North America’s largest salamander is a picky tenant. The eastern hellbender breathes through its skin, so it needs cool, clean water to survive. When rivers turn murky or acidic, hellbenders disappear.
That sensitivity makes their return to parts of western Pennsylvania worth noticing. Along the Clarion River, acid mine drainage remediation funded through the Colcom Foundation’s partnership with Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has documented the recovery of hellbenders and freshwater mussels in stretches once too polluted to sustain them.
The Problem With Old Mines
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines abandoned mine drainage as “water that is polluted from contact with mining activity, and normally associated with coal mining.” Southwest Pennsylvania has more than a century of coal mining behind it, and the streams it fouled are among the region’s most stubborn environmental problems.
Colcom Foundation funds both passive and active treatment systems. Passive systems generally rely on natural processes such as constructed wetlands, while active systems use ongoing chemical or mechanical treatment. Colcom Foundation matches the method to the specific pollution source at each site rather than applying one solution everywhere.
Funding also flows through the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, which uses matching grants to help local groups win state and federal awards for treatment systems.
A Species Under Pressure
The stakes rose in December 2024, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the eastern hellbender as endangered, citing sediment and declining water quality. Freshwater mussels face similar pressure because they filter water to feed and cannot move quickly away from pollution.
Related work elsewhere supports the same species. The Little Mahoning Creek Restoration project, funded through Colcom Foundation’s Conservation Blueprint grant, added streambank stabilization, riparian buffers, and livestock fencing, and removed barriers to fish passage. That work cut sediment entering the creek and supports continuing research on hellbender and brook trout populations.
Mussels and hellbenders make useful indicators. Their presence suggests a river has recovered enough to support life that pollution once ruled out, which is the kind of evidence restoration funders hope to see after years of investment. Visit this page for more information.
More about Colcom Foundation on https://www.colcomfdn.org/