On a recent Saturday morning a select group of volunteers met with a representative of Trout Unlimited for specialized training in shale gas monitoring of coldwater streams.

The Kidder Township Environmental Advisory Council contacted Trout Unlimited with their concerns over pending construction of the proposed PennEast pipeline.The pipeline, which is under review by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at this time, is a transmission line that will originate in Dallas, Pennsylvania, and terminate just outside of Trenton, New Jersey. The line will carry gas mined by shale fracking. The proposed line is just over 100 miles long and will be 36 inches in diameter.Cathy Weber of the EAC will be the liaison between Trout Unlimited and the EAC. Weber, a former middle school science teacher, has worked with Trout Unlimited in her classroom."We used to hatch trout in the classroom, and then the students would get to release them into the stream," Weber said. "TU supplied us with the tank and the eggs. It was a great learning opportunity for the kids."Weber also used to take her students to the local streams to conduct water testing much like what the EAC volunteers will be doing in conjunction with Trout Unlimited, so she was the perfect candidate to coordinate the "citizen scientists."The "Kidder Township Coldwater Keepers" will be a subgroup under the EAC. The first group of six volunteers was handpicked for their easy access to streams located along the proposed pipeline corridor."We will not be trespassing on private property; these volunteers all have ready access to the streams we have chosen," Weber said.The group will be collecting data on a monthly basis from Laurel Run, Porter Run, Mud Run, Hawk Run, Swamp Run and Black Creek. The group would also like to collect data from Hickory Run, but had not yet obtained permission from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.Jake Lemon, eastern shale gas monitoring coordinator of Trout Unlimited's Coldwater Conservation Corps, described the potential problems associated with the pipeline construction and operation that might affect streams and other wildlife habitat.The main concerns for streams in the construction zone will be erosion and sedimentation that could pollute and destroy or alter the naturally occurring habitat. Lemon also provided instruction on locating potential impact sites and safety in the field.The afternoon sessions were dedicated to hands-on training including a trip out to the stream that runs adjacent to the municipal building where the volunteers took water and soil samples for analysis.The citizen scientists will enter the monthly data into the Trout Unlimited data collection site. Trout Unlimited will monitor the data looking for anomalies.If representatives become concerned with what they see in the data, they will contact Weber to retake the data to verify its accuracy.The volunteers were also trained to look for changes in the streams. If they observe changes such as color, smell or anything out of the ordinary, they will contact Weber as well."How quickly can we expect DEP to respond to problems?" Weber asked Lemon."We had a problem in Potter County recently." Lemon said. "The tester noticed a change in the color of the water, he traced the stream back 6 miles to the source of the disturbance, it turned out that the wellsite had no sediment control in place. DEP responded within one day and shut down the site until it was corrected."Lemon stressed that Trout Unlimited does not oppose the pipeline."We are not opposed to the PennEast pipeline per se, but we are very concerned about the number of trout streams proposed to be crossed. More detail on the type of crossing method proposed for each stream needs to be made publicly available so conservation groups like Trout Unlimited can propose appropriate measures to avoid or minimize the impacts to water resources and to aquatic life," Lemon said."By training volunteers to monitor streams that may be crossed by the pipeline, Trout Unlimited is hoping to gain critical baseline water quality data for these streams to identify short and long-term impacts, should the pipeline be approved and constructed," he said.Lemon will return to Kidder this fall with a second session introducing the volunteers to macroinvertebrates (bugs)."Bugs are very sensitive to pollution," Weber said. "By monitoring their habitat we will have data on how polluted the water might be. These two phases complete a very good water testing protocol. We look at the physical parts of the stream, water levels, erosion, chemical makeup, such as PH, conductivity and dissolved solids and the biological constituents. We have a complete picture."The initial volunteers to the Kidder Township Coldwater Keepers are the first part of what Weber and the EAC would like to see grow to include many more streams in the township."We would like to expand the program, but that will be dependent on getting grants to cover expenses for new equipment and such. We will recruit new volunteers most likely sometime in 2016," Weber said.Since Kidder Township is not the only township in the area that will be affected by the PennEast pipeline, Trout Unlimited is open to working with other groups interested in monitoring coldwater streams.Anyone interested can feel free to contact Lemon at

jlemon@tu.org.