Warriors Mark Run

Project Description

Warriors Mark Run
Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania

ATC Associates Inc. contracted WHM to perform macroinvertebrate sampling and a habitat assessment on Warriors Mark Run in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. The stream segment was assessed in response to a motor vehicle accident which involved a spill of hazardous material the stream. The study involved characterizing the stream segment upstream, downstream and within the area where the spill occurred (impact zone) to determine potential impacts from the spill. WHM performed all work in accordance with the outlined Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Protocol, “Standardized Biological Field Collection and Laboratory Methods” and “Index of Biological Integrity for Wadeable, Freestone Streams in Pennsylvania” to complete the assessment and survey.

These guidance documents outlined field procedures used to conduct the habitat assessment, collect macroinvertebrate, and procedures to perform laboratory methods and identification. The habitat assessment conducted characterized the stream segments and provided insight on the various physical conditions of the stream within the stream reach, such as embeddedness and riffle/run prevalence. Sampling of the macroinvertebrates followed the Semi-Quantitative Method using a D-frame net.

Macroinvertebrates were identified to the genus species, in most case. This data was used to determine an Index of Biological Integrity (IBI), developed by DEP, was determined based on six different biological metrics calculated for each assessed stream segment. The IBI was used to determine if stream has been impacted from the spill based on the upstream IBI scoring. Based on the IBI and habitat assessment, there is has been no negative ecological impact on Warriors Mark Run.