot Enchantress Coastal Crusier, guided by Grafton's Mayor Tom Bartlett and the Coast Guard Auxiliary, to get a closer look at the Monongahela River and everything that surrounds it.

"We take people who need to know more about the river because they're developing things along the river or because their involved in local politics and give them a general introduction to the river. We talk about the history. We talk about the culture," says Wally Venable, Upper Monongahela River Association.

They also talked about the river's potential.

"We just want to point out the recreational opportunity for development," says West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Fisheries Biologists Frank Jernejcic.

And while the Dunkard Creek fish kill is still a major topic of concern for many people, experts say the creek doesn't directly affect the Monongahela River because of a dead zone in Pennsylvania where the creek flows into the Mon. Even still, the overall issue of water quality dominated conversations.

"We have water quality problems that we had last year, this year and will have problems for the foreseeable future. We want to make people aware of how they are being managed and the ways in which management can be improved," says Venable.

West Virginia has no proposal to track brine water from Marcellus shale drilling or standards for waste water discharge.

People on the tour say water quality is very important.

They say once you've affected the drinking water you've affected everybody.

"We know now what a great resource the river is we have to keep it clean we have to work together to make sure that water quality stays acceptable levels and deal with some of the environmental issues that are challenging us," says Morgantown Mayor Bill Byrne.