Water Quality Analyis on the Greenbrier River

Water quality was tested on the Greenbrier River three different times on our trip (results below). At the beginning of the river where the Kanawha's backwater enters the river, the overall water quality was 65.53. This would be a a medium or average reading on the water quality scale. Water supplies achieving only an average rating generally have less diversity of aquatic organisms and frequently have increased algae growth. It was raining the day we did this test. Do you believe this may have had an effect on our results?

Members of our group sampling at Durbin.

The middle location we checked was at Durbin. We found the overall water quality to be 74.085. This falls into the good category on the scale. Water supplies with ratings falling in the good or excellent range would able to support a high diversity of aquatic life. In addition, the water would also be suitable for all forms of recreation, including those involving direct contact with the water. 

The end location for our analysis on the river was at Cass. We found the water quality here to be 49.97. This is in the fair category of the scale. Water supplies that fall into the poor category may only be able to support a limited number of aquatic life forms.

Brian calibrating our instruments prior to performing water analysis.

The Greenbrier River at Cass.

While I would expect and did see various forms of life ranging from fish, snakes and crayfish, there are sections that lead me to believe their are contaminants entering the water source. What types of contaminants do you think may be present? 

 

Water Quality
Test	Sample	Q-Value	Weight	Total Q-Value
DO (actual)	5.37
Saturated DO reading from chart	7.67
DO (% saturation)	70.01	75	0.32	24
Temperature Celsius)	26.46	15	0.19	2.85
TDS (actual)	114.54	85	0.13	11.05
Turbidity (actual)	17.23	61	0.15	9.15
pH(actual)	7	88	0.21	18.48
					Date:	7/21/2012
		Overall Quality		65.53	Location:	Lewisburg
Water Quality
Test	Sample	Q-Value	Weight	Total Q-Value
DO (actual)	6.7
Saturated DO reading from chart	7.22
DO (% saturation)	92.80	97	0.32	31.04
Temperature Celsius)	27.5	12.5	0.19	2.375
TDS (actual)	59.3	89	0.13	11.57
Turbidity (actual)	20.5	61	0.15	9.15
pH(actual)	7.4	95	0.21	19.95
					Date:	7/19/2012
		Overall Quality		74.085	Location:	Durbin
Water Quality
Test	Sample	Q-Value	Weight	Total Q-Value
DO (actual)	5.3
Saturated DO reading from chart	7.2
DO (% saturation)	73.61	29	0.32	9.28
Temperature Celsius)	26.1	15	0.19	2.85
TDS (actual)	81	88	0.13	11.44
Turbidity (actual)	11.2	78	0.15	11.7
pH(actual)	6.38	70	0.21	14.7
					Date:	7/18/2012
		Overall Quality		49.97	Location:	Cass

C & O Railway Heritage Center- Clifton Forge, Virginia

       We finished our trip on Friday with a visit to the C & O Railway Heritage Center in Clifton Forge, Virginia. Our trip was an up close look at the history of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and its history from its beginnings as a part of the James River Company to its modern day existence as part of CSX. Being that George Washington was the former President of the James River Company, C & O is considered to be George Washington's Railroad.

The newly restored JD Cabin. This is where the trains in the yard were controlled. Why would it be important to have a high vantage point?

Tom Hefner was our tour-guide for the day.

This is the 614, a 4-8-4 locomotive built by the Lima Locomotive Works.

The 614 was repainted as the Presidential Express for display at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Notice the distinctive Lima red diamond emblem on the engine.

Notice the wheels and how they are powered on the 614. How are they different than those we saw on the gear-driven Shays and Climax? Why would these be different?

This is the Gadsby's Tavern dinning car. It was a part of the famed George Washington Route that ran from Washington, D.C. to Cincinnati, Ohio. It was one of the first two trains to be air conditioned.

This is the inside of the Gadsby's Tavern dinning car. We had the privilege of eating our lunches in the dinning car!

This is a hand-powered cycle to inspect sections of the railway. We were told this particular car was ridden each day to survey an 84 mile section of railway. The operator would pump the handle back and forth to propel the cycle.

We traveled over 200 miles to find out about the founder and namesake of Huntington, West Virgina, Collis P. Huntington. Huntington was the president of the C & O Railroad when Huntington, WV was founded.

The Durbin Rocket-Durbin, West Virginia

The Durbin Rocket is a Climax steam locomotive running out of Durbin, West Virginia. It is part of the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad.

This is the 55-ton number 3, originally built in 1910 for the Moore-Keppel Lumber Co. in nearby Randolph County.

The number 3 is a Climax, gear-driven engine designed by the Climax Manufacturing Company of Corry, Pennsylvania.

The Climax, like the Shay and Heisler, is a gear-driven locomotive. As you can see in these pictures, the Climax has a massive piston on either side of the boiler in a horizontal position. How is this different than the Shay? Can you think of any advantages or disadvantages of this design over the Shay?

The Durbin Rocket's path parallels that of the Greenbrier River.

A traveling option on the Rocket is a 1920's caboose.

Another unique option at Durbin is the availability of caboose that are sleeper cars. These can be rented and are left at various positions on the trains route. Just in case you were wondering, the plural of caboose is caboose!

This is the inside of the caboose above, ready for camping!

Gaudineer Knob

 

Gaudineer Knob is a virgin spruce forest on Cheat Mountain in Randolph and Pocahontas counties in West Virginia. It is one of only two virgin forests in West Virginia, the other being Cathedral State Park. Gaudineer Knob is the result of a surveying error and was later incorporated into the Monongahela National Forest. One of the things we noticed was that this forest contained several species of trees not just red spruce. There were many varieties of birch, oak and other trees present. This was a vibrant forest where the flora and fauna is quite diverse.

We started our visit to Gaudineer with Steve discussing what we expected to experience in this virgin forest. Having visited Cathedral, a virgin hemlock forest, gave us a reference point. We had also visited Bald Knob, a second or third growth red spruce forest.

One of the first things we noticed at Gaudineer is the amount of moss, fungi, lichens and other organisms that live in moist environments. As you can see here, moss covered the ground like a carpet in many ares.

One of the things that surprised me about this forest was the number of trees that had fallen in the forest and how shallow their root balls were. This is caused by the proximity of bedrock to the surface. Many small saplings grew from rocks. Above you can see how the rocks are incorporated into the root balls.

Ferns were ubiquitous in the forest.

Fungi and Lichens growing on the side of a tree.

Cass Senic Rail Road- Cass West Virginia

We traveled to the Cass Scenic Railroad today for the 11 mile trip back to Bald Knob. Along the way we saw some breath taking views of mountains and wildlife. We were privileged to be transported there via the number 11 Shay locomotive.

11 Shay Engine
The Shay is a geared locomotive. The gear driven locomotives
were necessary to traverse West Virginia's mountainous terrain.
It was the Shay and other gear driven locomotives that enabled
the logging of West Virginia's virgin timber starting in the early
1900's. The 11 took us from Cass to Bald Knob. Along the we we
experienced breathtaking views of Cheat Mountain,
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and forests for miles in all directions.

These are the mighty pistons that transfer the
Shays power to the gears and eventually the wheels.

The gears that drive the train. Each truck has gears that drive
the engine making it all wheel drive.

While trains and logging sound like masculine
jobs, that is not always true. The Bald Knob
 fireman is actually a woman. She shovels coal into
the firebox to fire the engine. When the train is
climbing the mountain she will place a shovel of
coal in the firebox every 30 seconds. She shoveled
over 3 tons of coal during our trip alone!

The result of using a coal fired engine to power
the train are the by-products of burning, including
smoke and small cinders. Sitting too close behind
the engine will result in the seed sized cinders
pelting you. Keep in mind that coal power was
a technological advancement over wood. While
it would be replaced by diesel engines and today's
modern diesel-electric engines, but it was the best
technology of the day. Coal was readily available,
especially in West Virginia.

From Bald Knob you can see into two states. At center you can make out the Observatory (white dish). Bald Knob is 4,842 feet above ground level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bald Knob was given its name because of clear-cutting that took place there in the late 1800's and early 1900's. It was replanted with red spruce trees. The elevation is perfect for the spruce forest to grow.

Because the red spruce trees were planted very close together, the canopy of the trees blocks most all sunlight from reaching the ground. As you can see, there is no vegetation at ground level. What do you think that means about wildlife in this spruce forest?

The canopy of the spruce forest only allows a little sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor.

Symbiotic Relationship of Wood Products Production in the Elkins-Beverly Area

One of the things that has really struck me as we have visited pellet mills, small wood mill operations and larger industrial mills is that each of them works in compliment with the others. They also each work to minimize any waste of wood. Wood that isn't suitable for finishing or using as framing lumber is turned into sawdust and is used either to fire kilns or is turned into pellets for retail sale.
Each of he plants we visited was in one way or another tied to the others. Its a symbiotic relationship in that each works with and is complimentary to the others. This was a surprise to me as I expected  to see competition toward the other plants. It appears that each has developed its own niche and works to maximize that market.

Finished Lumber Products-Beverly West Virginia

Today we toured two companies that end the process of manufacturing the we started yesterday. We started  the day at Colonial Millwork and then toured the plant for Armstrong Flooring, both in Beverly, West Virginia. Both factories proved to be technological with the uses of computers, lasers and automated processes. But, every piece of lumber is touched by human hands at each step in the process of producing wood products. It is still the human eye that selects, grades and does quality checks on each piece of wood from rough state through finished product.

Lumber ready to be processed.

Wood that is not suitable for finishing
is turned into sawdust and then either used
to heat kilns or sold to other companies
for use in products such as Hamer's Hot Ones.

CNC machines router out what will become
a counter support at Colonial.

Our tour guide shows the bracket that was
just cut by the CNC machine.

This is a cutting wheel with three
knives to cut the profile of a piece
of trim. This particular knife pattern
will cut two pieces of quarter round.

As the millwork is finished,
UV light is used to bake the
finish on quickly.

Finished wood ready for
packaging and selling.

This is a picture showing the
products that Colonial
produces.

One of Colonial's customers
is Armstrong. They produce
some of the finished millwork
that Armstrong uses to
match and compliment its
flooring such as baseboards
and quarter round.

Wilson Wood Products, Elkins

We had a beautiful blue sky and
temperature in the 80's today that made it an
excellent day for our trip!

Another trip we took today was to the Frank Wilson Lumber Company in Elkins, West Virginia. The
Frank Wilson Lumber Company takes green lumber (wood that has been freshly cut or has not been dried in a kiln) and kiln dries it for further use as building materials. They also provide milling services and grading.

Lumber that is ready for shipment!

Wood planks ready to be planed and then
dried in a kiln.

       

This is a tool that is used to determine
the thickness and width of boards.

Wood is loaded into the kiln.
Wood is placed on sticks to separate
it before it goes into the kiln. This allows
air flow between the boards so they
can dry more evenly. Depending on the
species of wood the drying process can
take less than two weeks or more than
three months!

Wood samples are weighed daily from
each kiln to monitor their water loss.
They bring the amount of moisture in each
piece of lumber down to around 6%.

 Above the lumber is inspected and given
a quality grade prior to being sent for
stacking. Grade 1 and 2 lumber would
be used for furniture, flooring and
other finished products. Lumber that is
graded below these would be used in
applications such as framing and other
less noticeable uses.