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Some have heard stories about children of yesteryear who splashed and played in Aultman's Run in Indiana County, remaining stained rust-orange for days afterward.

Not many people swim or play in the Center Township iron-choked stream anymore; those stories evoke the past. And the Aultman's Run Watershed Association for Restoring the Environment is hoping the stream's orange color will also become a memory.

A section of the stream, along Route 286, will soon be restored after AWARE volunteers and others build a wetland there. The workhorses behind the project also include Stream Restoration Inc., of Cranberry Township, and Amerikohl Mining Inc.

A $93,000 Growing Greener grant is funding most of the project, with an additional $7,000 from the Western Pennsylvania Watershed Protection Program.

Most of the iron will settle into a retention area, which will be dug out around the area where water rises up from an abandoned mine. After that, native plants like cattails, soft rush, silky dogwood and three-way sedge will filter out the rest so the water becomes clear downstream.

Transplanting native animals and insects isn't planned, but project manager Shaun Busler, a biologist with Stream Restoration, doesn't doubt the new habitat will soon be honed in by those species that live in wetlands. "It's kind of like one of those things where if you build it, they will come," Busler said.

The plants that will be installed by the groups will remove the 11,000 pounds of iron that enter the stream each year. Healthy streams are usually free of iron.

The property belongs to Amerikohl owner John Stilley. They're helping to remedy a problem unknowingly caused by their counterparts long ago.

When mines are abandoned, often they become filled with water. Old mines were typically designed to drain upward to the surface.

The practice of building wetlands, or a passive treatment system, to filter streams began about 20 years ago, Busler said. It's a far more efficient and inexpensive way to clean streams than an active treatment system, which involves adding chemicals to the water to remedy the problem.

"The value of a wetland for mine treatment is its low cost and maintenance," said AWARE President Brian Okey. Wetlands can also help reduce flooding because they slow the flow of water.

The stream is free of aluminum, which is toxic to wildlife.

"Iron is not really that toxic," Okey said. "It's kind of a physical nuisance rather than a toxic nuisance."

However, iron that gets into fishes' gills can choke them, which is the reason why Aultman's Run doesn't have that many fish. Some watershed members are hoping the stream can be restocked downstream after it gets cleaned up, Okey said.

Okey, a geography professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, is helping to coordinate volunteers for the project. He also helps with the annual cleanup in the watershed, to be held April 12. Those interested in volunteering can call 724-463-9636.

Okey sometimes brings students in his Freshwater Resources class to the site to see an example of how abandoned mines affect watersheds.

"It's a perfect laboratory," he said.

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