Stewards of the Water

In a lab in the Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion, Beth Bollinger, C’95, is hard at work analyzing water samples. Meanwhile, down the hill in an orange-tinted pool of water, another kind of work is being done all by itself.

This isn’t a lab in a traditional sense; it’s the Monastery Run Improvement Project, a group of manmade wetlands on the Saint Vincent campus.

Bollinger, who describes the wetlands as a natural water filtration system, has played an integral role in the project, which was started by Fr. Earl Henry, O.S.B.; Br. Norman Hipps, O.S.B.; and Drs. Caryl and Daryl Fish, chemistry professors in the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computing, since 2000.

The project began in 1993, spearheaded by Saint Vincent with the involvement of the Loyalhanna Watershed Association, Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and other industry partners. The goal is to address years of mine drainage, a problem that occurs throughout the region.

“Southwestern PA, especially our area, was in the Pittsburgh coal seam,” explained Bollinger. “It was a very good coking coal, very valuable. The mines are everywhere, and [mine runoff] is everywhere.”

Mine water enters the wetland out of the long-shuttered coal mines, carrying with it dissolved iron and other materials into the wetlands.

“Water comes in, hits oxygen, it starts to oxidize the iron,” explained Bollinger. “So, the iron rusts and forms particles, and then it makes the particles that will eventually clump together and fall to the bottom of the pond.”

This is the natural process by which the wetlands filter the water. Without any electronic or chemical intervention, water bubbles up from the mines and flows through a series of five ponds across 20 acres of land before eventually reaching the Loyalhanna Creek. As it mingles with cattails and other vegetation, iron particles fall to the bottom, and gravity carries the water to the next pond.

“We want to slow that water down so that the iron can settle to the bottom, and then as we get less and less [iron particles], those cattails help it, too,” said Bollinger. “We don’t even care if the cattails are alive or dead. Because they’re still bright orange. They’re still acting as filters.”

The orange color means the wetlands are working; it’s evidence of the iron being filtered out of the water.

“You start to see it’s a little bit less orange, more iron precipitates out and falls to the bottom, and that continues for four more ponds,” Bollinger added. “That happens for five ponds and then it goes out into the stream essentially clear.

“But you can tell if a goose has been at our wetland because it’s got an orange belly,” Bollinger laughed. “You can just tell!”

According to Bollinger, maps show mines traversing much of the Saint Vincent campus, though mining maps aren’t always perfect.

“Everywhere under Saint Vincent was mined, except for the Basilica and the cemetery,” Bollinger noted. One of the biggest challenges to maintaining the wetlands? “Muskrats,” commented Bollinger.

“All of our water transfers in Wetland #3 through pipes, and the pipes are about 12 inches. We have muskrats, and muskrats like to dam things up. And then all of a sudden, I’ll do my visual drive-by and the water’s up, and so I know it’s time to go down [and intervene].”

Another sign that the wetlands are working is the buildup of sludge in the ponds, which requires maintenance on an average of every 10 years. But even sludge creates an opportunity for reuse.

“The sludge is just iron oxide that’s settled to the bottom, and it actually gets sold to a paint company,” Bollinger noted. “The company that harvests it has a sludge basin up by Wetland #1. They put it in there, they let it dewater—the water drains back into the wetland— and then they process it to sell to a paint company.”

In addition to the environmental impact, the wetlands create a unique opportunity for SVC students.

“If you stand at the deck of the Gristmill, there’re four little ponds. We call those mesocosms. Those are for student research,” Bollinger, who teaches a class called Science of Abandoned Mine Drainage, explained. “Some seniors do environmental work, chemistry, quantitative analysis. One of the chemistry labs does a whole project where they pick an experiment to test down there.”

And for the community, the wetlands have become a bit of a tourist attraction, too.

“Tons of people walk down there,” Bollinger pointed out enthusiastically. “They walk dogs. There are birders. Every once in a while, they’ll find a rare bird. One year, we had tundra swans passing through, and all of a sudden, flocks of people were coming and taking pictures.”

For Bollinger, managing the wetlands is more than a job—it’s a responsibility.

“One of the values of the Benedictine tradition is stewardship,” she noted. “We wanted to make sure we were good stewards and that what was created is taken care of. Sustainability is about making sure we don’t destroy something for future generations.”