Restoring Brook Trout to Aaron Run, Maryland

Project Start Date
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Organization

Project will remediate chronic habitat and water quality problems resulting from historic acid mine drainage (AMD) sources and agricultural practices in four miles of Aaron Run, allowing for the reestablishment of an extirpated native brook trout population. Remediation will also benefit brook trout habitat in the lower Savage River and the upper North Branch Potomac River, and reestablish historic population connections.

Abstract:

2015 update:

With funding from EPA and other sources, divisions of the
Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and a variety
of partners completed a series of projects to control the AMD.
In 2012, after water quality data confirmed the pH standard
was consistently being met and the stream was achieving its
aquatic life and wildlife designated use, the Maryland
Department of Natural Resources’ Fisheries Service restocked
Aaron Run with native brook trout from nearby streams.
Ken Shanks, chief of MDE’s TMDL Implementation Division, said monitoring reports from 2015 show
the stream continues to meet the pH standard. He said Aaron Run represents Maryland’s first delisting
of an impairment linked directly to investment from a 319 grant.
Western Maryland’s Aaron Run begins in Savage River State Forest in Garrett County and flows about
three miles to the Savage River, a tributary of the North Branch Potomac River in the Chesapeake Bay
watershed. The AMD remedial projects include a feeder device and a leach bed that apply limestone to
neutralize the acidity, two successive alkalinity-producing system cells, an oxidizing pond, an acre of
treatment wetlands and restoration of 600 linear feet of eroding stream bank.
EPA’s Section 319 program provided three years of funding for the remedial projects, totaling $812,000
for planning, design and construction. Other funds for the $1.01 million project came from the U.S.
Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining ($124,000) and the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture
($75,000).