Millions of shellfish once cleaned the Susquehanna River. There aren’t many left, says Ben Hayes, director of Bucknell’s Center for Watershed Sciences and Engineering.
“A mussel has a very important story in water quality… they’re filter feeders,” Hayes said. “They’re the river’s sewer system.”
But the freshwater mollusk, which can live up to 100 years old, is also one of the most endangered organisms in North America, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
That means the health of the Susquehanna River depends on a human, collaborative effort between conservationists, farmers and developers, among others, in Pennsylvania and New York. And the effects move downriver.
“The Susquehanna drains almost half of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Hayes said. “It’s the largest contributor of freshwater to the Chesapeake Bay, almost 50% of it.”
Hayes says collaborations to improve the overall water quality in the Susquehanna have been successful, but more needs to be done. Acid mine drainage from Northeastern Pa.'s once-burgeoning coal mining industry is still contaminating the Lackawanna and Tioga Rivers, which drain into the Susquehanna. (See more on WVIA News coverage on local efforts to clean up the Lackawanna and Tioga Rivers).
“Working with farmers to retain water runoff, reduce soil erosion and sediment loads in the river, to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that sometimes either directly washes into it or is bound up in the sediment… those numbers are coming down,” Hayes said, “and the bay is reporting and showing better signs. The work isn’t done yet, but this kind of monitoring is really essential.”
Water-monitoring sondes tell scientists like Hayes about Pennsylvania’s impact on the Chesapeake Bay.
"So just as a physician will monitor your heart rate, take blood samples to monitor the health of your organs," sondes monitor the river, Hayes explained as he held the instrument on a bridge overlooking the river between Lewisburg and Montandon.
The sonde contains a computer to track dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, pH, temperature, water depth and turbidity. All of the data is shared with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, he said.
"At any one given time there may be 50 to 60 of these sondes all throughout the Susquehanna River," he said, "and these are really shedding a lot of light on.... its health, its metabolism, how does it produce oxygen that the fish and the plants need... and this information is vital for these Chesapeake groups that are really trying to model and analyze the health of the bay."
What happened to freshwater mussels?
Industrialization, pollution and habitat destruction have all decreased mussel populations in Pennsylvania.
For one, button makers relied heavily on mussel harvests for the pearly material inside of shells. Production peaked in 1916 when factories turned the mollusks into some 40 million buttons, according to the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society. Now producers mostly use plastic.
Nearly 100 years later, projects aim to restore the freshwater mussel populations in Pennsylvania’s lakes, rivers and streams. The state also designated some dwindling varieties as protected species.
Hayes says adding baby glassine eels to the Susquehanna improves water quality, too. Mussels spray fertilized eggs into the fishes' gills, which allows them to travel and grow until the shellfish are able to live on their own.
Learn more about the health of Pennsylvania’s waterways and how that affects the Chesapeake Bay. Watch the full episode of Keystone Edition Reports: NEPA and the Chesapeake Bay, which aired Monday, March 4 at 7 p.m.
