office or other agencies for inves - tigation, many (most) others never get reported. Sedimentation and erosion cases are especially impactful for hellbenders as they cover up the large rock structures necessary for species survival. There are a number of caus - es for increased sediment in our waterways, including runoff from logging, agriculture, mining, dirt roads and construction. Another is the ongoing fracking industry across the northern sec - tion of the state. “The lines of Marcellus shale and fracking line up with the range of the hellbender, but we are still just starting to get a better
Sediment flows down Loyalsock Creek after a coffer dam is removed at a natural gas work site. Photo by Barb Jarmoska.
Local stories on pollution topics The following are just a few of numerous articles we have on pollution-related issues from our watershed which help illustrate some of many “minefield” threats hellbenders face locally.
understanding of the hellbender’s reproduction and the mechanisms driving that and there are a lot of questions on the fracking side, and how that can relate and how it can be context de - pendent depending on a specific watershed,” said Matt Kaunert, of Lycoming College, when pressed about if he felt there was a connec - tion between hellbender decline and fracking activity. “It is really hard to say yes or no, but it probably isn’t helping.” The reality is that the hellbender, a species that is more susceptible to impact than others for a number of reasons, is facing a pollution minefield of unknowns, and that is only looking at each pollutant individually. Over the past several years, USGS biologist Vicki Blazer focused on studies in our local river system on estrogen compounds in fish. Then she studied Mercury impacts on fish in a separate study. Most recently, she researched PFAS. “The bottom line is that a fish – or anything in the environment – is exposed to such a com - plex mixture of various stressors. It can really make it hard to know what individual chemical effects may be,” she said. “I think it is important that people recognize that because one of the things we are questioning now with PFAS is their interactions with some of the things we know are already in those fish. How are those contami - nants interacting with each other?” Consider all of that combined with some of these ongoing unknowns about the species: • Why are males cannibalizing eggs?
Studies show microplastics on rise in the region Salinity in our streams on rise from road salt
Research looks into impacts of pharmaceuticals Study: Increase in mercury in certain areas Cleanup still at Williamsport Superfund site Invasive crayfish change stream ecosystem
PFAS in river part of nationwide initiative
Endocrine disruptors impact river
Vet connects sick foals with fracking
The many faces of Abandoned Mine Drainage Fish kills a race against clock, conditions
Gas fracked from under river, other waterways
• What specifically is killing off hellbenders? • How is the current cocktail of contaminants in our waterways really impacting them? Leaving the hellbender without some sort of improved protection system (with actual teeth) to navigate the Susquehanna watershed’s cur - rent pollution minefield is unethical. Help us help this species get the protection it needs before it is too late. www.MiddleSusquehannaRiverkeeper.org
– Riverkeeper John Zaktansky
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