Friends of Deckers Creek was founded in the 90s by a group of community members concerned about the bright orange rivers void of life in the Preston and Monongalia counties due to abandoned mine lands. West Virginia has a long history of being an energy supplier of the US while simultaneously being underserved and underfunded. When coal barons absconded their mines, it left much of WV afflicted with acid mine drainaige (AMD) spewing out of seeps in the geologic disturbance infecting our lands and waterways with high levels of heavy metals and low pH, killing off nearly all life in our waterways and becoming a health liability to communities. This negligence has caused a lot of community trauma and turmoil.
Today, after much hard work, aquatic life such as macroinvertebrates, b fish, riparian birds, beavers, and more are beginning to come back to the creek after years of hard work and implementation of 8 acid mine drainage remediation sites from FODC and more from the DEP and partners, that increase the pH of the water to allow heavy metals to drop out in remediation ponds before treated water enters our waterways and flows from rural Preston Co. to urban college town Morgantown