Twelvepole Creek fisheries response to on-going coal mining activity

The East Fork of Twelvepole Creek, Kiah Creek, and Trough Fork are the major tributaries of East Lynn Lake, in Wayne County, West Virginia.  Several sampling stations on each of these streams are sampled bi-yearly for Argus Energy-WV,LLC for benthic macroinvertebrates, water chemistry, and habitat.  A fisheries survey of many of these main-stem streams were evaluated for fisheries in Spring 2000 along with a reference stream.  Now, 10 years later, the same locations are going to be evaluated once again to see what effect, if any, ten years of coal mining and numerous additional valley fills has had on the fisheries communities.  Metrics analyzed for this study were total number of individuals, total taxa, standing crop, the sensitivities of the fish communities, and the Index of Well-Being.