For the second year in a row, anglers were able to fish for trout along the tributaries of Bennett Branch Sinnemahoning Creek in Clearfield County. The Fish and Boat Commission stocked the waterway for the first time this year after a private group stocked it last year.
The stocking was made possible due to the water quality improvements made as a result of the $14 million Hollywood Acid Mine Drainage Treatment Plant that treats 21 separate discharges in the West Branch Susquehanna Watershed.
Operation of the treatment plant has allowed for the restoration of water quality in the Bennett Branch to a level where fish are now being stocked in the main stem of the Bennett Branch and fish have returned to the Dents Run tributary for the first time in roughly 100 years.
DEP began working with the Bennett Branch Watershed Association, other state and federal agencies and the mining industry in 2004 to restore water quality and reclaim abandoned mines in the lower 33 miles of the Bennett Branch and many of its tributaries.
(Reprinted from DEP’s April 17 Newsletter. Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)
